McAuliffe wants Democratic presidential nominee to choose own running mate
hillnews.com
MAY 7, 2003
By Hans Nichols
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Preparing eight of the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls for the disappointment that is a mathematical certainty, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe let loose a charge as harsh as anything the Republicans will muster in the coming months.
If he could have his way, one of the nine who assembled here last Saturday for their first debate would be the party’s vice presidential nominee.
Three days after President Bush’s “Top Gun” moment, when Navy One caught the last cable on the USS Abraham Lincoln, McAuliffe conceded that there are, in fact, points for second place.
McAuliffe said that it is “very likely that one of the candidates on stage” will lose the No. 1 slot and still emerge as No. 2.
Yet all nine Democrats who gathered here fiercely denied any interest in the vice presidential prize. Indeed, they professed to be insulted by the very suggestion.
Trying to cast the spirited — and at times testy — debate between the hopefuls in the best possible light, McAuliffe claimed that he welcomed a heated primary because it will “toughen up” the eventual nominees.
“You want somebody who’s probably gone through the process and who understands the process,” said McAuliffe.
He told reporters: “We got to remember that we’re going up against a group of very tough individuals. The president and his henchman, Karl Rove, are going to do anything they can to win, so we got to make sure we have the toughest ticket that we can possibly put out there and understand what we’re up against.”
But several campaign operatives suggested, on the condition of anonymity, that some rivals’ camps would be satisfied if their candidates finished second.
Like contestants on the reality show “Survivor,” the candidates are choosing which of their rivals they feel they need to antagonize and to which they should make nice. When the race is over, the winner and the running mate will need the support of the others — and of whoever else might enter between now and the time that the convention delegates convene in Boston next summer.
That day still seems far away to the candidates. As of now, they appear to be more interested in squaring off one on one for their slices of the primary vote rather than in forging alliances with their rivals.
The crowd at the University of South Carolina did not have to wait long for gloves to come off between Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. However, there was some surprise over North Carolina Sen. John Edwards’ broadside against Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt over his proposal for universal healthcare.
The only one of the nine who has actually run for vice president is Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who was widely seen by observers as having finished in the top rungs among the debaters.
Lieberman and Gephardt, who ran for president in 1988, are the only ones with the benefit of having gone through the mill of a national campaign before.
The political operatives had a real-time explanation for what transpired: Edwards sees Gephardt as a threat to his support among working-class moderates.
Democratic insiders also noted how several campaigns are trying to position their bosses as first-tier candidates by suggesting that they would be happy to consider some of their current rivals as their eventual running mates.
They recalled how earlier in the year Kerry’s camp hinted that Edwards, a first-term senator, would make an excellent No. 2.
For his part, Edwards took umbrage at the suggestion that he would put himself through the race for anything other than the top spot. “I am running for president of the United States, so I am not thinking about anything else,” Edwards said.
At the South Carolina Democratic convention, Edwards’ campaign handed out a January USA Today article that touted the merits of an Edwards-Graham ticket, citing the remaining Southerner in the race, Florida Sen. Bob Graham.
But Jennifer Palmieri, Edwards’ campaign spokeswoman, denied that they intended to degrade Graham’s candidacy.
“We distributed it [the USA Today article] to South Carolina voters because it was a good profile of Senator Edwards, not to suggest anything else. Bob Graham is running for president. There is no other meaning other than the viability of Senator Edwards’ candidacy,” Palmieri told The Hill.
The speculation that Graham has entered the race only to become vice president is so widespread that the debate’s moderator, George Steph-anopoulos, put the question directly to him. Graham said he was in the race to win.
Nevertheless, Graham is having difficulty laying that speculation to rest.
Several Democratic operatives suggested that he is still smarting from not being asked to be Bill Clinton’s running mate in 1992 or Al Gore’s in 2000. On that theory, he has entered the 2004 race to raise his profile and present himself as a centrist Southerner who can put Florida’s 27 Electoral College votes in the Democratic column on election night — and keep them there.
Graham — or any other candidate who accepts the No. 2 slot — has the added benefit of spending plenty of time with the eventual nominee, who will have a chance to observe him on the stump.
One Democratic operative said: “Until we see the second-quarter fundraising numbers, it will remain unclear if Bob Graham is actually running for president or is actually running to raise his profile.”
The fact that Graham was asked four of the eight questions posed by the other candidates as part of the debate rules only fueled speculation that Graham’s fellow Democrats don’t consider him a threat.
Graham had a different take on why he was asked so many questions: “The answer I gave to the first question was so good, that I guess people wanted to ask more,” he said quipping that he “represents the electable wing of the Democratic party.”
But asked what makes the other candidates unelectable, Graham appeared careful not to offend: “I wouldn’t describe it negatively like that,” he said.
“This is a pretty talented group of people, and basically we get along well,” he added.
Democratic consultants not associated with any of the campaigns took a view more in line with McAuliffe’s.
“There’s no question that any of those candidates will be eligible for the vice presidential sweepstakes of America,” said Donna Brazile, adding that “it’s still very early.”
“One could argue that John Edwards is doing that and showing everyone that he can deliver a state that we lost last time around. Same with Kucinich in Ohio and Gephardt in Missouri,” said Brazile.
She added: “But I think at this stage, they’re all seriously running for president.”
“Sometimes the vice president comes from the ranks of the vanquished,” said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. “That’s just a reality.” |
