Kerry, Vilsack Don’t Play Like a Team

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa —  The bases were loaded Sunday afternoon on the small baseball diamond carved out of the rolling corn fields in Dyersville, in eastern Iowa. The batter hit a grounder, and the ball rolled right up to Sen. John F. Kerry, standing halfway between first and second base.

Over on first, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack gestured to the senator. But as the young runner neared first base, Kerry hesitated, then turned and threw the ball to second. The governor threw up his hands with a smile and Kerry, with a grin, shrugged.

Such was the awkward dynamic between the Democratic presidential hopeful and one of the men thought to be on his short list for a running mate. There was none of the trademark shoulder-squeezing and back-slapping that Kerry frequently bestowed on strangers. In fact, far from behaving like possible ticket mates, the men interacted little in public as Vilsack joined Kerry for the last leg of his 546-mile Midwestern bus tour.

Aides to Kerry cautioned not to read anything into the body language between the two, noting that the Massachusetts senator had not given any indication who he might pick as a vice president. He’s been tight-lipped about his selection, limiting his deliberations to a small group of advisors and friends. On Sunday, Kerry’s daughter, Vanessa, told CNN that even she’s been unable to pry any information from him.

But with building anticipation about Kerry’s decision, every move between the senator and the governor was scrutinized.

Separately, Kerry offered his most explicit remarks to date about abortion, which he personally opposes, despite his support for abortion rights.

“I don’t like abortion. I believe life does start at conception,” he said in an article published in Sunday’s Dubuque Telegraph Herald.

“But I can’t take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist ... who doesn’t share it,” he added. “We have separation of church and state in the United States of America.”

For much of his holiday weekend bus trip, however, Kerry made more implicit political statements, posing in scripted settings designed to showcase him as a proud member of rural America.

After visiting farms and trap shooting during the first part of his trip, Kerry spent Sunday marching in a small-town Fourth of July parade, playing baseball and joining a family’s backyard barbecue.

Vilsack was with him, but the two often stood apart.

After morning Mass at a Catholic church outside Dubuque, Kerry shook hands inside the sanctuary, while the governor greeted parishioners outside. At a parade in Cascade, pop. 1,812, Vilsack walked half a block behind Kerry, tossing candy to the crowd.

On the baseball field in Dyersville -- site of the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams” -- the candidate said little to the governor, instead calling encouragement to the dozens of children playing with them.

The two men remained vague as reporters repeatedly pressed them about the vice presidential selection.

When asked at the parade if he would be tapped as Kerry’s running mate, Vilsack ignored the question and instead tossed candy at reporters.

Kerry feigned ignorance when asked if he planned to make Vilsack a member of his team. “He’s on my team right now, here,” he said in Dyersville. “He’s been on my team for months.” At a backyard barbecue in Independence, the governor compared Kerry to the country’s founding fathers, comparing the election to the Revolutionary War.

“Here we are, 228 years later, we’ve got a guy from Boston who’s going to lead us again and take care of that leader named George,” Vilsack said.

A few minutes later, when he rose to speak, Kerry spent more time thanking Vilsack’s wife, Christie, for her endorsement during the Iowa caucuses, than talking about the governor, who remained neutral at the time.

“I will absolutely never forget the moment in my campaign when it was cold out here,” Kerry said, noting that many people had written off his campaign. “Christie took this great walk down the steps of the Capitol with me, and threw her support behind this effort.

“In Tom and Christie Vilsack, you’ve got two public servants -- and I mean servants, in the best meaning of the word,” he added. At the Field of Dreams, Kerry seemed more intent on touring the site than bonding with the governor. As soon as he got on the field, he headed off toward the corn stalks to reenact a scene from the movie in which the ghosts of baseball players disappear amid the corn.

“I’m going to go out there in the field and disappear,” he said to a gaggle of youngsters. “You coming with me?” About a dozen tagged along as the candidate strode into the rows of corn. But the early July crop only reached waist-high.

Kerry squatted, the giggling children following suit, and they disappeared from view.