More on Kaine

Al Giordano shares my sentiments.

Tim!

I have always liked Tim Kaine and I think he'll make an excellent DNC Chairman, though the position is a little less critical with a Democratic President.

Kaine and Virginia Democrats generally speaking benefited greatly from Howard Dean's 50 state strategy. Obama has embraced that strategy and I believe that Kaine has some unique abilities in that regard.

Dean devoted resources to building party infrastructure in politically unfriendly environments, refusing to allow the traditional conservative social wedge issues to be the only policy battles on which campaigns were fought. Part of this was a concerted effort to weave specific progressive policies into a wider narrative in which progressive 'values' were expressed as Judeo-Christian 'values.' It was critical to national efforts to fight back against the notion that only the GOP could be the party of faith and religiosity.

Tim Kaine, a devout Roman Catholic, was seen as something of a poster child for this effort when he was elected Governor of Virginia in 2005. Unafraid to discuss his faith, he was able to demonstrate that his policy positions were grounded in a relatable world view.

Barack Obama has been able to accomplish the same thing, attracting young evangelicals and religious Latinos to his electoral coalition.

One of the primary functions of the DNC Chair over the next 4-8 years will be to go on television and beat the drum for party policy. Kaine is a good communicator for the reasons I've described above and is as solid choice as DNC Chair as I can come up with.