Obama begins V-P vetting process

Obama has not asserted the nomination is his, for fear of offending supporters of his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who lags Obama among delegates to the party’s nominating convention but shows no signs of conceding the race. Still, his recent campaign stops and administrative moves show that his central focus is the November election.

The campaign has tapped James A. Johnson, an Obama fundraiser, to oversee the screening of potential vice presidential candidates, according to campaign aides.

Johnson, vice chairman of the merchant bank and private equity fund Perseus, worked as a top aide to former Vice President Walter Mondale. He helped Mondale vet potential running mates in his unsuccessful 1984 campaign and played a similar role for Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee.

With only three more primary contests remaining — in Puerto Rico on June 1 and South Dakota and Montana on June 3 — Obama is also moving to solidify his position in states that will be battlegrounds in November.

Obama does not want to appear to be pushing Clinton from the stage, so he can remain well-positioned to win the votes of her supporters in the general election.

Obama aides are keeping the hunt for a running mate a closely guarded effort. Obama has not shared his thinking on how much weight he will give to calls from some Democrats to make Clinton the vice presidential nominee.

Other potential choices include Richardson and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. Both ran against Obama for the nomination but later dropped out and endorsed him.

Others who may be on Obama’s list include Gov Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and three senators: Joseph R. Biden of Delaware, who also ran for president this year; Claire McCaskill of Missouri; and Jim Webb of Virginia.

At a visit to a Boca Raton synagogue Thursday, Obama got a question, posed a bit indirectly, about whether he would name Clinton as his vice president.

“Will you be willing to consider everyone a possible running mate, even if his or...