RICHMOND, VA. - Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine  introduced Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at a townhall event on Thursday, spurring the latest flurry of speculation about whether an announcement was imminent on Obama’s running-mate pick.
    
Kaine, along with Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, are thought to be among the finalists to become Obama’s vice presidential running-mate.
 
Obama and Kaine appeared together at an event on the economy at a community college in Chester, Virginia. It was part of a two-and-a-half day bus tour through the state.
 
Further stoking media interest in Kaine was a visit by him to Obama’s hotel in Richmond on Thursday morning.
 
But Obama’s campaign played down the significance of that.
 
“They’re just riding over to the event together,  pretty standard fare,” said Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
 
After meeting for 15 minutes with Obama at the hotel, Kaine walked out with him. Pressed by a reporter about the VP talks,  he said, “I’m going to let the campaign speak for the campaign.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria (Barack Obama and Tim Kaine wave to supporters in picture taken February 9)

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico - Democrats are getting nervous — and Barack Obama seems to sense it.

The Illinois senator, fresh from a trip to Hawaii where he picked up a cold, has been rallying supporters in the past two days, urging them not to be anxious about Republican attacks that have helped lift Arizona Sen. John McCain in the polls.

“Everywhere I go people have told me, ‘Oh, I’m getting nervous. The Republicans — they’re so mean … What are we going to do?’” Obama told a town hall meeting with some 1,800 people on Monday.

Obama said Republicans didn’t know how to govern but did know how to run a negative campaign.

“It’s not going to work this time,” he said. Echoing a similar line he used at a fundraiser on Sunday, he assured the crowd he intended to win.

Meanwhile, the Illinois senator is fighting a cold, which he traced back to the time he spent last week with his young daughters while they were on vacation in Hawaii.

“The only thing about daughters is that when you hang out with them a lot and they get a cold, somehow they end up passing it off to you,” he said to laughter at an earlier event on Monday.

“Not just daughters!” a participant shouted out.

“That’s true for sons, too?” Obama joked back. “All right, I just want to be clear.”

It’s not a great time for the Illinois senator to be sick. He is expected to announce a vice presidential running mate in the coming days and will need to be in top form for the party’s convention in Denver next week, when he officially becomes the Democrats’ White House nominee.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama removes his jacket as he arrives for a town hall event in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Aug. 18, 2008)

HONOLULU - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says his former rival John Edwards, who disclosed on Friday that he  had an extramarital affair in 2006, would likely not be attending the party’s convention later this month.
 
Edwards, a former vice presidential candidate who bowed out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this year, was said to be in the running for a high-level position in a potential Obama administration, including attorney general.
 
Probably not anymore.
 
The Illinois senator, when asked about Edwards, told reporters in Hawaii he thought the former North Carolina senator and his wife, Elizabeth, had already decided not to attend the Democratic convention in Denver in late August.
    
“If I’m not mistaken I think that … the Edwards family indicated that they probably wouldn’t be attending the convention,” Obama told reporters. 
    
Healing,  yes. But Obama no doubt also wants to avoid another distraction at an event that he hopes will emphasize his campaign message of change and party unity.
    
Edwards endorsed Obama in May while the primary contest against Hillary Clinton was still running. He told television network ABC on Friday that he didn’t think he had a political career in his future. 

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jeff Haynes (John Edwards and Barack Obama at a rally in Grand Rapids,  Michigan,  May 14, 2008)
 

CHICAGO - Are the magazine cover stories on Barack Obama and the blanket coverage of him on television and in newspapers creating voter “fatigue” with the candidate?

A Pew poll released this week suggests the Democratic presidential candidate may be overexposed and Obama himself did not disagree when asked about it on his campaign plane on Thursday.

Forty-eight percent of voters in the Pew survey said they have been “hearing too much” about Obama. By contrast, only 26 percent said they had heard too much about McCain.

Asked during a flight to Chicago whether there was “Obama fatigue,” the Democrat told reporters, “We are going to correct that this week, hopefully with your help.”
Obama leaves on Friday for a week-long trip to Hawaii, where he grew up and where the grandmother who helped to raise him still lives.

Obama plans to spend as much of the time as possible out of the limelight as he takes a break from the campaign trail with his wife, two daughters and some family friends. Most of his aides are remaining at his Chicago campaign headquarters.
His vacation coincides with the start of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. He will be back in the spotlight in the run-up to the Aug. 25-28 Democratic convention in Denver.

“We had the longest primary in history. And so I can imagine that folks need a break from politics and they didn’t really get one like they normally do,” Obama said.

“I think that the majority of people have been fed a constant stream of political chatter and I’m sure that having a couple weeks off and enjoying the Olympics is probably what the doctor ordered for everybody,” he added.

If Obama needed any convincing on whether he is getting too much exposure, he got it when he stopped in St. Paul earlier on Thursday to order a stack of pancakes and greet voters.  Chatting with a woman and the three children she had in with her, Obama asked one of them, a four-year-old boy, what he had been doing all summer.

“Watching you on TV,” the little boy answered. 

Photo Credit: Reuters/Scott Audettte (Obama delivers an Aug. 2 speech in Florida)
    

WASHINGTON - Pundits see Hillary Clinton fading as a possible running mate for Democrat Barack Obama. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday referred to her as “the big name” who “would make a great vice president.”

In an interview with Reuters on a range of political and legislative topics (as well as her new book “Know Your Power, A Message to America’s Daughters”), Pelosi said there was a deep bench Obama could choose from in rounding out the Democratic ticket.

Pelosi was asked whether the Obama campaign had signaled Clinton was out of the running because the New York senator and ex-presidential candidate has been slotted to speak on the Tuesday of the Aug 25-28 Democratic convention. The vice presidential nominee traditionally addresses the convention on Wednesday while Obama will speak on the final evening — Thursday.

“I think convention schedules can be changed,” said Pelosi, who will chair the Minnesota convention.

Pelosi was quick to add that she does not have “the faintest idea” who Obama will pick. “I think the only person who knows maybe is Barack Obama himself and Michelle Obama.”

- Photo credit: Reuters/Joshua Roberts (Pelosi with Obama last month)

Are you going to the Democratic convention in Denver or the Republican convention in St. Paul?

This year’s nominating conventions are poised to be some of the most exciting and newsworthy in decades. And because of new technology and online distribution, entire elections can now hinge on moments captured not by traditional journalists, but by ordinary citizens and those closest to the action.

Reuters is looking for participants in a new mobile journalism project that will capture this year’s conventions from the ground up. We will be equipping attendees with video cameras, and helping them to shoot footage from their own perspective and upload it to Reuters.com and other sites.

We hope to capture an unseen side of the conventions, from those most involved — delegates, donors, convention volunteers and others. Unfortunately we can’t provide passes into the conventions. But if you already have plans to attend, or know someone who does, email reutersmojo@gmail.com for more details.

Even if you’re not going to Denver or St. Paul, what kind of coverage would you like to see? What questions would you like on-the-scene reporters to ask? Leave your suggestions in the comments section.

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