Governors gather, joke about campaign

By Jim Kuhnhenn - Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — For more than three decades, the National Governors' Association has assembled on presidential election years as one of its members made a bid for the White House — a Carter or a Reagan, a Dukakis, a Clinton or a Bush.

Not this time.

With two senators as the presumed nominees of their respective parties, the governors have been consigned to the running-mate heap.

So no wonder that the governors and former governors who gathered this weekend for the NGA's centennial congregation eyed one another for telltale hints. Would this be a showcase for Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the outgoing NGA chairman who is often mentioned as a possible pick for Republican John McCain? How about Pennsylvania Democrat Ed Rendell, the host of the confab and its incoming chairman?

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, himself a finalist in Democrat John Kerry's vice presidential sweepstakes in 2004, studied both of their welcoming speeches. And when moderator and presidential historian Richard Norton Smith playfully asked which governor might have an interest in the vice presidency, Vilsack turned to Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat said to have caught the eye of Barack Obama's campaign.

”Kathleen, do you want to answer that question?“ he needled her.

No one tipped a hand.

Pawlenty turned aside reporters' questions about his political future. Rendell insisted he had no interest in the vice presidency. Utah's Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman and Arizona's Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano said neither campaign had approached them.

Sebelius made herself scarce. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican whom McCain often praises, was at work in Baton Rouge. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, also seen as a potential McCain running mate, left Saturday on a 10-day trade mission to Europe. And Virginia's Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine, mentioned as a top prospect for Obama, coyly divulged that ”I never talk about my conversations with the campaign.“

Others weren't so reticent.

”The running mates of both of them are going to be governors,“ predicted Sen. George Voinovich, a Republican who was Ohio's governor in the 1990s. ”First of all, with all due respect, none of them (Obama or McCain) have any management experience.“

Indeed, governors as political executives have more in common with presidents than senators do. As Smith, the historian, told them, ”What sets you apart from legislators is that you are constantly making decisions.“

No governor has been a running mate since Maryland's Spiro Agnew in 1968.