Fresh from big Minnesota win, Sen. Amy Klobuchar swept up in presidential speculation
WASHINTON – Two weeks before she was resoundingly re-elected to a third term, Sen. Amy Klobuchar took a day off the campaign trail in Minnesota to stump for local candidates in a state she’s visited a handful of times in her political career: Iowa.
Visits by ambitious politicians to the state with the first-in-the-nation caucus always fuel presidential speculation, and Klobuchar in recent months has experienced her turn in that national media spotlight. With a high-profile role in the U.S. Senate fight over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh followed by her overwhelming win in the politically pivotal Midwest, Klobuchar is the subject of presidential buzz as Democrats start to search for an opponent to President Donald Trump in two years.
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Klobuchar has had at least one conversation about a national campaign, with a man who’s been a political mentor and who once led a presidential ticket himself. Former Vice President Walter Mondale said in an interview that, about five months ago, he urged Klobuchar to run for president. “She got that engine that Humphrey had,” Mondale said, in reference to another Minnesota politician who ran nationally, Hubert Humphrey, who also served as vice president. “They never get tired — they just go and go and go.”
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If Klobuchar gets in, it will test of whether her centrist, low-key style can translate onto the national stage. She has not embraced some issues championed by rising stars of the left, like Medicare for all. Her fellow senators from coastal states like California and New York are closer by proximity to the party’s largest donor bases. And with Latino and black voters key to Democrats’ campaign strategy, Klobuchar’s political base in a less diverse state like Minnesota leaves her without a track record of mobilizing voters of color.
“Klobuchar is disadvantaged because she does not already have a national profile, and may be too moderate to excite a Democratic base,” said Jennifer Victor, a political-science professor at George Mason University.
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http://www.startribune.com/fresh-from-big-minnesota-win-amy-klobuchar-swept-up-in-presidential-speculation/501184021/
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I am not sure. I think that after Obama, and Sanders, and Trump, a presidential candidate has to be able to excite audience during campaign stops. And I don't think she can run as a V.P. - traditionally the "attack dog."
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