Is Kaine the Right Choice to Lead Party?

Howard Dean will soon be out as chairman of the Democratic Party and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine will soon be in. The Washington Post reports that Obama plans to officially announce the pick later in the week. Kaine endorsed Obama early on, emerged as one of his top surrogates, spoke on the final night of the Democratic Convention and was on the shortlist for vice president. So in many ways, this is hardly a surprising pick.

The way I see it, there are pros and cons to Kaine's selection.

PRO: Kaine will be a good spokesman for the party. As a governor of an important swing state that turned from red to blue, a Spanish speaker and a religious Catholic, he's in a solid position to communicate the party's message and help it grow. While he was governor, Virginia Democrats won two US Senate seats, flipped the state Senate and added seats to the House of Delegates. Accordingly, Kaine saw firsthand the value of Dean's 50-state strategy. Kaine's gubernatorial election in 2005 was the first race Dean poured a lot of money into and Virginia became an early pilot program for the 50-state strategy.

CON: Kaine won't become full time chair of the party until he leaves the governor's mansion in January 2010 and he didn't want the job to begin with. "I don't view that, frankly, as consistent with being governor, so I'm going to be governor," he said after the election. "I would view it as taking my eye too much off the ball about things that need to happen here." He only accepted the offer after Obama personally asked him to reconsider, raising questions about the passion and attention Kaine will bring to the job.

Kaine also gave a lackluster response to Bush's State of the Union address in 2006 and a bizarre speech at the Democratic convention. He's unpopular with progressives in Virginia and may be too "post-partisan" for such a partisan job. He may also be too close to Obama. What's best for the party is not always what's best for the president and vice versa. Kaine likely has presidential ambitions of his own, which may compromise his ability to make tough or unpopular decisions. Dean fought the Beltway establishment when necessary in order to expand the party and make it competitive everywhere; it's difficult to imagine Kaine being willing to go out on a similar limb.

That said, Obama's selection of Kaine doesn't tell us a whole lot about what Obama has planned for the party. The next executive director of the DNC, who will run day-to-day operations, is rumored to be Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, a veteran field operative who ran Iowa for John Edwards and then joined the Obama campaign as a top staffer in charge of battleground states. She'll be handling the bulk of the DNC's responsibilities for some time.

Ultimately, DNC chairs are much more powerful when the party is out of power. Kaine will take his cues from Obama, and the Obama team is still debating how to use the DNC, as I reported last month, and whether to blend Obama's personal network into the broader party. Those decisions will largely determine whether the new DNC chair is a mere figurehead or a dynamic party leader.

Comments (22)

1. It's a good pick.

   Kaine, along with the loss of Virginia and especially Darin's North Carolina, is a good indicator that the "Solid South" is finally over for the GOP.

   Posted by Mask at 01/05/2009 @ 12:03pm

2. HAPPY, might want to start worrying about YOUR party first...

   "Secondly, 2009 will be a year in which the Republican Party will be confronted with a near catastrophic ideological rift. There is no obvious Republican leader on the horizon, and the party is caught between its Southern/talk-radio base and the rest of the country on whether they should oppose or cooperate with Obama's administration.

   The combination of the lack of an obvious leader and the general political combustibility of the Republican Party will lead to a dangerous fissure that will plague it until the 2012 election cycle."---James Carville

   www.cnn.com

   Posted by Mask at 01/05/2009 @ 12:20pm

3. kaine is a solid pick. huzzah.

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 01/05/2009 @ 12:24pm

4. "Obama's selection of Kaine doesn't tell us a whole lot about what Obama has planned for the party."

   posted by Ari Berman on 01/05/2009 @ 11:44am

   Well what did you expect Ari? I find it very refreshing to hear that many liberals are finally realizing that yet again, nothing is what it truly seems.

   Posted by ACook at 01/05/2009 @ 12:48pm

5. "what what the spinally deficient Dems need . . . Democrats, snatching defeat from victory since 1992." Posted by HAPPYLonghorn at 01/05/2009 @ 12:06pm

   Funny line since you just lost a Presidential election and have no control in the House or Senate.

   Should be "Republicans, denying reality since 1968."

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/05/2009 @ 1:10pm

6. Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/05/2009 @ 1:10pm

   C3, we may have lost this round, but we won't lose the next. 2010 is right around the corner. You libs are gonna have some serious problems.

   Posted by ACook at 01/05/2009 @ 1:22pm

7. Come see Gov. Howard Dean at the 6th Annual DemocracyFest! http://www.DemocracyFest.net

   Posted by Deaniac1 at 01/05/2009 @ 1:26pm

8. I think Mr. Plouffe would have been a better choice. He has shown a great deal of ingenuity in organizing the campaign and has shown real commitment to grass root organizing, essential for future of progressive movements' success.

   Posted by M. siddique at 01/05/2009 @ 1:44pm

9. Posted by ACook at 01/05/2009 @ 1:22pm

   Most even CONSERVATIVE pundits think we'll be out of the recession by the 2nd Q of 2009....

   what will the Repubs run on in the 2010 midterms?

   "Fiscal responsibility"? And then say "Well, we mean it NOW...unlike 2001-2006"???

   Posted by Mask at 01/05/2009 @ 2:05pm

10. lol - kaine gave a bizarre speech, dean gave a bizarre screech...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 01/05/2009 @ 2:25pm

11. Posted by HAPPYLonghorn at 01/05/2009 @ 3:15pm

    Like I said, that's going to change. You like the Obama tax cut proposals NOW...but as soon as Rush tells you how they're "welfare" (because they don't give a cut to ...well...him...and the top 2%! Just the middle class) or how it's "essentially a tax HIKE on Business" (because it doesn't help out poor Exxon-Mobil or GE)...

    you'll be screaming "socialism!"

    Posted by Mask at 01/05/2009 @ 3:27pm

12. Posted by HAPPYLonghorn at 01/05/2009 @ 3:39pm

    Odd...never heard Rush say this-

    "McCain isn't a big "C" Conservative but not quite the "liberal" Repub some fear/love. Don't believe Rush!"----Posted by HAPPY 03/13/2008 @ 3:22pm

    BLOG | Posted 03/12/2008 @ 12:58pm Comments for "David Paterson: Activist, Progressive...Governor"

    heheh....nor your post where you actually blamed REAGAN for not fighting terrorism "on the cheap" or "ignoring" it or "cutting and running"!!!!

    "Maybe Mr. Reagan, Bush `41 and Clinton fought the War on the cheap and either ignored or cut out from trouble spots too soon?"----Posted by HAPPY 10/21/2007 @ 5:35pm

    Posted by Mask at 01/05/2009 @ 3:47pm

13. Posted by HAPPYLonghorn at 01/05/2009 @ 3:55pm

    So, Rush leaves out the part where you think Reagan fell down on the job on terrorism?

    Did he take your advice (given you're the expert) on energy costs back in the Summer?

    LOL

    Posted by Mask at 01/05/2009 @ 4:42pm

14. Most even CONSERVATIVE pundits think we'll be out of the recession by the 2nd Q of 2009....

    what will the Repubs run on in the 2010 midterms?

    "Fiscal responsibility"? And then say "Well, we mean it NOW...unlike 2001-2006"???

    Posted by Mask at 01/05/2009 @ 2:05pm

    Trust me, we conservatives have plenty ammo.

    Posted by ACook at 01/05/2009 @ 9:55pm

15. Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/05/2009 @ 1:10pm

    C3, we may have lost this round, but we won't lose the next. 2010 is right around the corner. You libs are gonna have some serious problems.

    Posted by ACook at 01/05/2009 @ 1:22pm

    Labels, labels.

    The funny thing is how mentally handicapped you must be to try to pass this breed of democrat off as liberals. It's always "you libs" and "we conservatives".

    Who are these conservatives exactly? Who are the libruls you seem to despise? And when you talk about conservatives, do you mean the now-socialist "big government" Bush administration, or some other fragmented portion of the "base"? Perhaps the preachy religious bigot crowd? I hear they're pretty conservative.

    Tell you what, if there is a REAL conservative in the next race for president, I give you my word I'll vote for him. Judging by the spectacle of the last two or three decades of "conservative" politics, that won't be happening any time soon.

    It must be fun to paint everything with such ridiculously broad strokes, but I think it would get boring after a while. At least for me. You on the other hand seem to enjoy it quite a bit, so good for you!

    Posted by TexasFlood at 01/06/2009 @ 02:02am

16. I suppose Obama is the best thing ever now that he has included some tax cuts which the Repubs love. I bet they were stamping their feet and sulking until they were given what they wanted, or at least some of it. You see now, Obama is not such a bad guy after all is he?

    Posted by Caj at 01/06/2009 @ 08:06am

17. Posted by ACook at 01/05/2009 @ 9:55pm

    Like...what?

    Posted by Mask at 01/06/2009 @ 09:53am

18. I don't recall if McCain ever put a firm figure on his tax cut proposal to deal w/the economy....but I'll take the present $300 Billion figure being floated, with the caveat that a large portion of it must be aimed at existing businesses (ie, not heavily subsidizing green or pay-to-play jobs). Posted by HAPPYLonghorn at 01/05/2009 @ 3:15pm

    You mean 700 billion?

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/06/2009 @ 12:49pm

19. Posted by TexasFlood at 01/06/2009 @ 02:02am

    TF, who said I despise librals? Heck, my family is full of them.

    Posted by ACook at 01/06/2009 @ 2:48pm

20. Posted by HAPPYLonghorn at 01/06/2009 @ 3:45pm

    OHHH. I thought you meant the whole stimulus package.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/06/2009 @ 4:00pm

21. I think Tim Kaine is a good choice. And as Governor he has run a much more conservative administration than his personal views would have led me to believe. But, in the current speak, "he governed from the center."

    And we shouldn't forget that he was a civil rights lawyer.

    http://mhasegawa.wordpress.com/

    Posted by mayah at 01/06/2009 @ 5:30pm

22. To Howard Dean -- no good deed goes unpunished.

    It's back to party power politics. The grassroots nourished by Dean's stewardship have been used and dumped by the brilliant Obama political team. The Clintonites are busy settling old scores which is what they do best. Let's hope Obama will be savvy enough to use the best they have to offer and then move on.

    Posted by tefarni at 01/07/2009 @ 11:24pm