Kaine: Biden pick benefits Va.

By ANDREW CAIN
Media General News Service
Published: August 25, 2008

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine says Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., brings to the Democratic ticket an understanding of Virginia’s Eastern Shore as well as its military communities.

Kaine appeared on “Fox News Sunday” yesterday as a new poll indicated that the presidential contest in Virginia remains about even. For the third consecutive month in the state, Sen. Barack Obama is performing 2 percentage points better than Republican Sen. John McCain, within the poll’s margin of error.

Kaine, who was on Obama’s vice-presidential short list, said Biden will help Obama’s Virginia campaign.

“The Eastern Shore part of Virginia and Delaware are . . . very, very similar,“ Kaine said in Denver, where the Democratic National Convention begins today.

“I think there’s a lot in common, and Joe understands that.“

Kaine noted that one in 10 Virginians are veterans. He said Biden’s chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his advocacy for strong diplomacy will go over well in Virginia.

“I think he’s a heart guy,“ Kaine added. “He’s a great retail campaigner who really connects with people on a visceral level, and Virginians like that.“

Kaine appeared on the show with Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter. Both Democrats lead critical swing states.

The Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., captured 19 states and the District of Columbia. He amassed 252 electoral votes, falling 18 short of victory. To prevail in November, Obama and Biden must try to hold the states Kerry won and find at least 18 more electoral votes.

That’s why Obama is making such a big push in Virginia, which has 13 electoral votes, and in Colorado, which has 9.

“Election night could well come down to Virginia and Colorado,“ said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, the North Carolina-based pollster that released the survey yesterday.

“More than likely if Barack Obama can win just one of them he’ll get the keys to the White House,“ Debnam said.

Virginia last backed a Democratic nominee for president in 1964. Colorado last supported a Democrat for president in 1992, when it backed Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.

Obama received 47 percent of support to McCain’s 45 percent in the Virginia poll of 1,036 likely voters conducted Wednesday through Friday. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points. The survey was completed before Obama announced Biden as his running mate early Saturday.

On the Fox program, Kaine again quipped that his wife, Anne Holton, gave him perspective after he lost out to Biden as Obama’s running mate. She joked that he was elected to “the highest office in the land” in 1984—when he became her husband.

Kaine said he knows the real meaning of “Hail to the chief.“