Politics on the Hudson

Barack Obama is widely expected to announce his running mate sometime this week, although his campaign has kept the timing a secret.

One possible clue: Obama has two events scheduled for Wednesday in southern and central Virginia. That raises the possibility he could use that location to announce Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine as his choice for veep. Kaine, a civil rights lawyer and former Catholic missionary, is a popular governor in a state that trending Democratic and which Obama hopes to win in November.

On the other hand, the Russian military action against the Republic of Georgia has raised the importance of foreign affairs in the race and that could tip the balance in favor of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, another person on Obama’s short list.

Biden returned Monday from a weekend fact-finding trip he made at the request of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, with whom Biden has a strong working relationship, according to Gannett News Service. “He also met with the country’s prime minister, Lado Gurgenidze, U.S. Ambassador John Tefft, and Georgian Parliamentary Speaker David Bakradze’’ GNS reported.  “And he spoke on the phone with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.’‘  Biden chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is often seen an Obama administration’s top choice for Secretary of State.

Another short list candidate for veep is Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh.

Today’s edition of Politico, the thrice weekly newspaper for political junkies, paints an unfavorable picture of Bayh as a political surrogate for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Indiana primary. The story says Bayh was unable to come through with inside information on late election results on the night of the primary and instead sat in a holding room hitting the refresh button on a laptop for the latest information on a newspaper Web site.