With the Democratic presidential nomination locked up, Sen. Barack Obama has turned to the next item on his agenda, choosing a vice presidential running mate.
On Wednesday, Obama rounded out his VP search team, selecting Caroline Kennedy and Eric H. Holder Jr. to join James A. Johnson as coordinators of the vetting process.
The additions bring different perspectives to the table, adding a woman who is part of a kind of American royal family and a man who is the son of an immigrant.
The daughter of the late President John Kennedy and the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Kennedy, 50, endorsed Obama in an op-ed piece in the Jan. 27 New York Times.
“I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them,” Kennedy wrote. “But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.”
The endorsement, followed quickly by an endorsement from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy’s uncle, gave momentum to Obama’s candidacy.
Married to Edwin Schlossberg, the head of ESI Design, Kennedy is a graduate of Columbia University Law School. An author and the president of the Kennedy Library Foundation, she has helped raise millions for New York City public schools.
Holder, 57, is also a graduate of Columbia Law. He grew up in New York City where his father, an immigrant from Barbados, was a real estate agent and his mother was a homemaker and secretary to an Episcopal priest.
After law school, Holder joined the Department of Justice. In 1976, he was assigned to the Public Integrity section, a group with prosecuted public officials.
In 1988, he was selected by President Ronald Reagan to be an associate judge of the Superior Court for the District of Columbia. In 1993, he became the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. In 1997, President Bill Clinton named him deputy attorney general, the first African-American to hold that position.
Near the end of his time as deputy attorney general, Holder became entangled in the controversy over Clinton’s pardon of financier Marc Rich.
Critics of the pardon said that Holder should have blocked — or at least objected to — the pardon.
Holder told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that he would have done so if he had known all the details of the case.
A partner in the law firm of Covington & Burling, Holder has had many high-profile clients, including the National Football League. He became a co-chair of Obama’s campaign in August 2007.
Holder and Kennedy are newcomers to the vice-presidential search process, but Johnson, 64, the former head of Fannie Mae, is an old hand. He vetted possible running mates for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 and Walter Mondale in 1984.
The Wall Street Journal speculated today that vice-presidential vetting process might discourage Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton from putting her name forward for consideration as Obama’s running mate.
The problem, according to the Journal, is that Clinton’s husband, the former president, would have to reveal the donors to his presidential library as well as other financial information.
Bill Clinton has so far declined to do this.
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4 Comments
#1. ruth 06.05.2008
I think this is a great step for Obama and I appreciate how he is handling his responsibilities…thus far.
#2. jose 06.05.2008
Nice Story Jim. Well done - I love the maps!
#3. RedOkie 06.05.2008
From the same gene pool that gave us the so called “American Prince” JFK jr., who didn’t have enough sense to stay out of the cockpit and save 3 lives. Give us all a break and send Teddy, Caroline and the rest of the rum running adulterers that make up the Kennedy’s and Clintons to the ultimate trash bin of American politics.
#4. pat 06.05.2008
The Holder selection shows how “OLD POLITICS” are Obama’s way. Eric Holder participated in a high-profile vetting for fugitive financier Marc Rich. Holder endorsed and facilitated the Clinton pardon for Marc RIch. March Rich and his wife donated BIG money to the Clintons.
Obama is clueless about the qualifications of those who he appoints. Money and power are the priorities with the list of Kennedy, Johnson and Holder. Caroline Kennedy is a member of the Massachusetts OLD politics of partisanship. She sure is not a new person. Holder is part of the OLD Clinton machine. Johnson is likewise OLD politics.
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