No, It Won't Be Tim Kaine!

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict Tim Kaine is not going to be Obama’s VP pick. A bucketful of pixels and a bunch of angst have been spilled on the progressive blogosphere about this possibility. But who’s the one who has been touting Kaine as the most likely pick, based his meeting this week in DC with Obama? Tim Kaine himself.

But as The Fix points out today, the list of candidates for vice president is longer than the press previously believed. That means that either Kaine has been deliberately putting out the stories about how seriously he’s in contention as a diversionary tactic or his loose lips have killed his chances (bolding in quote is mine).

The hard vetting involves follow-ups to lingering questions about candidates' backgrounds and clarifications of their stands on issues. While the process is intensifying, the fact that the number of potential candidates still being considered is larger than generally believed, suggests that no decision is imminent, just 26 days before the opening of the Democratic National Convention.

It also runs counter to much-publicized comments by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine Tuesday that "there has been a long list. It seems to be getting shorter."

Tim Kaine is known to be a friend who enjoys a close relationship with Obama. He’s also one of Obama’s earliest supporters. So, is he happily taking on the role of red herring and playing along with Team Obama’s diversionary tactics to distract the media in its speculations? Or did Kaine’s premature talk kill his chances?

With the exception of Kaine, who seems to be on something of a media blitz of late, all of the candidates above -- and their key political people -- are saying almost nothing about where they stand in the process. The idea guiding that approach is that the more publicly a candidate declares his (or her) interest in the job, the less chance there is that person will be the pick.

Obama has been known for running a disciplined campaign that stays on message. So, all the discussion about Kaine may actually be misdirection. As much as Obama wants to win Virginia, I suspect Kaine and Obama also are mindful of the problems that would be created if Kaine were to desert the Governor’s mansion and leave it to Bolling.

My speculation is that Kaine gets a midterm cabinet post instead. The only real question is whether that's been the plan all along.