Tim Kaine Screwed Up.

Governor Tim Kaine on Wednesday endorsed Fairfax County Chairman Gerry Connolly in the Democratic primary for Congress in the 11th district over Leslie Byrne.

Mistake.

I have a lot of respect for Governor Kaine, and I worked hard for his election in 2005, but I feel the urge to call him out on this bad decision. I don't have any direct connections to Leslie Byrne's Congressional campaign (clearing that up before someone attacks me for being a tool of her campaign), but I strongly support her candidacy. She's a progressive Democrat who opposed the war from the outset, and she'll be a strong voice on Capitol Hill for the residents of Northern Virginia, and Virginia in general.

I'm not going to get into the reasons I'm against Gerry Connolly (if you want to read about reasons not to vote for him, NLS has over 60 reasons why he sucks). I realize that the support of a blog with extremely low readership, stationed out of Southwest Virginia will have no impact in this fight at all, but after this extremely disappointed endorsement from Governor Kaine, I felt moved to throw my thoughts out there.

-Neal

Why the Republicans in Congress Should be Shaking in Their Boots

Probably the biggest story to come out of Tuesdays elections was not Hillary Clinton's blowout win in West Virginia (which was not a surprise). It was the election of Travis Childers of Mississippi to the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Roger Wicker, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator Trent Lott (geez, what a mouth full).

Counting Childers' win, the Democrats have now won three straight special elections for Congressional seats previously held by Republicans (the first two being Bill Foster's election to Dennis Hastert's seat in Illinois, and Don Cazayoux's election to Richard Baker's seat in Louisiana). These victories come in places where Democrats aren't supposed to win. This backs up Barack Obama's argument that this coming election is like no previous election. The RNC tried to nationalize the special election by running an ad connecting Childers to Obama and Jeremiah Wright. This was to no avail, however. But why?

There's a simple answer. People are hungry for change, and, even though the Republicans are in the minority in the House, they are still seen as part of the problem. The fate of the Republican members of Congress, by and large, are tied to the failed policies of the Bush administration and the disastrous Iraq war.

Barack Obama will be carried into office for the same reasons. John McCain represents the past and is seen as an extension of George W. Bush (contrary to the people who argue that he's a "maverick." He's no maverick, people). That sucking sound you hear every time Barack Obama utters the phrase "George Bush's third term," is some more potential McCain voters going down the toilet.

A Vice President for Barack Obama

Now that Barack Obama is our presumptive nominee for president, it's time to begin thinking in earnest about his vice presidential choices. I've seen probably thirty different names floated around. Some of them are really good choices and some are just silly. The way I look at it, there are really only a few excellent choices.

Joe Biden (Delaware senator) - Senator Biden has over thirty years of experience and knows foreign policy like the back of his hand. He's the only major presidential candidate on our side who hasn't endorsed anyone, so it wouldn't look like Obama is drafting players from his own farm team. And anyone who has seen him get riled up on C-Span knows that Biden could also act as the attack dog (He could be the bad cop to Obama's good cop, if you prefer) and go after the GOP ticket and allow Obama to continue to look good.

Bill Richardson (New Mexico governor) - I really like Bill Richardson, and I think he would bring some great things to the ticket. He has all kinds of experience on the national level and in an executive role (and in the legislative branch), and he could help shore up support for Obama among Latinos. I do worry, however, that some in rural America would be unwilling to accept a ticket with a African American and an Hispanic American. Another potential problem (as with Biden) is his consistent foot-in-mouth disease.

Sam Nunn (former Georgia senator) - Sam Nunn has oodles and oodles of foreign policy experience (Nunn-Lugar), and people would see him as an experienced advisor to Senator Obama. He's a moderate southerner, and he could help Obama with the rural voters he's previously had trouble with. If the GOP nominee were anyone else, I would say that Nunn's age (70) could be a problem, but in this election, I don't think it would be.

Kathleen Sebelius (Kansas governor) - Governor Sebelius has shown that a Democrat can win in a bright red Republican state. She doesn't have much foreign policy experience (which could be a strike against her), but she has executive experience, which I think will be important to counter McCain's vice presidential nominee. She really wouldn't add much geographically to the ticket, but she could help hold on to Hillary Clinton's female voters.

Jim Webb (Virginia senator) - Here in Virginia, the cool thing to do is push Jim Webb for vice president. And why not? Unlike other people in other states who push their favorite son, Webb could add much to the ticket. He's a solid progressive. His championship of the new GI Bill will endear him even more to veterans. He could be invalauable to Obama in rural America (the places Webb talks about in Born Fighting), and he, like Biden, could attack the Republican ticket very successfully. I would love to see the Vice Presidential debate in October between Jim Webb and the joker that John McCain picks for veep (Lindsey Graham? Tim Pawlenty? John Thune? Really?).

There are lots and lots of other potential candidates (Christopher Dodd, Tom Daschle, Bill Bradley, Tim Kaine, Ted Strickland, Wesley Clark, and some female senator from New York named Clifton or Clayton or something like that), but I really think Biden, Richardson, Nunn, Sebelius, and Webb bring the most to the ticket.

Thoughts?

-Neal

Me

Since my last regular posting, much has changed in my life. For one thing, I'm 20 years old now (for some reason, people tend to get older as time goes by). I've also found the right place for myself religion-wise, and I am now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I admit that I've been digging for excuses not to make a return to the world of blogging. I'm too busy with college. I'm too busy with church. My ideas aren't as relevant as they once were. Every time I thought I had a good, solid excuse, I ended up shooting it down.

So here we are. I'm back to writing, and I hope I have something good to offer.

We'll see what happens.

-Neal.

Have I Made a Return?

Yesterday, I went to Mark Warner's campaign kick-off event in Abingdon. In attendance were Mark Warner (of course), Congressman Rick Boucher, State Senator Phillip Puckett, Delegates Joe Johnson, Bud Phillips, and Dan Bowling, and several other local officeholders and maybe some future statewide officeholders.

I also ran into Lowell Feld of Raising Kaine fame. This was the first time I've actually met Lowell. We talked about the fact that I wandered away from blogging in late 2006/early 2007. I realized that I didn't have a really good reason (only a few halfway excuses). So it is with a degree of trepidation that today I'm starting back on the road of blogging.

There are so many things I've missed. There's some president thing going on. Gas prices are up. The president is still an idiot.

Much has also happened in my life. Expect a post later today catching everyone up on what's been going on, and then watch out for new posts actually concerning politics.

-Neal