Leon Panetta for VP?

Batman Jones · Aug 7, 2008

Mark Halperin is teasing a story:

http://thepage.time.com/2008/08/07/leon-is-getting-larger/

Leon is getting larger

Experienced, Catholic, economics expert, ready to be president, inside-outsider, liberal-centrist. Why not a running mate?

Developing...

This guy looks pretty damn good to me.

Check out his wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Panetta

Leon Edward Panetta (born June 28, 1938) is Democratic politician and scholar from California's Central Coast. He served as White House Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton, and before that was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1976 to 1994. He is the founder and director of the Panetta Institute, serves as Distinguished Scholar to the Chancellor of the California State University system and is a professor at Santa Clara University teaching public policy.

Early life and schooling
Panetta was born in Monterey, California, the son of Italian immigrants who owned a restaurant there. He was raised in the Monterey area, and attended Catholic schools St. Carlos Grammar School and Carmel Mission School. He continued his education at Monterey High School, a public school where he became involved in student politics. As a junior he was Vice President of the Student Body, and became President of the Student Body as a senior.

In 1956 he entered Santa Clara University, and in 1960 he graduated magna c*m laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He also received a Juris Doctor in 1963 from the Santa Clara University Law School, and soon after began practicing law.

In 1964 he joined the United States Army as a Second Lieutenant. There he received the Army Commendation Medal, and was discharged in 1966 as a Captain.

Political career
Panetta started politics in 1966 as a legislative assistant to Republican Senator Thomas Kuchel, the United States Senate Minority Whip from California, whom Panetta has called "a tremendous role model"[1].

In 1969 he became the assistant to Robert H. Finch, Secretary of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare under the Nixon administration. Soon thereafter he was appointed Director of the Office for Civil Rights.

Panetta chose to enforce civil rights and equal education laws, even under political pressure not to from then-president Nixon, who was implementing his "Southern strategy". Robert Mardian said of Panetta: "Doesn't he understand Nixon promised the Southern delegates he would stop enforcing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts?"[2]. Secretary Finch and Assistant Secretary John Veneman refused to fire Panetta, threatening to resign if forced to do so. A few weeks later in 1970, Panetta resigned and left Washington to work as Executive Assistant for John Lindsay, the Republican Mayor of New York City. He wrote about this experience in his 1971 book Bring Us Together: The Nixon Team and the Civil Rights Retreat.

He moved back to Monterey to practice law at Panetta, Thompson & Panetta from 1971 through to 1976.

Congressional work
Panetta switched to the Democratic Party in 1971, as he felt the Republican Party was moving away from the center and was working against civil rights legislation. In 1976 he was elected to Congress to represent California's 16th congressional district (the 17th district after the 1990 census), and was reelected for nine terms.

During his time in Congress, his work concentrated mostly on budget issues, civil rights, education, health, and environmental issues, particularly preventing oil drilling off the California coast. He wrote the Hunger Prevention Act (Public Law 100-435) of 1988 and the Fair Employment Practices Resolution. He was a major factor in establishing the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

His positions included:

Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on the Budget
Chairman of the Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Domestic Marketing, Consumer Relations, and Nutrition
Chairman of the Administration Committee's Subcommittee on Personnel and Police
Chairman of the Task Force on Domestic Hunger created by the U.S. House Select Committee on Hunger
Vice Chairman of the Caucus of Vietnam-Era Veterans in Congress
Member of the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies.

Budget work
He was a key participant of the 1990 Budget Summit, and served on the U.S. House Committee on the Budget from 1979 to 1985, as well as being the chairman from 1989 to 1993.

In 1993, the beginning of his ninth term, he was chosen by then-President Bill Clinton to be Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget. He is credited with developing the budget package that would eventually result in the balanced budget of 1998. On July 17, 1994, he was appointed White House Chief of Staff by Clinton, a position he held until January 20, 1997. He was an important negotiator of the 1996 budget, which was another important step towards balancing the budget.

After politics
Panetta and his wife founded the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy in December 1998, where they serve as the Institute's directors. The Institute is located at California State University, Monterey Bay. Panetta was instrumental in creating CSU Monterey by converting Fort Ord, where he was chief of operations and planning of the intelligence section when he was in the army, into the university. Currently, Panetta serves as distinguished scholar to the chancellor of University of California and as Presidential Professor at University of California, Santa Cruz's Politics department, with both universities allowing him to teach. He also teaches once a year at Santa Clara University. He was urged to consider running for Governor of California during the recall election in 2003 but declined in part because of the short time available to raise money.

In 2006 he was part of the Iraq Study Group aka the Baker Commission.

Responsibilities
Pew Oceans Commission - Commissioner[3]
Bread for the World - Board of Directors
National Marine Sanctuary Foundation - Member of the Board of Directors[4]
New York Stock Exchange - Co-chairman of the Corporate Accountability and Listing Standards Committee - Board of Directors since 1997
Close Up Foundation - Board of Directors, Member since 1999
Connetics Investor Relations - Board of Directors since March 2000[5]
Fleishman-Hillard[6] - Co-chairman of the Corporate Accountability and Listing Standards Committee
- Co-chairman of the Corporate Credibility Advisory practice
- Member of the International Advisory Board
Junior Statesmen Foundation Inc. - Trustee since 2004
Public Policy Institute of California - Board of Directors since 2007[7]

In June of 2002 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops put him on their National Review Board[8], which was created to look into the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal. This created controversy because of Panetta's pro-choice stands on abortion and other views seen as conflicting with those of the Church.

Personal life
Panetta married Sylvia Marie Varni, who administered his home district offices during his terms in Congress.

Currently, he lives on his family's 12 acre (49,000 m²) walnut farm in Carmel Valley with his wife. They have three sons: Christopher, Carmelo, and James, and five grandchildren[9].

In 2008, severe storms caused the Walnut trees to be destroyed. He now plans to raise bees.
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Refman · Aug 8, 2008

If he's the VP candidate, I guess the jokes about McCain's age will stop.

Batman Jones · Aug 8, 2008

Refman said:

If he's the VP candidate, I guess the jokes about McCain's age will stop.
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I guess that depends on his general spacyness going forward. Did you see that "Dazed and Confused" montage mc mark posted in the other thread?

I don't care that he's old. I care that he seems out of it.

Rocketman95 · Aug 8, 2008

Refman said:

If he's the VP candidate, I guess the jokes about McCain's age will stop.
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A VP's age is less important than a President's age in the mind of the voters. It's going to take a completely historical event for that guy to assume the office.

Deckard · Aug 8, 2008

I've always liked Panetta. Very, very smart and willing to be flexible to solve a problem. Very "old school liberal/progressive." More in the Jack/Bobby Kennedy philosophical bent. Very strong feelings about civil rights, social programs for those in need, firm supporter of women's rights, but pragmatic. I hate to use the word "solid," because it does a disservice to the man, in my opinion, but Panetta's possessed of a lively intellect, underpinned by rock solid beliefs, so there you go.

Good find, Batman. I wouldn't have thought of the guy in a million years, but would happily accept the choice by Barack, if he went that way. Didn't realize that he was that old, but when you think about it, he would have to be. I haven't seen Panetta on the cable news shows in a while, so I can't speak to how much the man shows his age, but he always reminded me of Tony Bennett's half brother... if Tony had one!

Impeach Bush.

Rashmon · Aug 8, 2008

I'm almost positive the choice will be Gore.

Having Bill Clinton speak before the VP is the perfect set up.

Refman · Aug 9, 2008

Rocketman95 said:

A VP's age is less important than a President's age in the mind of the voters. It's going to take a completely historical event for that guy to assume the office.
Click to expand...

I agree that it is more important in the mind of the voters, but it shouldn't be. If Panetta becomes VP, he is moments from the Presidency for four years.

If you don't want an old President, then you don't want an old VP either.

But the average American voter doesn't think that far ahead.

FranchiseBlade · Aug 10, 2008

Of all the possibilities I hear, then I would go for LP.

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