Tim Kaine: Governor, Jesuit Trained, Fluent in Spanish, Harvard Law Graduate, Missionary Work,...

[KoKo]

Va. governor could help fill gap for Obama
Centrist seen as dark horse among VP possibilities

By Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff | June 12, 2008

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - He is the popular governor of a critical swing state. He has working-class roots and a Harvard degree, and strong support from both business and labor. He is a devout Catholic and speaks fluent Spanish, and was the first governor outside Illinois to endorse Barack Obama for president.

-snip-

Kaine, 50, was raised in Kansas City, Mo., the son of an ironworker and a home economics teacher. After graduating from the University of Missouri with an economics degree, he went to Harvard Law School. After his first year, he took a year off to serve as a Jesuit missionary in Honduras, running a small vocational school for teenage boys and honing his Spanish.

"I could see the direction most students at Harvard Law School were focused on, going to big law firms in big cities, and I didn't think that was what I wanted to do," he said in the interview last week. "But I wasn't sure what I wanted to do."

Back at Harvard, he met his future wife, Anne Holton, the daughter of former Virginia governor Linwood Holton, a Republican who served in the 1970s and led the desegregation of the Commonwealth's public schools, where he made a point of sending his own children. The Holton family introduced Kaine to politics. Still, he said, his father-in-law was taken aback when Kaine "got mad" at the Richmond City Council and decided to run for a seat.

In his 2005 campaign for governor, Kaine introduced himself as a leader guided by his "family and Christian faith," and he used that image to fend off a Republican attack on a wedge issue.

When his GOP rival went after him for opposing the death penalty, Kaine responded with a TV ad in which he explained that his religious beliefs led him to oppose capital punishment, but that he would enforce the state's laws.

Kaine said he hopes religious Democrats learn to talk about their faith in campaigns - not to proselytize, but to explain themselves to voters. "Democrats talk too often about, 'Here's what I think about this issue,' " he said. "They give the policies, but they don't give the flesh and blood. Voters want to understand what motivates you."

Lisa Wangsness can be reached at [e-mail].

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/12/va_governor_could_help_fill_gap_for_obama?mode=PF

[salonghorn70]

1. Great Article

Thanks for posting it. :hi:

[scheming daemons]

2. Great article... but you mis-spelled his name in the OP

[Thrill]

3. OK OK OK OK Obama/Kaine OK OK OK OK

[Barack_America]

4. A degree in economics, eh?

Seems that could be useful, no?

It's amazing how similar he and Barack's stories are (i.e. Barack and Chicago; Kaine and Honduras).

[Pirate Smile]

6. Similarities.

Obama-Kaine trivia: El Dorado, KS, via Harvard

Mike Allen notes one:

Barack and Michelle Obama + Tim Kaine and wife Anne Holton = four Harvard law grads.

And here's another: Their mothers grew up, not just in Kansas, but in the town of El Dorado, KS (pop. 12,718).

Kaine said last May: “I was really liking this guy. When I found out his mother grew up in the same town as my mom, El Dorado, Kansas, I knew we knew we were separated at birth and I had to support him.’’

Tempting coincidences for the symbolism-happy folks who brought you Unity, NH.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0708/ObamaKaine_trivia_Harvard_via_El_Dorado_KS.html?showall

[ecstatic]

5. Edwards without the hair?

:shrug:

[Barack_America]

7. One less target, I guess.

Though I think John has some kickin' hair.

[BeatleBoot]

8. ObamaKaine

Sounds like something a Dentist injects into the gums.

[Virginian]

9. Governors only get one term in VA.

I noticed some of the talking heads were describing Tim Kaine as a first term governor.

Virginia has a rule that Governors cannot serve consecutive terms. I have only known of one Governor to serve two terms in my lifetime and that was Mills E. Godwin who served as a Democrat (1966-1970) and then turned Republican (1974-1978) and ran again after sitting out a term. The Governor between Godwin's two terms was Tim Kaine's father-in-law, Linwood Holton, who was the first Republican elected Governor of Virginia since 1869.