Obama VP possibilities

By Jennifer J. Foster

Barack Obama was in Elkhart, Ind., today for a town hall meeting.

U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, an oft-mentioned vice presidential suitor for Obama, was there, too.

It would have been a perfect place for Obama announce that he was picking Bayh as his running mate.

He didn’t.

But that doesn’t mean he won’t.

Obama spent 21 precious hours in Elkhart—“far more,“ the Indianapolis Star’s Mary Beth Schneider says, than what was needed for his rally. That’s a long time for a presumptive nominee to be spending in one place in one state with one group of people. In August. Of a presidential election year.

Unless there’s a reason.

Bayh isn’t a lock for the pick. But his odds are the best of the bunch.

The Financial Times handicapped the five candidates presumed to top the list—three men and two women—in this article yesterday. It pegged Bayh’s odds at 2 to 1, speculating that he’s almost twice as likely to be picked as Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.

The FT also says that based on Obama’s schedule, don’t expect a decision in the next 10 days. He’s headed to Hawaii for a week-long vacation Friday.

That leaves the week of Aug. 18 for the announcement ahead of the start of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 25.

Segall ads in unexpected places

By Jennifer J. Foster

In browsing the web today, I’ve come across not one, but two Google advertisements for Josh Segall, Mike Rogers’ Democratic challenger in Alabama’s CD 3.

I found the first one on the Los Angeles Times’ political blog, “Top of the Ticket,“ and the second at My Way News in a story about Barack Obama poking fun at John McCain over the pair’s ongoing tire-pressure tiff:

Turning Alabama Blue
Viable Democrat running in Alabama. See how YOU can help. Sign up now!
Segall2008.com

The ad takes clickers to the volunteer page on Segall’s web site.

I had to wonder about the wording of the ad. “Viable Democrat running in Alabama”? It sounds like they’re surprised, and they expect that everyone else will be, too.

Strangely enough, Segall’s ad ran just above this one on the Times’ site—

“Barack Obama Exposed”
A Free special report on the real Barack Obama - get your copy today!
http://www.HumanEvents.com

—and just above this one on the news page:

The Real Barack Obama

-
The truth behind the canditate -
“Barack Obama Exposed” -
Free!
http://www.HumanEvents.com

Yes, “canditate” was really spelled that way.

Technology makes strange allies on the web, doesn’t it?

Why Brett Favre will love Tampa

By Jennifer J. Foster

OK, I admit it: I’m obsessed with the Brett Favre saga. I had to take a timeout from watching ESPN’s crawl to post this.

Staffers at TBO.com have put their heads together to come up with this Top Ten list of reasons why Brett Favre will love life in Tampa Bay.

But before you go thinking that this is just another top ten list, let me assure you: It isn’t.

Most top ten lists are in words. This one’s in pictures.

And it is hilarious.

(Obligatory ethical disclaimer: TBO.com is Tampa Bay Online, a project of Media General, which owns the Opelika-Auburn News and this site.)

The wonders of consultancy—and ARE THE PACKERS CRAZY??

By Jennifer J. Foster

It’s a well-known fact that if you’ve worked for any time in any position of consequence in politics or government, you’ve set yourself up well for the holy grail of politics: Consultancy.

Yes, consultancy is the reward for so many former public servants who made do with poor paychecks for so long. And by poor paychecks, I mean anything between $25,000 and somewhere around $200,000. (Because, you know, $150,000 doesn’t go as far as it used to.)

Consultancy is where you can turn your experience and the contacts you’ve made into cold, hard cash—mostly by lobbying, of course.

But every now and then, an opportunity will present itself for you to use your political experience in unique and exciting ways.

Just ask Ari Fleischer.

Fleischer is a former White House press secretary. He was the first person to hold that position in President George W. Bush’s administration, and he served for two and a half years—through the 9/11 attacks and the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the beginning of the Iraq War. Wikipedia credits Fleischer with coining the term “homicide bombing” to use in place of “suicide bombing.“

Wiki says Fleischer retired to “spend more time with his wife and to work in the private sector.“

Yeah he did!

Fleischer went on to found Ari Fleischer Sports Communications (“Strategy. Training. Advice.“) and has worked with such clients as Major League Baseball and the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

According to Fleischer’s web site, “Our unique media training and consultancy company brings to the world of sports the lessons of how to successfully handle the toughest situations with the most aggressive reporters.“

That must be why the Green Bay Packers called him.

The Packers hired Fleischer to help them deal with the unmitigated public relations disaster they have created by running off their iconic Hall of Fame quarterback, whose name you already know without my mentioning it.

Can someone explain to me why it’s a bad thing to have a proven, tested and record-setting quarterback on the roster along with your younger, unproven, untested quarterback?

What if the young guy gets hurt?

Packers head coach Mike McCarthy had said that the Packers were planning to hold an open competition for the position between the guy who is the face of Madden ‘09 and that other guy. But that went by the wayside after a “brutally honest” meeting between the guy who has thrown for 61,655 yards and 442 touchdowns and the inexplicably hostile coach. McCarthy said that the man who holds nearly every NFL career passing record doesn’t have the right mindset to rejoin the Packers and that “the train has left the station, whatever analogy you want.“

ESPN did a comparison between the only man who has ever won the Associated Press’ NFL MVP award three times and the guy who calls that man his mentor. The mentee has 329 total yards in the seven games in which he’s played over the three years he’s been a pro; as it turns out, the guy who is 43-6 at Lambeau when the kickoff temperature is 34 degrees or below has passed for more than 329 yards—in more than 50 games—over his 16-year career.

If I was a sports consultant, here’s the sound bite I would have suggested for the guy who has raised more than $3 million for charities and more than $1 million for victims of Hurrican Katrina in his home state of Mississippi regarding his showdown with Packers’ management:

“I’m every bit as committed to the Packers as they are committed to an open quarterback competition.“

Because everyone who knows Brett Favre—the guy who has carried the hopes and Super Bowl dreams of Packers’ fans on his shoulders for 16 years, who is the singular face of the Green Bay Packers in the modern era, who is second only to Vince Lombardi as the face of the Green Bay Packers and who will make the Hall of Fame on his very first ballot—knows that a fair fight wouldn’t be a fight at all.

The latest on this is that the Packers are expected to trade Favre—now, there’s a phrase no one ever thought they’d write—to Tampa Bay.

I hope Brett Favre shreds the Packers’ secondary for 300 yards in the playoffs on the way to the Super Bowl and a championship ring.

If he does, not even Ari Fleischer will be able to save Ted Thompson.

See also:

This Top 10 list of what Favre’s move to Tampa would mean for the Bucs—and for Favre. No. 1 will give you chills.

Brett Favre’s Packer bio page—while you still can.

Virginia Blue?

By Jennifer J. Foster

Click here for some great analysis by RealClearPolitics’ Tom Bevan on Barack Obama’s red-to-blue strategy.

The strategy, as the Associated Press’ Liz Sidoti reports, involves seven states, including Alaska, Georgia, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina and North Dakota. Those six states have 50 electoral votes among them.

The seventh is Virginia, the most competitive swing state. Its 13 electoral votes may be the most hotly contested in the entire country this fall.

The Commonwealth is split down the middle. Over the past 10 gubernatorial elections, Virginians have elected five Republicans and five Democrats. Its current governor is a Democrat; its current lieutenant governor is a Republican. The president pro tem of the State Senate is a Democrat; the speaker of the House of Delegates is a Republican. Even Virginia’s U.S. senators are evenly split.

But Virginia hasn’t gone for a Democrat for president since at least 1968 (more evidence of what I was telling you about earlier this week), so Obama has his work cut out for him—even if faint blue streaks have been appearing with increasing regularity over the past few election cycles.

Bevan’s article examines whether the seven-state strategy is more offense—as in, overtly trying to turn red states blue—or defensive—as in, putting John McCain on the defensive by forcing him to spend time and resources in red states that are pinking up.

Bevan points out how the ad spending in these seven states stacks up, and how Virginia stands out from the rest:

All told then, Obama has spent $7,753,000 on television ads in these seven states, while McCain has spent just $1,580,000 in two states - with 95.5 percent of that total in Virginia alone - and nothing in the other five.

Oh, by the way, that current Democratic governor of Virginia? It’s Tim Kaine, and he’s rumored to top Barack Obama’s VP list.

And now you know why.