BOB MENENDEZ

Barack Obama campaigns for Bob Menendez in the 2006 U.S. Senate race: Getty Images Photo
During the primary season, Sen. Bob Menendez’s name circulated as a possible vice presidential pick for Sen. Hillary Clinton.

With Clinton now out of the race and Menendez doing his best jockeying on her behalf to get her on the ticket as Barack Obama’s running mate, the New Jersey senator fielded a question Thursday regarding his filling the role himself as backup to the party’s leading man.

Is he interested? Is he on any Obama short list or has anyone from the campaign approached him?

On the flight to Puerto Rico, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) turned to former President Bill Clinton and told him one of the reasons his wife was losing was because the campaign too often allowed Sen. Barack Obama to frame the issues.

When Clinton ran in the 1990s, he stayed on message - most famously with his "it’s the economy, stupid" rundown of the first President Bush. He won, Menendez observed, because Clinton forced his opponent to respond to the issues on his terms.

A flummoxed Bush was left marveling at supermarket product scanning devices while Clinton told voters, "I feel your pain."

Sixteen years later, his wife didn’t capture the issues and present them aggressively enough, in Menendez’s view, and she suffered the consequences.

Now, as he shifts gears from Clinton to Obama, Menendez is on the offensive, trying to frame the immigration and ethics debates against Sen. John McCain, a day before the presumptive Republican presidential nominee lands in New Jersey for a Burlington County campaign rally.

U.S. Sen. FRank Lautenberg (D-NJ) exults with Gov. Jon Corzine and Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex). 

NEWARK - The Democratic Party allies of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg stood with their nominee tonight in the Gateway Hilton shortly after challenger U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) conceded in Cherry Hill.

After thanking his family, supporters and his defeated challenger for the congressman's offer of friendship, Lautenberg - who won by a margin of 61-34% - came out swinging in front of an animated crowd.

Hard economic times. The War in Iraq.