Hillary’s Rumored VP Top Pick Is Virginia Senator Tim Kaine

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine is leading the pack of Hillary’s potential vice-presidential running mates, according to sources close to her campaign. On the long list of candidates under consideration, Kaine has the most advantages and the fewest liabilities. Others considered but passed over for one reason, or another include New Jersey Senator Cory Book, former Labor Secretary Tom Perez, California Representative Xavier Becerra and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown.

Still others, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, were cast aside as potential running mates long ago. While Warren and Castro both bring core constituencies to the table, both were judged too controversial in their own ways to make a play in the national election. Warren, because her alleged fanaticism on economic issues, including her firm backing of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which many Republicans ardently opposed. Castro, while his Hispanic background would have brought many Latino voters further into Clinton’s camp, would have further inflamed an election which was already centered primarily around the issue of immigration. His Hispanic background would have inflamed the Republicans, but his handling of mortgage sales in the aftermath of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis would have come back to haunt him with progressives.

Had Hillary Clinton chose either Warren or Castro, both of whom had their fierce supporters within the ranks of the Democratic party, she would have had to spend too much valuable time defending her decision and closing off new lines of attack opened by either selection. Tim Kaine is Hillary’s safest and most pragmatic option.

Senator Tim Kaine fills the gaps in the Democratic campaign strategy without creating any of his own. He is the quintessential vice-presidential pick: he is able to play second-fiddle without demanding the stage for himself, and yet his record is strong enough on its own to support the mantle of the vice-presidency.

This is not the first time that Kaine has been in the running for the VP seat. He was a finalist on Obama’s list eight years ago, and but the pro-Biden camp on Obama’s campaign team was too firmly entrenched to seriously consider anyone else. But this time, he may just succeed.

Even if Kaine is Hillary’s choice, she’ll still have to go through the obligatory due diligence process of considering all candidates and going through the torturous motions of “deciding” when the decision is entirely clear. The next challenge for the Hillary campaign after the “decision” is finally made is to introduce Tim Kaine to the electorate. Who is Tim Kaine? What are his qualifications, other than being inoffensive and relatively palatable to the mass of the electorate?

One thing is for sure: even though polarizing figures like Elizabeth Warren and Julian Castro have been definitively ruled out of the running, if Kaine is the VP choice, we are going to hear a lot more about him from the Republicans than from Hillary’s campaign. Kaine better be made of Teflon, because if he’s Hillary’s choice, he’s about to come under fire. We’ll try to answer the question of who Tim Kaine is in an upcoming article, hopefully before the Republicans get the chance.