Howard Dean and Wesley Clark may still be needlessly bickering over whether Dean offered Clark the VP slot on the Dem ticket, but in the meantime Bob Graham is desperately trying to get Dean’s attention in the hopes of getting a similar offer. (You hoo! Howard! I’m over here! I’m from Florida! Which has 27 electoral votes!)
The Miami Herald reported yesterday that Graham, who became the first of the Dem candidates to withdraw from the race, appears to be “positioning himself into contention if Howard Dean tops the ticket.”
“In the past three weeks alone, Graham’s eldest daughter joined the Dean campaign payroll as a senior advisor, his wife attended a Dean fundraiser in Miami, and Graham himself went out of his way to defend the former Vermont governor’s foreign policy agenda against a barrage of attacks from his rivals for the White House,” the Herald noted. The article also noted that Graham called Dean’s foreign policy agenda “visionary” during a recent DNC speech.
In fact, the Florida Democratic Party has created a video, shown at two separate Democratic functions recently, which seeks to highlight Graham’s terrific career and explain why he’d make an excellent addition to a Dem ticket. The video features glowing praise from daughter-turned-Dean advisor Gwen Logan, singer Jimmy Buffet, and former Gov. Reubin Askew, all of whom mention Graham’s record as a staunch advocate for education and the environment.
Buddy Menn, Graham’s chief of staff, acknowledged that “the vice presidency is not an office you campaign for,” but nevertheless added, “Bob Graham would be for the Democratic nominee what Dick Cheney was for President Bush. Bob Graham has extensive foreign policy expertise. He has eight years of executive management of a large state. He is versed in the processes of the Congress. He is viewed as a sage wise counselor who has sound judgment.”
If I didn’t know better, I’d say that it sounds as if Graham’s chief of staff was trying desperately to sell Graham for a spot on the ticket. I thought the vice presidency is not an office you campaign for?
Angling aside, would Graham make Dean’s short list if Dean becomes the Dem nominee? It’s certainly not crazy.
While both were competing as rivals before Graham dropped out, there were a couple of relatively harmless exchanges between the two, but nothing that caused long-term damage. In May, for example, Graham took a minor jab at Dean during a debate in South Carolina, saying, “I’m Bob Graham and I represent the electable wing of the Democratic Party.” In June, Dean dismissed Graham’s presidential candidacy, saying he wasn’t a “major” rival for the nomination, though Dean later said he was sorry for the remark.
Other than these inconsequential moments, Graham may make a good addition to a Dean ticket, if there is one. Just this week, Dean said, in reference to a question about a running mate, “I’m going to pick somebody with defense and foreign policy experience…. The fact is, it’s a resume problem. I need to plug that hole in my resume. And I am going to do that with my running mate” Graham could certainly help Dean there. After all, Graham was the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
In some ways, Dean, should he get the nomination, will have limited options. He’ll want to “plug the hole” in his resume by tapping someone with foreign policy experience, but he’ll also, no doubt, want someone who opposed the war in Iraq. Considering all the mileage Dean has gotten out of the war, he can’t very well turn around and pick a running mate who supported the invasion.
Unfortunately for Dean, most of the Dems’ heavy hitters on foreign policy — including people like Sens. Joe Biden (D-Del.), John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) — backed the war resolution last year. Though all three have since criticized the way in which the administration has executed its foreign policy in Iraq, that’s no different — at least in Dean’s eyes — than the position taken by Kerry, Edwards, and Gephardt, all of whom have felt his wrath for backing the war resolution. Graham, on the other hand, voted against the resolution.
Oh yeah, and Graham comes from Florida, which has 27 electoral votes.