Kaine says he'll stand by Obama in Senate bid

President Barack Obama's popularity in Virginia may have weakened, but former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who is making a bid to be elected U.S. senator, says he's standing firmly alongside the president.

"I'm not backing off an inch," Kaine said in a meeting last week with The Virginian-Pilot.

Kaine, who was a pivotal early supporter of Obama's 2008 candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, said he and the president disagree on some issues, including Obama's decision to attack Libya without congressional approval. But on the whole, he said the president "is doing a good job under very tough circumstances."

"He's not doing a perfect job. There are things that I would do differently," Kaine said. "And then there are things that he's probably done a lot better than I would ever even dream of doing."

With state legislative elections completed last week, attention is focusing more sharply on next year's federal elections, where Virginia may play a key role. Obama carried the commonwealth in 2008 but has seen a steady slide in his popularity this year, with his approval rating below 50 percent in several recent polls.

Kaine fared better on some of the same polls, which show him tied with Republican former Gov. George Allen, with about one in 10 voters undecided.

Marianne von Nordeck, a spokeswoman for Obama's re-election campaign, predicted Kaine and Obama will appear together at campaign events next year.

"President Obama and Gov. Kaine have a long relationship and they support each other fully," she said.

However, both Kaine and von Nordeck made clear the two will run separate campaigns based on their own records.

Kaine, who expects to make education a major theme, predicts he'll also draw voters who will cast ballots for the GOP presidential candidate, noting that in his past campaigns, he's had a lot of ticket-splitters.

Political observers said the president and the former governor have no choice but to remain loyal to each other.

"Kaine has to be all-in with Obama," said Quentin Kidd, a political scientist at Christopher Newport University. "I don't think he can win if he tries to create space between himself and Obama."

Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political science professor, agrees.

"There's little question that Kaine is joined at the hip to Obama," Sabato said. "Kaine has to hope that the economy, and therefore Obama, recovers during 2012."

With the president's popularity now lagging, Republicans are seizing opportunities to link the two in hopes of weakening Kaine's Senate campaign.

On Monday, for example, when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in the spring on the constitutionality of the new health care law championed by Obama, the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out news releases noting that Kaine has supported the new law.

The election to replace U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat who is not seeking another term, includes a June 12 primary, followed by the November general election.

Kaine is competing in a Democratic primary against Fairfax-based consultant Courtney Lynch and Reston resident Julien Modica.

Allen faces a challenge for the Republican nomination from Tim Donner, a Great Falls businessman; E.W. Jackson Sr., a Chesapeake-based minister; David McCormick, a Virginia Beach attorney; and Jamie Radtke of Chesterfield County, a former state tea party leader.

Kaine, who served as governor from 2006 to 2010 and as head of the Democratic National Committee before announcing his Senate candidacy in April, has been publicly linked to Obama at least since 2005, when Obama - then a senator from Illinois - campaigned for Kaine's gubernatorial bid.

Kaine said he objects to complaints that Obama is a weak leader.

"You cannot be weak and wipe out al-Qaida the way he has," Kaine said. "He has some strengths and weaknesses in terms of executive leadership. I think he knows how to pick good people."

However, Kaine is critical of Obama for setting aside the work of his presidential debt commission, which proposed cutting the federal deficit by up to $4 trillion over 10 years. The panel, led by former Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming and Erskine Bowles, White House chief of staff for Bill Clinton, proposed to cut the debt by a combination of spending cuts, revamping entitlement programs such as Social Security, and changing the tax codes to raise more revenue.

Obama and others may have thought it wasn't good enough, Kaine said, but "nobody's come up with something better yet."

Bill Bartel, (757) 446-2398, bill.bartel@pilotonline.com