Vice President

Vice President Joe Biden held a town-hall meeting on beefing up the middle class in St. Cloud today. Watch live streaming video via the UpTake after the jump.

The Twin Cities played a starring role in the selection of both major-party vice-presidential candidates this year — on stage in the case of Republican Sarah Palin and behind the scenes in the case of Democrat Joe Biden. But just as the grand total of Palin’s purchases on GOP credit cards (which started in Minnesota) was a moving target, the details of Biden’s back-door tete-a-tete with Barack Obama in Minneapolis last August have shifted over time. At issue: Exactly how long did they meet in person at Obama’s hotel, and exactly how many others (and of what gender) was Obama still considering for the veep slot then?

A stock line of Sen. John McCain’s over the years has been that the vice president of the United States really only has two duties. He hasn’t always named the same two duties, but none would require of Gov. Sarah Palin anything as difficult as debating Sen. Joe Biden or even being interviewed by Katie [...]

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll asked people leaning Republican who they’d like John McCain to choose as his vice presidential running-mate. The results of the national survey show Gov. Tim Pawlenty with an asterisk, in a nine-way tie for ninth place.

Insider handicappers often rank Pawlenty and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist at the top of [...]

The byline on the Strib’s Commentary page today reads, “By Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty.” And that’s the most interesting part of the op-ed, which revisits ground Newt and Tim covered last fall when Gingrich introduced fellow government shutdown vet Pawlenty for a horn-tooting keynote speech at Gingrich’s Center for Health Transformation.

So why now? Their [...]

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been John McCain’s vice presidential fave for a year now, according to The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder, who says nothing’s happened over that time (ahem, I-35W?) that might change McCain’s mind. Are Pawlenty’s blank daily schedules (which keep the press at bay) intended partly to obscure his efforts on behalf of McCain?

In [...]

COMMENTARY — Recently, I wrote a critique of Tim Pawlenty and the possibility of him being named the running mate of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain this year.  Turns out, right-wing talk show host Jason Lewis agrees with me that McCain could choose a better running mate.  However, it would appear that he agrees [...]