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Obama draws closer to naming a running mate

Could announce choice for VP as early as today

By STEVEN R. HURST |
2008-08-19

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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in Orlando, Fla. (PHOTO: AP /John Raoux)

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WASHINGTON (AP) _ Barack Obama cranked up his campaign in the final days before the Democratic convention, tantalizing voters and the media as he drew closer to naming a running mate and issuing a blunt counterattack against what he contends is Republican John McCain's habit of questioning his "character and patriotism."

Vice presidential picks have seldom been as important as this year. Obama was thought to be looking for a running mate who adds heft to the Democratic ticket, given the Illinois senator's brief tenure on the national political scene.

The choice is equally vital for McCain, who turns 72 on Aug. 29 and would be the oldest first-term American president.

The Arizona senator was considering a vice presidential announcement right after next week's Democratic convention, gunning to diminish Obama's post-convention glow as party delegates leave Denver, Colorado. McCain has a three-day window before his Republicans assemble Sept. 1 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

With Obama expected to name his No. 2 as early as Wednesday, he and his campaign were refusing any clues. In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, however, Obama praised Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman thought to be among the contenders, for proposing an additional $1 billion of reconstruction projects in the Republic of Georgia after the Russian invasion.

Others believed to be on his short list also were keeping mum. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, rumored as a possible choice, professed no inside knowledge of when word would come. In addition to Biden and Sebelius, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh were believed in the running. Obama's major rival for the nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, was seen by some Democrats as a long-shot.

At the VFW meeting, an unsmiling, steely eyed Obama struck back at McCain, who told the same audience a day earlier that his Democratic opponent had "tried to legislate failure" in the Iraq war and was putting his presidential ambitions above American interests.

"One of the things that we have to change in this country is the idea that people can't disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism," Obama told assembled veterans. "I have never suggested that Sen. McCain picks his positions on national security based on politics or personal ambition. I have not suggested it because I believe that he genuinely wants to serve America's national interest. Now, it's time for him to acknowledge that I want to do the same.

"Let me be clear: I will let no one question my love of this country. I love America, so do you, and so does John McCain."

Polls show the contest between the men has grown consistently closer in August, as McCain appears to be finding traction with attacks on Obama that he is untested and not ready for the White House. McCain has served more than 20 years in the Senate, while Obama is in his first four-year term. The latest Gallup Poll tracking survey, released Tuesday, shows Obama with a slim one-percentage point margin, 45-44.

McCain ” a former Navy fighter pilot and prisoner of war in Vietnam ” has asserted repeatedly that Obama's opposition to the Iraq war showed he would rather lose the war than forfeit the contest for the presidency.

On Monday, McCain told the VFW gathering: "With less than three months to go before the election, a lot of people are still trying to square Sen. Obama's varying positions on the surge in Iraq. First, he opposed the surge and confidently predicted that it would fail. Then he tried to prevent funding for the troops who carried out the surge.

"Not content to merely predict failure in Iraq, my opponent tried to legislate failure."

Obama has acknowledged that the introduction of 30,000 addition U.S. troops into Iraq last year reduced violence but says it has failed in its political goal of helping reconcile Iraq's contentious factions. He has vowed to withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office; McCain opposes any timetable for withdrawal.

Iraqi leaders have been pressing the U.S. for a timetable for withdrawal.

McCain's revival of the candidates' conflict over the Iraq war appeared designed to shift the debate away from the struggling American economy, which polls show is the top concern of voters. McCain is viewed as less likely to shepherd the country out of its financial crisis.

The Vietnam veteran's top contenders for the vice presidency are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential pick in 2000 who now is an independent.

Heightening expectations about the Obama decision, a senior adviser told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that he and his vice presidential choice would appear with him at a speech Saturday in Springfield, Illinois. The Illinois Democrat announced his presidential run there early last year in front of the former state Capitol building where Abraham Lincoln once served.

McCain, meanwhile, visited an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico and called for increased offshore drilling that he claims would lower the cost of food and heating homes.

McCain traveled 130 miles (209 kilometers) by helicopter to tour the massive facility, which produces 10,000 barrels of oil each day, and criticized Obama for not supporting such a plan.

"He says it won't solve our problem and that it's, quote, not real. He's wrong and the American people know it," McCain told reporters.

Obama's campaign, meanwhile, called the four-hour excursion nothing more than a stunt.

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