The next dilemma is thus: While McCain says he hasn’t begun thinking about this, its damn well time that should start, so who should this presumptive (R) nominee pick as his Veep?
Or, more importantly: Who is he going to have to choose to make you choke back the bile and actually vote for him?
Talk about staying home and cleaning yer guns on Tuesday, November 7th all day long, but if you were truly serious, you’d have them sight-checked cleaned by Sunday the 5th. Real life will show up sooner than we all think and I’m not one to care for an Obama or HRC in the Oval Office and would like to have a reason to actually mark my choice on a ballot “For” someone to go there for once in my life.
Stephen Green, the Vodkapundit said it perfectly
McCain’s pick for vice president might be the most important decision any nominee has ever made.
Also, McCain is not a young man and the voters will begin to notice it soon if this fact has escaped them so far. You seat McCain next to Obama and he is going to look ancient. Hell, I wouldn’t put it past the leftists to photoshop a white suit and hat onto McCain to make him look southern gentry-like in the hopes to sway ubran centrists into their pit of liberal guilt.
My first choice, of course, would be for Fred Thompson. He is also the only person in the crop of (R) Presidential candidates I’d accept. Not only do I like his policies and think that he may be able to keep McCain in line, but he could win the must have Southern states. He was splitting the religious votes with Huckabee and I think they’d side with him over Obama down there. He and McCain have been pals for years and I think that Fred has to be high on his list. Will Fred accept? I couldn’t tell you, though Fred did endorse McCain last week.
Another person I like is Steve Forbes. McCain opened up a sucking chest wound during one of the recent debates when he said he didn’t know much about the economy. Forbes doesn’t have that problem. While it may be a CNN poll, a CNN poll over the weekend showed that the top concern of most registered R’s is the economy. He also has the “Washington Outsider” cred that a lot of independent voters are seemingly looking for. Plus, he’s got the Flat Tax plan and a being Veep he’ll have a seat in the Legislative Branch to pass it around.
I was reminded of Forbes by Pat Toomey, President of the Club for Growth, writing in the WSJ. Toomey has a few other candidates for the Veep spot, though other than DeMint (R-SC), I don’t know that much about any of them, so none excited me.
However, as Michael Graham points out, the media is playing full-on Identity Politics this election season, even to the minor detriment of the Dems. When we get a non-caucasian or a woman standing next to McCain on the debate stage, they’re gonna play this all to hell. Put two white men on the (R) ticket and they could use it to beat anyone who votes for them over the head with. There will be no winning that game by ignoring it.
So, The Anchoress has put five-term New Mexico Representative Heather Wilson’s name in the hat.
A distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1982 and the first Air Force Academy graduate to serve in Congress, Heather was a Rhodes Scholar and earned her masters and doctoral degrees in international relations from Oxford University in England.
As an Air Force officer she worked with our NATO allies and in the United Kingdom. Then in 1989, she became Director for European Defense Policy and Arms Control on the National Security Council staff at the White House.
You can read the rest at the above link.
Another woman possibly in the hunt would be Alaska’s Governor, Sarah Palin. Any woman who hunts and eats Caribou is OK with me.
In the double minority points column, Condoleeza Rice’s name has been brought up repeatedly. Most recent being the Real Clear Politics’ Write-In Veepstakes, where she took a commanding First Place finish. While I’d like it, the media would replay the taken out of context “Who could have expected terrorists to attack with commercial aircraft” line over and over until people were hearing it in their sleep.
Also in the Veepstakes, J.C. Watts and Michael Steel’s names came in rather highly (2nd and 4th respectively), but I don’t see any significant amount of political capital with either of these two, though it shouldn’t count them out of the running completely. Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal tied with Fred in 6th place of the poll (along with Romney and Charlie Crist), but I believe that state needs Jindal to scrub out the corruption too badly to consider yanking him into national office.
I’m open to any other suggestions y’all might have. Drop them in the comments.
But just take this into account: Local leftists, riding high on Obama’s crushing of Hillary in the WA-D caucuses have begun wondering “Where will Republicans flee to?”, presumably after the (D) candidate wins. I’ve seen this posed at the DUMB and other leftist sites in recent weeks, and while they all claim this is just them being cheeky, I wouldn’t put it past them to get oddly dangerous.
Like I said at the beginning, clean yer guns, but you should also make an honest attempt at not having to use them.
Nice compendium of Veep choices for the formerly-GOP.
Your last paragraph, “Like I said at the beginning, clean yer guns, but you should also make an honest attempt at not having to use them”, offers US a chance to connect the dots.
What difference does it make if the Rs vote for McLame in droves, and lose? Oh, well, we can slap each other on the back like we did two years ago and say, “we fought the good fight”. The end result though, will be the same, a Socialist in the White House with an agenda and the Congress to help him/her carry it out.
So, what offers us the best chance of NOT having to open that can on a runaway Socialist empire-builder a few years down the line?
A strong GOP contingent in a Congress that is NOT veto-proof.
It’s high time that we got some ‘nads in the GOP. Let’s get a real wartime consiglieri in there as Chair of the RNC who will re-direct most of the incoming dollars to Congressional races. The (D)ummy party won’t be able to match that, and there should be a pickup of seats for the Rs as a result. Let the Presidential race go, it’s unwinnable with this time, because the kiddies are energized like they’ve never been before.
Just what could HRC or Obama do to us in four years if they had a solid obstructionist Congress to work with?
Nothing, zippo, nada, rien. No damage. Then, we get our eggs in one basket for 2012, get behind an actual conservative early (like Condi), get a steamroller going like HRC almost did, and take back the White House.
This idea offers the least possibility of damage to the culture and Constitution.
Bad damage to our Constitutional way of life could come from either the President or the Congress, and with McLame in there, THAT DOESN’T CHANGE.
Dots connected, Teach, may I have a hall pass now?
To me, Jindal is like that highly touted prospect that you leave at AAA so he can get more ABs or innings pitched.
If he’s successful at getting Louisiana even halfway turned around, he would be damn tough to beat for President a bit down the road.
Funny this item was posted today, ’cause we were kicking this topic around at work this morning. And as much fun as it is to speculate who McCain might pick, it’s equally fun to speculate who Obama or Hillary might pick, too. And a bit scary. How would Hillary balance out her shrillness and lack of empathy? How would Obama balance his lack of experience and uber-leftiness?
My Gov – Sarah Palin- is popular right now but has advanced some decidedly non-conservative (http://www.abcmoney.co.uk/news/032007143847.htm) approaches to raising revenue. Portions of ACES were retroactive which hasn’t made many friends with the industry which supplies the state 80+ percent of its revenue. While I like the woman, and her family (son joined the army and the First Dude is running in the Iron Dog this week) I don’t think that she is a national caliber leader.
The trick there, Rivrdog, is actually getting the conservative base out to vote. I have lived here in NH for the past 25 years or so, and I have pondered long and hard about what happened to the State I love. I came to the conclusion that NH is loaded with good conservatives like me, but there is no organization, no cohesion, and a lot of frustraton. The local Republican party organizatons have been taken over by the blue dog establishment Republicans who toe the line with the National party who does nothing for them; no money, no support, no success. The State legislature has gone blue, our Natiional representatives the same, save for our Senators. I am in contact with several individuals who represent the real Republican grass roots in my area to put together a coalition to take back our City committee in time to support some real candidates for State offices. There are many things to do, but it starts at the State level. I would encourage any good conservatives to do the same.
Running mates for McCommie? Woman or minority, not likely. As a radio show host in my area said, you can’t out Obama Obama, it will never happen. Perhaps a running mate who can deliver votes for him in difficult States is more likely; McCain has a lot of obstacles to overcome, not the least of which is going to be the MSM turning on him like a rabid dog as soon as he secures the nomination. Best for the party? The best ideological running mate? Probably Romney, perhaps Thompson, but honestly, I don’t believe Fred would be the best choice, much as I like him. An ideological choice would be the presumptive candidate for the 2012 run, and Fred did not acquite himself well with anyone as a strong viable candidate, for whatever reason.
In any event, it is going to be a *very* interesting four years.
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