McCain to Announce Running Mate Friday
Senator John McCain has decided on his running mate. According to insiders he will reveal his choice at a rally at Dayton, Ohio, this Friday at 11 A.M.
There are only three or four insiders who know who McCain has chosen. No one else is allowed to know and, sadly, these individuals keep their mouth shut. However, high ranking Republicans say the list has not changed; it one of the following three.
Either former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney, Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota or, and this would truly be the equivalent of a political earthquake, Senator Joe Lieberman.
It seems to me that Romney would be the best choice, although Pawlenty is certainly a great candidate as well. However, Romney can truly speak with authority on a variety of issues, especially on the economy. Additionally, with Romney running with him on one ticket, McCain will not have to worry about money nor about a possible conservative revolt. After all, during the primaries Romney was more popular among this important part of the Republican base than McCain.
Lieberman would be surprising, and historical. It would mean that the Democratic nominee for the Vice Presidency in 2008 would once again be the nominee for the VP office, but then for the other major party. That’s historical. Additionally, the United States has never had a Jewish Vice President (nor president of course). In this regard too, Lieberman could add something.
Furthermore, Lieberman would help McCain do better among women and moderate voters; it would also help him reach out to Democrats in a year in which Republicans are highly unpopular.
However, it is unlikely that McCain will choose Lieberman. If nothing else, then because Lieberman is pro-choice, whereas McCain has a staunchly pro-life record. Even if McCain would not mind working with someone who is pro-choice, social conservative would revolt. There is no way they are going to vote for someone who says he supports ‘the right to choose’ nationwide.
No, it is between Romney and Pawlenty. My guess is it will be the latter. The reason is this: Romney and McCain do not get along well personally, or so ‘people’ say. McCain is someone who takes politics quite personally, it seems, and is unlikely to work with someone he despises.
I think Pawlenty would be the better choice because he’s younger and people don’t have fixed opinions about him as they do with Romney. That’s not to say that Romney wouldn’t be a very good VP- I think he could serve an administration quite well (and would make a great cabinet member). But politically, I don’t think he helps the ticket much. He has negatives among certain parts of the base, doesn’t excite independents, and was never able to gain traction or momentum in the primaries despite spending tons of money. Plus, I think it’s normal for a candidate to want to pick someone with whom he has good chemistry, and that’s obviously not the case between McCain and Romney. In addition, picking him would give ammunition to the silly ‘house’ meme that Obama’s camp is fixated on, and they’d obviously use the primary campaign soundbites of Romney criticizing McCain just as McCain’s now using Hillary and Biden clips. Personally I’m still not convinced that this ’short list’ is accurate- way too much head faking going on, so that it’s just as likely that McCain’s going to pull a surprise out of his hat tomorrow.No way is it going to be Lieberman though.
I agree with Christine on Romney…in addition, the guy’s a blow-dried phoney who ripped into McCain during the primaries. Choosing him would be a mistake.
Ditto for Lieberman, a man who’d anger the conservative base way too much.
Pawlenty is probably the best choice, haven’t really heard anything negative about him.
I agree with both of you. Their best hope is to pick the person who offends the least. He will probably be a neutal pick, but at least he wont’ hurt the campaign. Lieberman has too many enemies on both sides of the aisle- he’d only do well with Independents. Romney has said too much against McCain to be a viable candidate , and also has flip-flopped quite a bit. He still doesn’t do well with certain evangelicals who don’t want a Mormon.(O/T which may have been why Obama didn’t pick Clinton as well)
Last I checked, Clinton was a Methodist, not a Mormon.
While admittedly not a conservative myself, I find I have to disagree with you. I think McCain would be best served by Romney. Romney has a good reputation on economic issues (I haven’t looked into it to see if it’s well earned, but he has it) and has the uncanny ability to insult you and the past 5 generations of your family while still holding that creepy little smile. He’s the ideal attack dog, and it’s clear that McCain can’t win through his positives, only by tearing Obama down. Disadvantages might be him being a Mormon (though I suspect Evangelicals would come home to roost, with the SC being in the balance) and the image it gives of two multimillionaires running against Obama and the poorest guy in the Senate.
That’s only the strategic consideration, as far as who would make the best VP I’m afraid I don’t know, though Lieberman might be the best in that sense. But Lieberman is a pipe dream. David Axelrod may be day dreaming about it, but that’s about it.
If it is Pawlenty, I might be more insufferable than usual pointing out that I predicted it months ago.
Not much more insufferable…
I bet few of us on this blog will change our votes based on the VP choice (either Sen. Obama’s or McCain’s). If that’s so, and if the hope is that the choice will influence the "undecided" then our opinions really aren’t that important, are they.
I think Romney is the best choice. I like the way he’s articulate. He may be a Mormon, but he strikes me as honest. Mormons are known to be honest business men. I don’t know if you can say that about a lot of Evangelical Preachers. Nevertheless, he handles himself well under pressure. Better than McCain for that matter. He is un affraid of the opposition and certainly proved himself as a successful Governor and business leader.
so didn’t both Clintons in regards to Obama. Yet now listen to the gushing of the - you shouldn’t have believed us during the primaries - we was only jokin.
Romney helps with the GOP base for sure - but I doubt he’d deliver Massachusetts, but Pawlenty would probably bring Minnesota over away from the dark side.
Claudia–That was poorly written and edited on my part. The part about Obama picking Hillary was supposed to come after the part where I said that Romney had said too much about McCain. Its difficult to pick a rival whose torn you to shreds in the press– gives the other side too much ammunition.
Claudia- I agree with you about the 2 millionaires running together– it looks bad to middle-class voters who are struggling to pay monthly bills. Pawlenty came from a blue-collar family and so may be more appealing. Also he doesn’t have the flip-flopping problem on issues that Romney has.
Honestly, I also think McCain has some personal animosity left over for Romney- who really went after him 6 months ago.
Chris- I would have agreed with you 8 years ago, but after Bush/Cheney, I’ve realized the VP pick is VERY important.
"Chris- I would have agreed with you 8 years ago, but after Bush/Cheney, I’ve realized the VP pick is VERY important."
That’s hindsight. We really don’t know what the Veep will be like. To follow that logic the Dems should be worried about Joe Biden.