Veepstakes: Kaine cancels appearance at fundraiser

Adding fuel to the fire of speculation about his chances to be Barack Obama's running mate, the Virginia governor will not attend the event scheduled for Wednesday night.

Published July 30, 2008 1:50PM (EDT)

Ah, the end of July in a presidential election year, that time when reporters with nothing better to talk about obsess over every statement, appearance and sneeze made by swing-state politicians who've been mentioned as potential vice-presidential nominees.

The latest example? Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who has been talked up recently as being on Barack Obama's very short list, and has done nothing to dispel that notion. On Tuesday, Kaine canceled a planned appearance at a fundraiser in Baltimore scheduled for Wednesday evening. Other prominent Democratic politicians, including Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, will still be attending.

Big cancellations at a time like this, when Obama and John McCain may be announcing their picks soon, always lead to some speculation as to the reason, and whether it might be because an announcement is planned or a meeting is needed. Obama has three events in Missouri scheduled for Wednesday. Since Missouri is a swing state the Obama camp hopes to make a play for, that wouldn't be a bad location for an announcement, though, of course, there's no solid information yet to indicate that anything's going to happen, or that Kaine is the pick.


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

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