Hillary Clinton says she’ll return to her regularly scheduled programming later this week, perhaps as early as Wednesday if she’s feeling up to it. But Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine is stepping into the campaign void, just in case Clinton’s “medical episode” lasts a bit longer than expected.
Kaine ended up being “thrust into the spotlight” unexpectedly. While on a campaign stop in Ohio yesterday, former Ohio governor Ted Strickland mentioned he could be the top of the ticket if Clinton failed to recover. Kaine laughed it off, telling the audience that Clinton was “very responsive” when he spoke to her, and that she seemed to be feeling better.
“I was struck by how responsive she was to me, but also how chatty and funny she was,” he said, in a statement that was, oddly, not that reassuring. He added that “shortly she’ll release more health information,” and that she’s released more than Donald Trump, who will get information about his own physical on the Dr. Oz show on Thursday.
But Kaine’s schedule is filling up quickly. The Clinton campaign announced this morning that Kaine will help to raise money from the entertainment industry, attending a series of fundraisers with Spanish-language television stars this month. He’ll also headline several top-dollar fundraisers in Georgia, and he’s become the Clinton campaign’s top attack dog, railing on Indiana Gov. Mike Pence for failing to call KKK leader David Duke “deplorable” at a campaign stop in Michigan, where Kaine also pushed funding for higher education.
And he may have even more time to refine his message: One expert told the Washington Post that Clinton could take up to six weeks to fully recover from walking pneumonia, which would take her convalescence period well into October.
Although Kaine’s activity increase is subtle, calls from within the Democratic National Committee to have a “Plan B” in case Clinton is unable to return to the campaign are increasingly not. Former DNC chief Don Fowler, a close friend of the Clintons, wants the DNC to take steps to more clearly define the process for replacing a Presidential candidate. The existing rules, Fowler says, don’t provide much guidance.
He also expressed concern that if Clinton doesn’t fully recover, her weakness on the trail could have serious impact: “She better get well before she gets back out there because if she gets back out there too soon, it might happen again.”
The threat is real. As Clinton remains in Chappaqua, the political prediction market notes her chances of winning the White House have dropped by almost 15%, to 65%. Polls from the weekend show her lead narrowing among Independents and likely voters, and Buzzfeed reports that Republicans who thought Trump had no chance at the Presidency, are now privately “panicking” over how to ease the real estate mogul’s transition to the White House.