Veepstakes: Vetter needs vetting?
Posted: Monday, June 09, 2008 9:08 AM by Domenico Montanaro
The New York Sun highlights a weekend Wall Street Journal piece about embattled mortgage company, Countrywide and the relationship Obama veep vetter Jim Johnson had with the company's CEO -- a CEO Obama has criticized on the campaign trail. "On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama has criticized Countrywide's executives. ‘These are the people who are responsible for infecting the economy and helping to create a home foreclosure crisis. Two million people may end up losing their homes,’ Mr. Obama said in March at a town hall meeting in Lancaster, Pa. The Chicago Tribune reported that the senator from Illinois ‘fumed’ over a total of $19 million in bonuses set to be paid to Mr. Mozilo and the president of Countrywide, David Sambol. ‘They get a $19 million bonus while people are at risk of losing their home. What's wrong with this picture?’ Mr. Obama asked.”
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“In a written statement issued in March, the senator called the payments ‘an outrage’ and suggested Mr. Mozilo and others had ‘tricked’ homeowners into unaffordable loans. ‘These executives crossed the line to boost their bottom line,’ Mr. Obama declared. A spokesman for the Republican National Committee, Danny Diaz, yesterday called the loans to Mr. Johnson ‘highly questionable’ and said they conflicted with Mr. Obama's public comments. ‘Barack Obama needs to immediately address this matter; otherwise, his rhetoric will continue to prove to be nothing more than complete hypocrisy,’ Mr. Diaz said."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Charlie Rangel were promoting Clinton as veep on the Sunday shows, while Dems Tim Kaine, and Jim Webb and Republicans Tim Pawlenty and Kay Bailey Hutchinson also made the rounds. All hedged on being named to their party’s ticket.
The AP looks at a list of potential running mates for McCain and Obama. Among the names: For McCain, Gov. Charlie Crist (FL), former Gov. Mitt Romney (MA), Gov. Bobby Jindal (LA), Sen. Sam Brownback (KS), Gov. Tim Pawlenty (MN), Mark Sanford (SC), Gov. Sarah Palin (AK), former Gov. Tom Ridge (PA); For Obama, Clinton, Govs. Janet Napolitano (AZ) and Kathleen Sebelius (KS), Sen. Claire McCaskill (MO), Gov. Ted Strickland (OH), Gov. Ed Rendell (PA), former Sen. Sam Nunn (GA), Gov. Bill Richardson (NM), Sen. Joseph Biden (DE), Chris Dodd (CT).
The Boston Globe front-pages a profile of Jindal. “That unusual profile -- a 36-year-old Indian-American religious conservative -- has launched a prospective vice presidential candidacy. Jindal is imagined as a possible counterpart to Barack Obama's novelty, the Republicans' own jarringly fresh front man for a party looking to redefine itself. Yet at home, the revolution preached on T-shirts - and backed with the approval of nearly 80 percent of Louisianans -- is a more modest one. Jindal, who made his name as a responsible if ruthless steward of statewide healthcare and education systems, stands as a figurehead for the new, and radical by Louisiana standards, preference of competence over charisma.”
“In what some see as a bold attempt to prod McCain into choosing him as his running mate, and what others consider plain good sportsmanship, Romney is back on the campaign trail, devoting himself full time to aiding his party and its nominee,” the Boston Globe writes. “In an interview last week, Romney dismissed the idea that he was campaigning for vice president, saying he was merely trying to do everything he can to boost his party.”
