Not as catchy as Orwell's "Ignorance Is Strength"

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 setting for Biden’s appearance — a New Flyer of America Bus Co. plant that last year hired 90 people to build low-emission, alternative-fuel vehicles — has something in common with Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak’s choice of locale for his State of the City address next week: the new Coloplast corporate campus on West River Parkway, a company that brought 200 jobs to Minneapolis when the company relocated from Georgia.

Another thing the venues have in common: Both companies are owned by foreign firms.

Here’s video of Biden’s St. Cloud event, courtesy of the UpTake:

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?

The Wall Street Journal told it this way on Aug 25:

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s selection of Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate reached a pivotal point in a secret meeting on the night of Aug. 6. Sen. Biden was whisked into a Minneapolis hotel room through a back entrance before Sen. Obama left for his Hawaii vacation. They talked one-on-one for 90 minutes. “It was spirited and pragmatic,” says one adviser who was briefed. … None of Sen. Biden’s vulnerabilities was likely a surprise to the Obama team, which conducted a thorough vetting of the candidates. The team, led by Caroline Kennedy and ex-Justice Department official Eric Holder, initially cast a wide net, but in the end focused more on Sens. Biden and [Evan] Bayh and [Virginia] Gov. [Tim] Kaine. Sen. Obama sought private meetings with the three. Sen. Biden’s turn came in Minneapolis in early August, when Sen. Obama was there for a $1,000 a person fund-raiser. He had Sen. Biden sneak into a downtown hotel through the back door. (WSJ)

On Larry King LIve last week (hat tip: Political Animal), Biden said the in-person meeting lasted more than twice as long, and that only one other person was under consideration at that point:

KING: How did you learn — the moment you learned that Senator Obama wanted Senator Biden to be his running mate?

BIDEN: Well, he had called me about a month before he chose me … And I said, “I’ll be vetted, but I — but even if you choose me, I still want to talk to you before that — before I would agree to accept.” And then several — then I got squirreled out to — he was campaigning in Minneapolis-St. Paul. And I got a phone call, would [I] go masquerade myself out there? They provided a plane for me and snuck me into this hotel. And we spent three-and-a-half hours talking about the role of vice president. And he said, “Well, it’s down to you and somebody else.” And he said, “I’ll give you a call later.”

KING: Did you ever know who the other person was?

BIDEN: Well, I think I do, but I don’t want to, you know, speculate on that.

Biden’s Larry King version squares better with what he told the New Yorker (Oct. 20 edition) although Biden lets on that his lone rival is neither man the Wall Street Journal mentioned but a woman — Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sibelius, apparently:

Biden agreed to let Obama’s campaign team consider him, but with a caveat: “I wanted to make sure we understood each other—that, even if I vetted and he wanted me to take the job, I wasn’t committing to do that. When the time was appropriate for him, if I was the guy, I needed to spend at least two or three hours with him to understand what the role would be.” Biden wanted what amounted to an oral contract between him and Obama, spelling out his specific responsibilities in an Obama White House. On August 6th, Biden said, the Obama campaign “smuggled” him into Minneapolis, where Obama was campaigning, and the two senators stayed up late in a suite at the Graves 601 Hotel working out the details of a potential deal. … [Obama] tested Biden’s understanding of how broad his role would be, as opposed to that of another contender — apparently, Kathleen Sebelius, the governor of Kansas and the only woman known to be on Obama’s short list. “He said, ‘Well, you know, if I offered this to somebody’ — he named her, a person — he said, ‘That person would be very happy if I assigned them to reorganize the government.’ And he said, ‘They’d be very happy doing that. How about you?’ ” That didn’t sound like much of a job to Biden. “No,” he told Obama. “That’s not what I want to do.”

In 2000, McCain told the late Tim Russert on “Meet the Press”:

“The vice president has two duties. One is to inquire daily as to the health of the president, and the other is to attend the funerals of Third World dictators. And neither of those do I find an enjoyable exercise.”

[McCain/TP what-might-have-been video below the jump.]

McCain gave his more standard version of the job description in 2006 while in Minnesota to raise money for Gov. Tim Pawlenty:

“The vice president of the United States really only has two duties. One is to break a tie vote in the Senate, in case it’s a 50-50 vote, and the other is to inquire daily as to the health of the president. So I’m not sure that Gov. Pawlenty with the heavy responsibilities he has here would be interested in that.”

In video from TPT, starting at about the six-minute mark, McCain’s remark is followed by Pawlenty’s own standard line in which he swears his lack of interest in the job of vice president (whatever the duties). But seeing the two men together, batting around the vice presidential question early on, offers a glimpse of what might have been, had T-Paw been McCain’s pick — not the stuff of must-see TV, admittedly, but also not the cringefest that a dumbfounded nation awaits today.

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 veep heap, but the Post-ABC poll’s randomly selected American adults appear to rely on names they recognize, leaving Pawlenty, Crist and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Tex.) with the support of only a half-percent or less, same as they had at the beginning of March. “No opinion” swamped the field (47 percent), followed by Mitt Romney (12), Mike Huckabee (7, tied with “it’s up to him,” down from 17 in March), Condoleezza Rice (5), Colin Powell (3), Rudy Giuliani (2), four others who are tied with 1 percent each, and unnamed others who together had 9 percent.

So why now? Their column opens with a weak play for timeliness, keying off this month’s announcement that the U.S. Census Bureau won’t take its 2010 head-counting high tech after all. (Census-takers will use pencil and paper — unlike Minnesota’s clinics and hospitals, many of which already use electronic medical records, ahead of a state-mandated deadline of 2015.)  But the op-ed’s timing more likely has to do with Gingrich burnishing Pawlenty’s conservative sheen. With the veepstakes in full swing, Eau de Newt may be just the ingredient Pawlenty needs for a Love Potion Number 9 (er, make that 45) that he can use to romance John McCain for a spot on the ticket. Rubbed-off gravitas from GOP elder Gingrich, who wetted a toe early in this Republican presidential race, could help Pawlenty with people who are giving him a first or second look and pondering whether he’s ready to be president.

As a co-author, Gingrich is known best for the novels he has written with William R. Forstchen in the genre of speculative historical fiction, in which a single decision, made differently, alters the course of real events such as the Civil War or World War II. Here’s a thought experiment: What if Gingrich, as a member of Congress 15 years ago, hadn’t stymied Bill and Hillary Clinton’s efforts to reform health care? Maybe today we’d have 300 million Americans with health insurance — and one fewer op-ed.

In writing about Pawlenty’s place on the GOP VP shortlist, Ambinder keeps it short and sweet: “He’s the favorite.” In an audio interview, Ambinder elaborates: Pawlenty is “a fabulous surrogate … who McCain has grown to really like … [and] who people close to McCain say quite frankly he had settled on a year ago.” (Check below the jump for a transcript of Ambinder’s remarks about TP.)

Meanwhile, PiPress reporter Rachel E. Stassen-Berger gripes that, of late, Pawlenty’s printed daily schedules are frequently blank, even on days — such as Thursday — when the governor in fact has newsworthy speaking engagements. By her count, 29 of 71 daily schedules so far this year have read “No public events scheduled.” Distributing a faux-clear calendar ensures media won’t be around to document the extent of Pawlenty’s efforts as McCain’s second-banana-apparent.

More: See previous VP or not VP posts.

Continued: Click “Read more”Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R), another oft-mentioned potential veep pick, takes the opposite tack, posting a detailed daily schedule on his Web site. Crist doesn’t seem to give much advance notice (today was still empty as of 6:30 a.m.), but an hour-by-hour diary of his doings (and Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottcamp’s!) is accessible in all its mundane glory going back almost a year.

Ross Douthat, who blogs for The Atlantic, interviewed Marc Ambinder, a political analyst for The Atlantic, about John McCain’s vice-presidential choices at The Atlantic’s Web site. Here’s a transcription of the Pawlenty portion of that interview:

RD: So let’s talk about Veepstakes for a moment, because you just wrote –

MA: Sounds like a cereal. 

RD: It does, a little bit, yeah. A very tasty, delicious cereal.

MA: Veepstakes — it’s like you can almost imagine little berries, little blueberries.

RD: Little blueberries, perhaps shaped like the head of —

MA: Sam Nunn.

RD: Or Tim Pawlenty, who you listed. You just did a blog post listing who you think, based on your reporting and your guesswork, are the front runners for the vice presidential nomination on both sides, and I thought maybe you should just run through those on both the Democratic and the Republican sides. So …

MA: Well, start with Republicans. It is very easy. John McCain is likely — well, do I want to say likely? I’m not sure —

RD: Say it!

MA: All right. I think John McCain — I think there’s a fair chance that John McCain picks Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, who is a fabulous surrogate for him. Someone that McCain has grown to really like, brings a lot to the ticket in many ways. And someone who people close to McCain say, quite frankly, he had settled on a year ago, and that’s one of the main reasons why I bring up the name, not because of any of the tangential or the political factors. It’s just that people close to McCain say that McCain had pretty much made up his mind a year ago. And there’s nothing so far as I can tell that would have changed McCain’s mind.

[I]n 2005, signs of his “progressive” instincts emerged. In a quest for new revenue, Mr. Pawlenty supported a 75 cents per-pack cigarette tax. He called it a “health impact” fee. No one was fooled. User fees are generally charged to ensure that those who use a government service pay for the cost of providing that service. In this case, however, it was obvious that smokers were just being tapped to fund health-care entitlement programs.

Following the tax hike, the governor pushed through a state-wide smoking ban in workplaces, restaurants and bars. Aggressive, Nanny-state government seems to be big with Republican governors these days — although policies such as smoking bans do little to stem the costly tide of state-run health care.

In his editorial, Lewis lays out a litany of issues and legislation that would, given the right framing, make a progressive Democrat proud –  generic drug imports, minimum wage supports, renewable energy mandates — but does so with the same vigorous disdain he applies to such boondoggles as Pawlenty’s infamous “health impact fee” and the new Twins stadium.  It might be worth noting that those same projects weren’t too popular with most Democrats in Minnesota either, moderate, conservative, or liberal.

Is it possible, given bipartisan distaste for his policies and a newly empowered legislature willing to override his vetoes, that Pawlenty is now a lame duck without a leg to stand on in the national political game?

Lots of game left to play before the Republican National Convention later this year in St. Paul, I suppose.