With focus on Obama-Clinton race, veep chatter begins

Grumbles voiced by Nevada's Jewish Democratic Party activists about the coming caucus to be held on a Saturday were joined by Adventist Christians this week. Both groups complained that having the elections on Shabbat will prevent them from participating.

Nevada, which is home to one of the country's fastest growing Jewish communities, also has a thriving community of Adventists. They are Christians who believe - among other things - that Saturday, and not Sunday, is a holy day. They have five churches in Las Vegas and more throughout the state. They, too, feel discriminated against; they, too, will find it difficult to participate in the caucuses.

Such examples are just one reason caucuses have come under attack as an election system. If you are sick, away from home or unable to attend because of the Sabbath or serving abroad (in Iraq, for example), then you are blocked from the democratic process. Although South Carolina also holds its primaries on Saturday, the state doesn't have the same problem. The election system allows participation by absentee ballot ahead of time.

Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who supports Republican Senator John McCain, advised South Carolina's small Jewish community numbering some 10,000 people to cast their votes ahead of time to avoid desecrating Shabbat.

Lieberman went on the road in support of McCain and will make a pit stop in South Carolina. But his most important visit will be to Florida. The state is due to vote January 29 and the vote of 650,000 Jews - the U.S.'s third largest community after New York and California - is being wooed. While McCain is supported by Lieberman, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is more popular among Jewish voters. More than elsewhere, Florida's Jews place importance on the candidate's stance toward Israel. The Florida election is two weeks away. Today, Republicans will be talking about yesterday's vote in Michigan and the contests in South Carolina and Nevada in three days.

Nearing the Nevada caucus, polls bear a similarity to those from Iowa two weeks before its vote. While the media is now occupied with covering the Obama-Clinton race, Senator Barack Obama is in the lead, with Senator Hillary Clinton in second and closely followed by Senator John Edwards. In Iowa, it ended with Obama first and Edwards second. It was a situation akin to that Seinfeld episode, "The Other Guy," where George, Jerry and Elaine remember Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo but cannot remember the name of Jose Carreras, the third member of the Three Tenors.

Edwards and Obama joined forces in the debates to battle Clinton. If she falls, Edwards will stand a chance of surviving as an alternative to Obama. If she stays in the race, Obama is the alternative candidate and Edwards will become redundant. Either way, the race is on. The generally accepted and quite probable assumption is that, in the long run, Obama is better off with Edwards out of the race so that voters opposed to Clinton do not divide their votes.

But now may not be the time for that. Next week, the South Carolina Democrats will cast their votes (not to be confused with the state's Republican election - that will be held this week) and more than half the eligible voters are African-American. If Edwards stays, he will split the white vote between himself and Clinton, preventing her from winning.

In recent days, Edwards has had to answer this question: Is his real goal to become Obama's running mate as vice president? Edwards already played the part in 2004 as John Kerry's No. 2, a campaign that ended in mutual recriminations. Despite the defeat, Edwards' image was not tarnished. Of course, he denies any claims that he has his eyes set on the veep seat - and maybe he is telling the truth. But that is what most vice presidential candidates say. Before accepting John F. Kennedy's offer to be his running mate, Lyndon B. Johnson strongly denied he would accept such an offer; so did George Bush Sr. before he ran with Ronald Reagan.

It is too early to talk about the veep given that there is no clear leader in either party election, but there are still those who dwell on it. Such analysis was backed last week by three Democratic candidates who dropped out: Senator Joe Biden, another name raised as a potential running mate for Obama; Senator Chris Dodd, most likely to fill a post in the State Department; and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a self-appointed potential running mate for Obama. All have attributes that qualify, or disqualify, them from being considered adequate for the job. Richardson will bring support from the southwest as well Hispanic votes; the veteran Biden can be to Obama what Dick Cheney was to Bush in 2000: an experienced mentor for a young president.

All have made foreign policy their key campaign issue; Dodd and Biden on the basis of their experience in Senate and House of Representatives committees and Richardson on his experience as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. All have traveled extensively, met leaders, held talks. Their failure, though, proves that that is not enough. Not enough for president, but maybe for secretary of state.

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