Hillary Clinton Is Said to Seek National Security Experience for Vice Presidential Pick

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/us/politics/hillary-clinton-vice-president.html

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Facing a fall contest against a Republican opponent focused on law and order, Hillary Clinton has narrowed her search for a vice-presidential candidate, telling several potential running mates that she needs a No. 2 who would bring national security experience to the Democratic ticket.

Mrs. Clinton’s shortlist includes James G. Stavridis, a retired four-star Navy admiral who served as the 16th supreme allied commander of NATO, and Senator Tim Kaine, a former Virginia governor who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

She is widely expected to present her choice at a rally in Miami on Saturday, according to people involved with the planning who discussed private conversations on the condition of anonymity.

A Saturday rollout would come two days after the end of the Republican National Convention, shifting attention from the G.O.P. gathering in Cleveland. On Friday, Mrs. Clinton plans to visit Orlando, where a gunman who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State killed 49 people at a gay nightclub last month.

The choice of Florida as the backdrop for Mrs. Clinton’s announcement rally, which will be followed by a bus tour in swing states immediately after next week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, is no coincidence.

Mrs. Clinton currently leads Mr. Trump by seven percentage points in Florida, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released this week, and the state is considered critical to a Trump victory in November.

In recent days, her campaign has held focus groups to try to determine what qualities undecided voters want to see in Mrs. Clinton’s running mate, the people involved with the planning said. A campaign spokesman declined to comment.

When asked Monday night about her vice-presidential search, Mrs. Clinton told Charlie Rose of PBS that she was “afflicted with the responsibility gene” and would base her decision on the practical matter of who is best prepared.

“There is nothing more important than my rock-solid conviction that the person I choose could literally get up one day and be the president of the United States,” Mrs. Clinton said.

She made those comments as the Republican National Convention entered its first evening in Cleveland. A parade of speakers, including former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, spoke about the need to be tough in the fight against terrorism as they attacked Mrs. Clinton’s record.

The terrorist attack in Nice, France, the mass shooting in Orlando and the recent killings of police officers and police shootings of black men have all added to voters’ sense of insecurity this summer, with both candidates seeking to present themselves as the solution.

Voters are evenly split on whether Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Trump would better handle terrorism and national security, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, a change from last month, when Mrs. Clinton had a seven-percentage-point advantage on the issue.

Mr. Trump’s choice for running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, a social conservative not known for foreign policy experience, supported the war in Iraq and praised Mrs. Clinton’s handling of a NATO-led coalition to oust Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya — both of which Mr. Trump has criticized.

Other presidential candidates have used a running mate to bolster their appeal on foreign policy. In 1980, Ronald Reagan chose George Bush, whose résumé included serving as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the top American diplomat in China. In 2000, George W. Bush picked Dick Cheney, an experienced Washington hand and former secretary of defense.

Eight years ago, as she competed against Barack Obama in the Democratic primary, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign seized on national security to portray Mr. Obama as an inexperienced and dangerous choice. It ran one of the starkest ads of that cycle, in which a phone rings at the White House at 3 a.m. as the narrator asks, “Who do you want answering the phone?” Mrs. Clinton, wearing glasses, picked up the receiver.

“After the 3 a.m. ad, she was seen as the best commander in chief and surged with men,” said Mark Penn, the chief strategist on her 2008 campaign.

This time, Mrs. Clinton has four years of experience as secretary of state to draw on. Last month, in one of her strongest attacks yet, she ridiculed Mr. Trump’s foreign policy positions, mocking his suggestion that the United States reconsider its ties to NATO.

No potential candidate understands NATO better than Mr. Stavridis, who worked closely with Mrs. Clinton when she was secretary of state and whose experience includes overseeing operations in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, the Balkans, and along the shores of Africa. On Monday night, Mrs. Clinton called Mr. Stavridis, a West Palm Beach, Fla., native who is now dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University, “exceptional.”

Asked about the vice-presidential speculation, Mr. Stavridis said in an email, “Stavridis is too long for a bumper sticker and too hard to pronounce — but clearly, global security is a fundamental concern for our nation.”

But advisers say choosing a running mate who has never held elective office would be an unnecessary risk that Mrs. Clinton, a cautious candidate by nature, is unlikely to take.

She is still considering several candidates who are considered safer choices, including Mr. Kaine; Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a Pittsburgh-born former governor of Iowa; and Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez have virtually no national security experience, but a black or Latino vice-presidential candidate could bring excitement to a campaign that has lacked it. Mrs. Clinton, whose advisers are still studying the findings of multiple focus groups, has not ruled Mr. Booker or Mr. Perez out, one of the people involved in the process said.

Mrs. Clinton met on Friday at her Washington home with several potential candidates, including Julián Castro, the housing secretary; Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; and Gov. John W. Hickenlooper of Colorado. She emphasized the need to have a running mate with national security experience, the people involved with the process said.

Mr. Vilsack has limited national security experience, but emerged as a vocal critic of the Iraq war during the Bush administration. Mr. Brown — known mostly for his fiery stances against global trade deals, which could help Mrs. Clinton in Rust Belt states — sits on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

Asked whether Mr. Kaine, among the top candidates under consideration, was a boring choice, Mrs. Clinton told Mr. Rose, “I love that about him.”