Why Russ Feingold shoul be the VP choice of 2008

[usregimechange]

Obama - Feingold 2008




Constitutional Law

Feingold received his law degree, also at Harvard Law School, 12 years before Obama. Feingold, like Obama taught constitutional law. He was a professor at Beloit College in 1985. He is the chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee. He has been a strong advocate for civil liberties including recently opposing the Retroactive Immunity provisions in FISA. He was the only Senator to vote against the Patriot Act. "We will lose that war without firing a shot if we sacrifice the liberties of the American people."


Federal Ethics Reform

Obama and Feingold worked together on ethics reform:

In the first two weeks of the 110th Congress, Senator Obama helped lead the Senate to pass the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act, a comprehensive ethics and lobbying reform bill, by a 96-2 vote. This landmark bill was signed into law by the President in September 2007.

The final bill that the Congress passed closely mirrored and drew key provisions in a bill (S. 230) that Senators Obama and Feingold introduced in January 2007 to establish a “gold standard” for reform. Among the provisions in the Obama-Feingold bill that were adopted by the Senate and the House were: strict bans on receiving gifts and meals from lobbyists; new rules to slow the revolving door between public and private sector service; and an end to the subsidized use of corporate jets.

Most importantly, the final reform bill contained a provision pushed by Senator Obama to require the disclosure of contributions that registered lobbyists “bundle” – that is, collect or arrange – for candidates, leadership PACs, and party committees... http://obama.senate.gov/issues/ethics_and_lobbying_reform/

Jobs
Feingold opposed NAFTA and other free trade agreements, as did Obama. No such headlines like this one "Kerry's support of NAFTA could pose problem in Ohio" (USA Today, 3/14/2004) would you see with an Obama - Feingold ticket.


Foreign Policy Experience

Feingold has served on the Foreign Relations Committee for 15 years. He has served as the committee's Chairman of the African Affairs Subcommittee and has visited Africa numerous times. He serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Attacks asserting Obama lacks the foreign policy experience could be severely damaged by Feingold being the vp pick.


Iraq war

Feingold was one of 23 US Senators to oppose the Iraq war resolution and was the first Senator to call for withdraw. His stance would be consistent with Obama's and they could better present a clear option to McCain and the war mongers.


Electoral Significance
Feingold would take Wisconsin off of the electoral map for the McCain campaign. The state's crucial 10 electoral votes barely went blue in 2004 by a 1% margin.

Feingold would likely be popular among independents given his maverick voting record and is widely popular among base progressives. He has campaign infrastructure already in place: http://www.progressivepatriotsfund.com/




http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/Seth77

[FrenchieCat]

1. I have always like Feingold!

Must be his guts or something!

[Political Heretic]

4. umm...drive by posting? :)

[FrenchieCat]

6. Fixed it!

Sorry! :blush:

[Warren DeMontague]

2. Yeah, that would be the shit.

Seriously.

[Political Heretic]

3. I was going to argue with you, but you make a good case. Some other good choices:

Joe Biden. If the republicans successfully steer the subject back toward foreign policy like they are trying to do, he can really solidify Obama's experience gap there.

Jesus. WHAT?

[Eurobabe]

7. Barack needs someone with some FP experience

Biden or Clark would suit me fine.

[usregimechange]

8. Feingold has a good lot of that himself but your suggestions are good ones too

[Alexander]

5. Obama/Feingold is my dream ticket. They'd make a great team.

[LordJFT]

9. Feingold's my favorite person in the senate, but honestly, how will he help the ticket in terms of

winning?

[usregimechange]

11. See above

[dansolo]

10. Why not keep Feingold in the Senate?

I have a feeling that all these suggestions for VP are people who secretly hope that being VP would be the stepping stone for their desired candidate becoming president eventually.

I admire Feingold immensely, be he would be a terrible choice as a VP candidate for Obama.

[DefenseLawyer]

12. I kinda like Sen. Brown of Ohio

and not because he is better than Feingold, but just because of the electoral college map. Unfortunately, that always has to be factored in.