Obama to Name Lebanese-American LaHood Transportation Secretary

Ray LaHood has said he wanted to write his memoirs now that he is retiring from the U.S. House of Representatives after 14 years. But it looks like the Peoria legislator will have to add at least another chapter, which he could title: “My Days as a Republican inside a Democratic White House.”
The 63-year-old LaHood, who fellow Illinoisan and President-elect Barack Obama is expected to select Thursday as his transportation secretary, would be the second Republican Obama invites to join his administration. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, whom Obama asked to remain in office, is the other GOP member tapped so far for the new Cabinet.

LaHood represents a district around Peoria, the central Illinois city where he was born — the grandson of a Lebanese immigrant and the son of a restaurant manager. After college, he taught social studies for six years at a junior high school.

In Congress, he gained respect for his grasp of parliamentary details, and he presided over impeachment hearings against then-President Bill Clinton in 1998.

LaHood was also in the forefront of efforts to make the floor of the House less partisan, and he sometimes ended up angering Republican leaders by refusing to follow the party line.

He and Democratic Rep. Rahm Emanuel — another Illinoisan whom Obama has picked as his chief of staff — often held dinners for small groups of lawmakers from both parties. LaHood explained earlier this year that the intimate dinners underscored something he believed in: That “to get things done on Capitol Hill, one must work in a bipartisan manner.”

LaHood — who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, the panel that oversees federal discretionary spending — has a reputation for getting things done for his constituents.(AP)

Obama picks Biden as running mate

US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has announced that Senator Joe Biden will be his running mate in November’s election.

Mr Obama’s choice, confirmed on his website and with a text message to supporters, comes ahead of next week’s Democratic Party convention.

Mr Biden, a 65-year-old veteran lawmaker, is highly respected on foreign policy issues.

Republican contender John McCain could announce his choice next week.

Speculation is mounting that Senator McCain may name his running mate on 29 August, his 72nd birthday and a day after the Democrats wrap up their convention in Denver, Colorado.

Mr Obama and Mr Biden are due to appear together as running mates for the first time at a rally which has got under way in Springfield, Illinois.

‘Impressive record’

The announcement came shortly after several US media networks began reporting that Mr Biden had been chosen. “Barack has chosen Joe Biden to be his running mate,” a brief statement on Mr Obama’s campaign website said.

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“Joe Biden brings extensive foreign policy experience, an impressive record of collaborating across party lines, and a direct approach to getting the job done,” it said.

Mr Biden has represented the state of Delaware in the US Senate since 1972.
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He is known as a strong orator and chairs the Foreign Relations Committee – something analysts say would balance Mr Obama’s self-confessed lack of foreign policy experience.

Will Virginia deliver Obama’s VP?

John McCain and Barack Obama will make their choices soon for running mates. On the Democratic side, have you heard the name Tim Kaine? Here’s a piece about who he is and why Obama would be smart to pick him.

Trends indicate a Democratic presidential candidate could win Virginia for the first time in 40 years, and perhaps thereby win the presidency itself. But why Virginia and why Tim Kaine for Vice President?

In what promises to be another very tight election like 2000 and 2004, the change from Republican to Democratic in just one or two states could propel Barack Obama into the White House. And that’s where Virginia’s 13 electoral votes and Governor Tim Kaine’s vice-presidential candidacy come in.

First, the South is the key that unlocks the White House door. Every winner of the Presidency from 1976 forward has carried a substantial portion of the South. For example, Ronald Reagan won the White House in 1980, because he won a significant portion of the South while running against a southerner, Jimmy Carter. In the razor-thin Democratic losses in 2000 and 2004, if Al Gore and John Kerry could have penetrated the South, they would have won. So if history is the best predictor of the future, Barack Obama needs to capture a foothold in the South.

Second, more than any other southern state, Virginia offers the greatest promise for Democratic success. Republicans have lost Virginia’s last two gubernatorial elections and the most recent senatorial election. In no other southern state has the Democratic Party done as well in recovering from the Republican Party’s domination.

Third, the latest Rasmussen Reports on the Virginia presidential election show McCain and Obama in a dead heat at 44 percent each. When the Rasmussen includes “leaners” in its poll, McCain leads Obama by a statistically insignificant margin, 48 percent to 47 percent.

Fourth, recognizing its potential for a victory in Virginia, the Obama campaign has shifted substantial resources into Virginia, including money and staff. Historically, what is the significance of this effort? No Democrat has won Virginia in a presidential race since 1964 when a southerner, Lyndon B. Johnson, carried the state. Since then no Democrat has made a serious investment of time, talent, and treasure in winning Virginia.

Fifth, Virginia’s demographics make it the most likely southern state for Obama to capture from the Republicans. The rapidly growing electorate in the Washington, DC suburbs of Northern Virginia, which is Virginia’s most Democratic-friendly region, helped to propel Mark Warner and Tim Kaine to victory in the two most recent gubernatorial contests and Jim Webb in the most recent senatorial election.

Northern Virginia had a 15 percent growth rate in its Washington, DC suburbs between 2000 and 2006. Fully one-third of all Virginians now live in these suburbs, but more than that Northern Virginia’s exurbs expanded by 60 percent since 2000. Voters moving to these areas lean Democratic.

Blacks constitute 20 percent of Virginia’s population. Because all polls show Barack Obama energizing the Black electorate, he will likely reap the dividend of a significant increase in Black voter registration and voter turnout. Typically Blacks cast 85 to 90 percent or more of their votes for Democratic candidates, but with Obama running for President that percentage could reach 95 percent or more, which would present Republicans with a formidable challenge in keeping Virginia in the win column after 40 years.

Sixth, as a popular Democratic Governor in a Republican state, Tim Kaine could not only help Barack Obama seal the deal in Virginia, but he also could help him elsewhere, especially among one of the Democratic Party’s most important constituencies, Roman Catholics. From Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal until now, Democrats have depended heavily on capturing the lion’s share of Roman Catholic voters. As a Roman Catholic in good standing, Governor Kaine holds positions on various social and moral issues that generally accord with Roman Catholic teaching.

As a Southern Governor, Tim Kaine would have the added advantage for Barack Obama, a Protestant, of balancing his ticket with a Roman Catholic running mate, who could also help Obama outside the South in such battleground states as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio, which have substantial Roman Catholic populations.

Could it be that Tim Kaine holds the key to a Barack Obama victory in November?

Dean Dunn is Dean of the School of Government at Regent University

Obama says McCain campaign cynical, not racist

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Saturday that Republican rival John McCain’s campaign has been cynical, not racist, in trying to raise fears about his candidacy.

Obama said McCain’s campaign team was “very good at negative campaigning” and was using his relative inexperience, atypical biography as well as his race to try to stir up doubts about him.

McCain’s campaign aired an ad this week charging Obama played “the race card” in claiming McCain was trying to scare voters about his appearance. Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and white Kansas mother, would be the first black U.S. president.

“In no way do I think that John McCain’s campaign is being racist, I think they’re being cynical,” the Illinois senator told reporters during a campaign swing through Florida. “I think they want to distract people from talking about real issues.”

McCain, an Arizona senator, also mocked Obama in two advertisements this week, one linking him to vapid Hollywood celebrities like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, and another lampooning him as an overconfident and Messiah-like candidate known as “the One.”

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Obama warns US president can’t solve Mideast crisis alone

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Stephen Collinson Agence France Presse AMMAN: White House hopeful Barack Obama stepped into the maelstrom of the Middle East Tuesday, warning the next US president could not just snap his fingers and make peace, as fresh violence rocked the region. The Democratic senator’s high-risk tour to prove his commander in chief mettle touched down in Jordan for talks with King Abdullah II, and an onward journey to Israel and a packed presidential-style schedule. But the region’s tensions immediately intruded, as a Palestinian man was shot dead after going on a bulldozer rampage which wounded at least 16 people near Jerusalem’s King David Hotel where Obama was to stay. Obama condemned the attack, saying it was a reminder of what Israelis have to “courageously live with on a daily basis for far too long,” and promised to vigorously join the search for Middle East peace if he is elected in November. The Illinois senator, who is being advised by ex-President Bill Clinton’s former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross, backed the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But a day before meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders, he warned that entrenched positions, divisions among Palestinians and turbulent Israeli politics meant progress could be slow. “It is a very difficult process. There is a lot of history that exists between those two people. That history is not going to vanish overnight. “So I think it’s unrealistic to expect that a US president alone can suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace in this region,” he added. Obama flew in from Iraq aboard a US military aircraft, and disembarked carrying a helmet and a flak jacket and wearing a wrinkled shirt and heavy-duty hiking boots following his stealth visit to Iraq. While Obama is likely to be greeted as a hero in Europe, there remain questions in the Middle East about his potential policies toward the region. His view that Occupied Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of Israel sparked fury among Palestinians, who saw it as pre-judging final status talks, while his offer to talk to Iran is likely to face scrutiny in Israel. Abdullah, fresh from a trip to the United States, hosted Obama for a half-hour of closed talks, before a formal dinner. “Jordan is a very important state in the region, it’s played an important role in the peace process,” a senior Obama adviser said on condition of anonymity. But mindful of claims by backers of Obama’s Republican rival John McCain that the trip is a mere political stunt, the aide stressed the senator was in Jordan to listen and talk. “We have one president at a time, Senator Obama is not here to make policy or negotiate but to have a very useful exchange.” In Colorado on Monday, King Abdullah said he would keep any advice to Obama private, but urged a vigorous future US role in peace moves. “I see us at a crossroads – a time of danger and challenge, but also, unique opportunities,” he said. Jordanian officials said the king would raise concerns about the Palestinian cause and his country’s efforts to help forge an independent Palestinian state. Obama’s Israel schedule has more in common with a presidential trip than that of a mere presidential candidate. He will meet Premier Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, opposition Likud party chief Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Obama will also pay homage to Holocaust victims at the Yad Vashem Memorial and hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. The Obama camp again sought to clarify his position on Occupied Jerusalem after his comments to the US Jewish lobby in June, which aides later admitted were poorly worded. “He has repeatedly said Jerusalem is a final-status issue to be negotiated by the parties, that Jerusalem will remain Israel’s capital, but it should not again be divided by barbed wire and checkpoints,” said one adviser. After spending two days in Israel, the Illinois senator will head to Germany for the symbolic centerpiece of his campaign swing, a major open-air speech in Berlin on US transatlantic relations. – AFP