In Va. appearances, Barack Obama eyes GOP stronghold

BRISTOW

His historic nomination secured, Barack Obama turned to the general election campaign on Thursday with Virginia appearances that showcased a pair of potential running mates and underscored his willingness to compete in states that Republicans have considered their strongholds.

"If you will vote for me, I will win Virginia and I will win this election and we will change history," he told perhaps 8,000 roaring supporters at a suppertime rally in the Washington suburbs.

The crowd at Nissan Pavilion, a sprawling amphitheater, gave Obama a rock-star welcome befitting a venue that routinely hosts rock acts. The candidate responded with a 30-minute oration, asserting that his success in gaining the Democratic presidential nod demonstrates that voters are "tired of being divided - by race, by religion, by region, by red states, blue states."

The Illinois senator was flanked by the state's two top Democratic officeholders, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, both of whom have been mentioned as potential nominees for vice president. He lavished praise on both men, calling them "two of the finest public servants in our country."

Kaine, an old friend and early endorser, stepped up to back him when most other Democratic officeholders were worried that he was too young or too inexperienced to seek the presidency, Obama said. Webb withheld his endorsement until the rally, but Obama said, "I'm going to be proud fighting with him, alongside him."

As winners of statewide office in a state that has voted Republican in the last 10 presidential elections, Kaine and Webb have been touted as the kind of moderate Democrats whom Obama needs to woo undecided voters in swing states.

Both men are white Southerners, a constituency considered problematic for Obama, the first black candidate to capture a major party's presidential nomination. Obama carried white voters decisively in the state's primary in February but was outpolled among whites by New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in most later contests.

Webb, a former Navy secretary and much-decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, has drawn particular attention as a possible Obama running mate; his military background could be especially valuable to Obama, who did not serve in the military.

Webb also has been riding a wave of national publicity thanks to his sponsorship of landmark legislation to extend World War II-style GI bill college aid benefits to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Introducing Obama at the Nissan event, Webb recalled that Thursday was the 40th anniversary of his swearing-in as a Marine officer. Hours before that ceremony, Sen. Robert Kennedy was assassinated in the midst of a presidential campaign; weeks before that, the slaying of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. shocked the country and triggered riots in black communities.

"The United States of 2008 is also a troubled place, in a quieter but equally disturbing way," Webb said. He said Obama has shown "the steadiness that we want to see in a commander in chief" and called him "a man of great intellect who over the past 16 months has impressed all of us as he stood up to unprecedented attacks... with unstoppable composure."

Earlier in the day, Obama appeared at an event in Bristol in southwest Virginia.

Hours before Thursday evening's rally, Webb told reporters he had opted to remain neutral through the primaries out of respect for both Obama and Clinton, both of whom campaigned on his behalf in 2006.

Webb predicted that Obama will carry the Old Dominion this fall and promised to "get behind him with everything I have."

Kaine marveled Thursday that recent Democratic victories like his in 2005 and Webb's a year later have made Virginia a presidential battleground. Early polls show Obama and Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, essentially deadlocked in the state.

"Who would have thought this, the opening day... and the campaign starts in Virginia?" Kaine said.

The governor told reporters earlier this week that he's not interested in the vice presidency but would accept the nomination if Obama offered it. Webb deflected questions Thursday about what he'd say to a similar request, telling reporters that the choice of a running mate is "Sen. Obama's show in every sense of the word."

Webb said he expects Obama's choice to be influenced both by politics - who will help the ticket - and by "who he is going to want in that position in terms of putting a government together."

Obama campaigned Thursday in two corners of Virginia that he'll need to carry decisively if he is to break the GOP's presidential winning streak. Kaine and Webb each claimed upwards of 60 percent of the vote in Northern Virginia, the state's most populous region, and cut into Republican margins in rural areas like the far southwestern region Obama visited earlier in the day.

Dale Eisman, (703) 913-9872, dale.eisman@pilotonline.com