I predict VP Romney
Written by Sam on July 19th, 2008
On Friday, McCain had only warm words for his former foe. And Romney, the mega-millionaire former GOP governor of Massachusetts, was pledging to help McCain’s campaign financially – and in any other way.
At a Detroit fundraiser that included a number of former Romney donors, McCain praised Romney, a man he once ridiculed by suggesting that his answer to immigration was “to get out his small varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his lawn.”
“In case you’ve been missing it, Mitt has been doing such a great job lately on my behalf,” McCain told the donors. “I said only half in jest – he’s doing a better job for me than he did for himself.”
Romney is going to be the guy. I am almost certain of it.
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Yuck, but it might help McCain on the economy.
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My first pick would be John Kasich. He was Chairmen of the Budget Committee when the budget was balanced, he is young enough, and a great communicator. He is from the swing state of Ohio and relatively well known from being of Fox. He is also Catholic which would help McCain in several states.
I will be fine with Romney though if he is chosen and I think he will help the ticket.
On a side note, I can’t stand that Thune is being mentioned as a possible VP choice. Thune hasn’t accomplished anything except allowing a former client to snag billions in federal funding. That would make a great attack ad and counter act any claim McCain has on being above special interest politics. McCain needs a VP to get Republicans excited. Why would anyone get excited over Thune?
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I like Kasich too, but rumor is that he’s waiting to run for Ohio governor in 2010. Probably a good call on his part.
When McCain got the nom, I said this, and I’ll say it again until he picks someone else- if you want to win, the ONLY choice is Condi Rice. Considering the improving situation in Iraq, she’s even better positioned now than she was a few months ago. McCain/Rice = 300+ electoral votes and a kickass foreign policy.
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I am inclined to agree with you that Gov. Romney certainly seems well-positioned at this point to get the VP nod.
And Celtic, are you serious?!? Condi Rice?? Not only is she not interested in the post, but she’s an integral part of the Bush Administration, which would be a disastrous association for the McCain campaign.
“Kickass foreign policy?” Like completely bungling the momentum America had after Sept. 11 and the administration having terrible PR abilities throughout the GWOT? Where is Osama bin Laden? Where are all the “insurgents” and terrorists coming from? Iran? Pakistan? Any action done on those fronts? Doesn’t seem like it.
And what about the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, specifically Waziristan?
The foreign policy of the Bush administration had its successes, but on the whole can be seen as some victories along the way amidst plenty of blown opportunities and mismanagement.
Not to mention that politically, picking someone so close to President Bush would be political suicide.
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As long as Mitt will not be our next Pres. at this time, the only way, I for one will ever even consider voting for McCain is if he picks Romney as his running mate. McCain really needs Mitt bad.Our Country need Mitt bad. It would be the only way we ever will get our Beautiful America back.
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I agree with Langley. If “McBush” (as the left wing kooks are calling him) picks Bush’s NSA & Secretary of State, it’s an automatic Obama victory in a landslide.
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Predict all you want, but why not predict with some realism, meaning McCain’s gonna name Alaska Gov Sarah Palin as his Veep. It would now seem you can take that to the bank!
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As a conservative, I would welcome a Palin Vice Presidency.but I don’t see it happening. She doesn’t have the foreign policy repertoire or national stature, has a very short tenure in office in Alaska with more to accomplish (like getting Sean Parnell to replace Don Young in the House, and cleaning up the rest of the state GOP), and I don’t think McCain will pick a conservative, but rather a more moderate person like himself. This is why I never saw a Mark Sanford (SC Gov) pick as very likely. This is also why I don’t think Mitt Romney would be very surprising; conveniently he morphed into a conservative right in time for the GOP primaries and was formerly a very moderate Republican.
A week ago I would have placed my money on Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, because he would make sense on all sides of the issue. In the past week I’ve read that Pawlenty has said that to his knowledge he “isn’t being vetted,” which is surprising. Either he is, and doesn’t know about it because contact with him isn’t really necessary given his long personal association with McCain, or he is being facetious with his answer. Or, maybe he really isn’t in consideration at all and I’m (and the rest of the pundits out there) is completely wrong about him being a possibility.
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Whatever little respect I had for Flipper will be lost if he becomes St. Juan’s running mate. That he would actually become part of such a liberal administration just shows the man has no core beliefs and is willing to say and do anything to get elected to national office.
Romney’s opposition to amnesty for illegal aliens? Gone–there’s no way that a vice president would publicly oppose a president on what the president has said would be his first priority, getting amnesty for illegals. Romney’s late conversion to opposing campaign-finance reform? Don’t expect to see that pop up ever again in a McCain administration. And I can’t wait to see Romney forced to defend cap-and-trade. All that and more if Romney becomes vice president.
On the bright side, if Romney becomes VP, we’ll see him support so much of that RiNO McCain’s liberal agenda that Republicans will remember how unprincipled Romney is, and he’ll be radioactive the next time there’s a Republican primary election for president.
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Alan, I don’t think McCain ever said that his first priority would be getting amnesty for illegals. In fact, he has been saying for awhile now that he supports securing the border before any moves are made on comprehensive immigration reform.
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Jeez… calm down there Langley. I officially withdraw my Condi Rice for VP motion.
In response to your concerns though, I don’t think it’s fair to blame Condi, or even Bush, for some of the failures of the last 7 years. Yeah, the fact that Northern Pakistan can openly host terrorist happy hour concerns me greatly, but what are the options? Bomb a sovereign nuclear power? Destabilize Musharraf? Invade?
And while I’m concerned about Iran, we do appear to be working from within to destabilize their government, and their economy is tanking ever worse than ours’ right now. Our military options there are also incredibly limited. Let’s see how this plays out before making too many judgements on Condi.
Yeah, she isn’t likely to be picked, and yeah, you’re probably right that she’s too close to Bush. But right now I’m looking at a dramatically improved situation in Iraq that Rice was partially responsible for. I’m also looking at Obama’s electoral raison d’etre -dissatisfaction with Iraq- swirling down the bowl. In such an atmosphere, she at least merits consideration.
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Picking Mitt Romney would hurt Senator McCain’s chance of getting my vote.
Romney’s primary season performance demonstrated that he does not inspire the electorate. And, if he couldn’t inspire Republicans, you think he’s going to be attractive to swing Democrats and Independents? No.
Senator McCain needs a VP pick that will steal some of Senator Obama’s thunder. A pick that will get favorable notice by the media and bring over some demographic categories where he is currently weak.
I still need to learn more about her, but Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin seems to well fit this description.
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Sorry Celtic if I seemed to be hotheaded or anything, I was just surprised to see someone suggest Condi and then explained why it seemed so surprising for me to see it.
I agree that as SecState Rice doesn’t get all the blame for Bush admin. foreign policy mistakes, but her presence in the administration is a non-starter for McCain immediately. Then I just listed out the problems of the Bush foreign policy in response to you calling it “kickass.”
Again, sorry if I came off as brash.
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Ha ha, no worries. I was just being sarcastic. I forget sometimes that sarcasm doesn’t come through very well over a computer screen. Next time I’ll use emoticons
If not Condi, I too like Gov. Pawlenty, and am surprised that he’s not being vetted.
As for Romney, no one can tell me what exactly he brings to the ticket… aside from $$$$$ that is. This guy spent a bazillion dollars and the only big contest he won was Michigan, his native state. He spent most of the primary defending his conservative bonafides, and only became the great conservative hope when it seemed likely that McCain would win. Most conservatives don’t really trust him, and those that do will probably vote for McCain regardless of who the VP is. So what’s attraction?
If McCain doesn’t get his sh*t together and start blasting Obama’s flip-flops and inexperience pretty soon, he may be compelled to throw a long ball. If he does, we might be looking at Lieberman, Jindal, or Palin.
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He won’t pick Lieberman, I can tell you that. Lieberman is a non-starter for Democrats, because they hate him for being a “traitor.” He’s a big non-starter with conservatives, who McCain needs to shore up. As much as a “unity” ticket of Democrat/Republican sounds like it may be unbeatable, McCain/Lieberman would not have the widespread “unity” appeal because of how both men are viewed by their parties.
I think it’s pretty safe to say that Lieberman will have a post in a McCain administration, though.
Pawlenty is a good Republican considering where he comes from, Minnesota. He’s not the best conservative, but as I said, better than nothing in his home state. As far as I know he doesn’t have high unfavorable ratings (and likely wouldn’t get them), is popular in Minnesota (a blue state), is a somewhat reliable conservative on some issues (you can look to the Club for Growth for more on that, and his deviations from fiscal conservatism), and has that blue-collar folksy “likeability” quality to him that is always attractive in a politician. He’s a midwesterner, blue-state, blue-collar Republican who has executive experience (no one could question whether he could handle the Presidency if needed) and doesn’t seem to really tick any constituency off too badly (save for some conservatives).
As I said, I’d rather see someone like Mark Sanford, who could hopefully steer a McCain Presidency to the right (along with Fred Thompson being the gatekeeper for judicial nominees), but from a non-biased analytic viewpoint, my money would be on Pawlenty. I am very surprised he’s not being vetted (or at least that’s what he’s saying). I think he would come across with your typical American voter much more easily than gazillionare I’ll-believe-’what-you-want-me-to Mitt Romney.
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Chris: Wrong. Amnesty is McCain’s number-one priority.
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/193154.php
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11418.html
http://polipundit.com/index.php?p=19962
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Choosing Romney solidifies us as the “Old White Man Party”. I do believe in finding the right person for the job, but image is part of the equation today.
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I’ve been thinking Romney is McCain’s best bet for awhile now. I think I’ve posted my reasoning before.
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Michael says: “Choosing Romney solidifies us as the “Old White Man Party”. I do believe in finding the right person for the job, but image is part of the equation today.”
I know this sounds ridiculous, but the media focus on Romney’s church will effectively portray Romney as a minority on account of his faith.
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Yeah, and regardless of his faith, or his millions, or his perfectly coiffed hair, or whatever, he will still come across to Americans as a guy desperately trying to sell them on something, whether he truly believes in that something or not.
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Langley, I always kind of thought he suffered from car salesman syndrome, too. And that hair… I think he borrowed it from Middle-Aged Ken. But still, I think he’s McCain’s least-worst option.