WASHINGTON - Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seems to think so. But she is touting Rep. Chet Edwards of Texas, not former presidential candidate John Edwards who twice ran for president and was the Democrats vice presidential candidate in 2004.

For the past few weeks, Pelosi, who will chair the Democratic National Convention in Denver in late August, has been talking up the nine-term congressman from central Texas as a possible running-mate for Barack Obama.

She floated the idea to Obama’s vice presidential search team a few weeks ago and again on Tuesday more publicly, at a breakfast with a group of reporters.

“I’ve had no conversations with the Obama campaign,” Edwards told Reuters on Capitol Hill. But he added that he was “humbled” that Pelosi would suggest him and left the door open to the possibility.

Edwards is known on Capitol Hill as an articulate centrist Democrat with a proven ability to win in a congressional district with a Republican tilt. His work on expanding veterans’ health and education benefits and his southern, fiscal conservative credentials could also help round out a ticket headed by a man seen as a liberal northerner.

For those who think Obama needs a foreign policy/national security expert to fill in the gaps in the presidential candidate’s resume, Edwards could pale compared to other names floating around, including Sen. Joe Biden, retired Gen. Wes Clark, former Sen. Sam Nunn and Sen. Jack Reed.

But the congressman might have a leg up on the competition in at least one other area, he would do Obama proud in a sport that is traditionally favored by presidents and vice presidents. As a youngster, Edwards was an avid, accomplished golfer.  

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Kevin Lamarque (Pelosi on Capitol Hill in May)

Barack Obama’s White House bid could depend on guys like Allen Boyd.
 
To be sure, this 63-year-old white, Florida farmer is not the protoypical supporter of the drive by the 46-year-old liberal to become the first black U.S. president.
 
But Boyd, who also happens to be a Democratic congressman, seems to be edging in Obama’s direction, citing economic and foreign policy reasons.
 
Obama “adheres to fiscal responsibility,” Boyd says and on foreign policy he’s “sort of out front on that about how we change the direction of this country.”
 
At the same time, Boyd says Obama likely has an uphill battle to win Florida, a likely crucial battleground.
 
“I would say if you look at the history of the last few presidential elections, it would be very difficult for him (Obama) to win,” Boyd said. He added, “Obama has a very tough bore in districts like the one I represent” in Florida’s panhandle.
 
In an interview taped on Friday for C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers,” Boyd, a six-term lawmaker, said he has no plans to endorse Obama, explaining he never endorses presidential candidates.
 
But when asked if there was any chance he would end up supporting Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Boyd said, “From what I see right now from a policy perspective, I’d say no.”
 
Boyd is a leading member of a group in the U.S. House of Representatives known as “Blue Dogs,” lawmakers who think government spending is out-of-control. They’re known for their independent streak within the Democratic Party and for holding  up legislation, such as an Iraq war spending bill, to insist that popular add-ons costing billions of dollars be paid for.
 
Given the difficulty pigeonholing these lawmakers, it’s been an open question if they — and voters in the conservative districts many of them represent — will back Obama.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Bourg (Barack Obama at Washington news conference June 18)
 

WASHINGTON - Each evening, tourists that pack the U.S. Capitol Rotunda during the day are long gone, leaving only dusk’s light to play on the sculptures and paintings beneath the dome that soars 180 feet high, a symbol of American freedom.

One night last week, the silence was broken by a guide giving a tour to two wounded U.S. soldiers, one in a wheelchair, the other with a cane.

As they passed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and neared the Rotunda, the guide told the wounded warriors: “Don’t look up! Do not look up!”

The guide pushed the wheelchair onto the edge of the Rotunda floor, ran ahead, pivoted and raised a pocket-sized camera to his eye.

“Now look up!” he said, seeking to get the soldiers to focus on the dome.

As he snapped their picture, the guide said: “This is it. This is the symbol of democracy. Your first look at it. You’ll have a picture of it your whole lives. This is why you went to war.”

The two soldiers said nothing, giving no hint to their thoughts about the unpopular war.

Minutes later, Democratic leaders left Pelosi’s office, equally silent on whether they had agreed on details of legislation to fund the 5-year-old Iraq war for several more months and whether to put strings on the money in an attempt to eventually end the fighting.

The war has already been a hot topic of debate in the congressional and presidential campaigns, along with competing bills on Capitol Hill to take better care of veterans.   

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Capitol Rotunda)

WASHINGTON - “Scurrilous” and “disingenuous” were among the words a top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives used on Thursday to describe Hillary Clinton’s campaign tactics in her bid to defeat Barack Obama for their party’s presidential nomination.

House Democratic Whip James Clyburn, of South Carolina and the highest ranking black in Congress, also said he has heard speculation that Clinton is staying in the race only to try to derail Obama and pave the way for her to make another White House run in 2012.

“I heard something, the first time yesterday (in South Carolina), and I heard it on the (House) floor today, which is telling me there are African Americans who have reached the decision that the Clintons know that she can’t win this. But they’re hell-bound to make it impossible for Obama to win” in November, Clyburn told Reuters in an interview.

Obama holds a sizable lead in delegates won in state-nominating contests which could be hard for her to overcome.

The purported theory is that an Obama defeat in November against Republican presidential candidate John McCain would let Clinton make another presidential bid in four years, Clyburn said.

Clyburn has not yet declared whether he supports Clinton or Obama. But in January, he raised his concerns about the heated exchanges between the two campaigns before the South Carolina primary.

On Thursday, Clyburn took Clinton and surrogates to task, complaining that they want the popular votes in Michigan and Florida counted, even though both states violated party rules for the early scheduling of their nominating contests.

“I think it’s so disingenuous … (adviser James) Carville and Sen. Clinton were all on TV. I’ve seen them two or three times this week, talking about counting Florida and Michigan.”

Obama did not campaign in those states because the Democratic Party said Florida and Michigan wouldn’t be included in the formal tally for the nomination. “Her name was the only one on the ticket in Michigan and still 42, 43 percent of the vote was against her,” Clyburn said.

Still, Clyburn said “I don’t think she ought to drop out.”

But he added, “There’s a difference between dropping out and raising all this extraneous scurrilous stuff about the guy (Obama). Just run your campaign … you don’t have to drop out to be respectful of other people.”

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Clyburn with presidential candidates at a debate in January)