Sometime during the first Obama term, I met an experienced Washington insider and had a question for him. “I can’t understand why Obama chose Biden as veep in ’08. What does Biden bring, really, except baggage?”
The insider said, “They had settled on Kaine. But then the Russo-Georgian conflict erupted. And Obama’s remarks on it were judged to be amateurish. John McCain was thought to be mature. So the Dem team said, ‘Un-oh: Better get the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.’”
I have no idea whether it’s true. But it’s interesting.
One more note: I always feared Tim Kaine as a Democratic presidential nominee (back when I was a Republican, and a grateful, die-hard one). Reason: He was not an ideologue, he was not a hater — he was a human being.
Trumpites need not overly worry, however: He’s on the bottom of the ticket.
P.S., or, one more one more note: In a race for the Dem presidential nomination, Kaine wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance. Right?