Namedropping: Gephardt, Mitchell

Here are two names that Washington-based advisers of Barack Obama are circulating among their friends and allies:

Ex-Rep. Dick Gephardt and Ex-Sen. George Mitchell.

Starting with the personal: Gephardt endorsed Clinton but did nothing during the campaign to alienate Obama. Obama has met Gephardt and likes him but does not really know him. Given that Missouri is a certifiable battleground, Gephardt would be an asset; He's a midwesterner; he's close to labor, the white working class, and all that jazz. But he's a lobbyist now, and a registered foreign agent to boot.

Mitchell, an architect of peace in Northern Ireland and the head of a committee investigating steroids in baseball, almost made it to the Supreme Court under Bill Clinton. He's supremely well-qualified and well-resepcted, but so far as I can tell, Obama does not know him, and Obama's not going to choose someone he doesn't really know. Mitchell, now the chair of DLA Piper Rudnick, had prostate cancer in 2007.

Comments

Mitchell is an 74 year old Arab, that isn't a good choice at all.

Posted by Kevin Deros | June 11, 2008 2:46 PM

I think Gephardt is a nice guy who would be good at talking to the unions. But I don't think he'd help much with Missouri -- he represented a suburban St. Louis district (not the city) and isn't especially well-known statewide (so he wouldn't help keep McCain's margins down in rural areas) and he wouldn't be especially helpful in turning out the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City, which is the key to winning Missouri for most Dems.

Posted by MM | June 11, 2008 2:47 PM

Mitchell is a good guy. But he's way too old at 74/75. Especially when you want to hit McCain on the age issue.

We also don't want any echo of the Bush/Cheney mess, young relatively inexperienced President with old insider VP pulling the strings.

I predict Obama's VP will be under 60, and with
a history of success outside Washington - probably either as a governor or military.

Beyond that, hard to tell.

Posted by Richard Cownie | June 11, 2008 2:58 PM

Ummm yeah, I'd have to imagine this is for cabinet vetting, not for VP. Neither seem like viable VP candidates.

Posted by Chris | June 11, 2008 2:59 PM

and wasn't gephardt basically kerry's 2nd choice after edwards for VP? wasn't he torn between the two?

and hasn't kerry admitted he should've gone with gephardt?

Posted by mb | June 11, 2008 3:02 PM

I'd be shocked if Obama doesn't go the Clinton in '92 route and pick a veep who is very much like himself: a relatively young politician with relatively little Washington experience who opposed the Iraq war from the start. You can't run on changing business as usual and then pick a former member of Congress from the 80s and 90s like Mitchell or Gephardt as your running mate. It's just bad optics.

Posted by Ron | June 11, 2008 3:03 PM

Gephardt is probably being mentioned because Plouffe (Obama's campaign manager) managed a few of Gephardt's campaigns. On the whole though, he doesn't seem to bring any particular demographic or excitement to the ticket. And who wants another VP named "Dick"?

Posted by In Texas | June 11, 2008 3:51 PM

Gephardt is the democrat most responsible for the war in Iraq.

Posted by bend | June 11, 2008 5:19 PM

.
George Mitchell wasted the power of our government by investigating a GAME and you guys think this is a GOOD thing?
.
With all the issues we have, we spent all that time and money on the commercial industry of baseball, and you get KUDOS for that?
.

Posted by JSF | June 12, 2008 6:51 AM