McCain’s VP sweepstakes
February 8, 2008
Everyone seems to be assuming that Mike Huckabee is the presumptive nominee for Vice President, and that McCain needs to pick him to shore up his conservative base. It doesn’t seem so clear-cut to me, and putting Huckabee on the ticket is a pretty mixed bag:
1. Mike Huckabee isn’t ready for prime time. One can’t imagine him being president any more than one could imagine Dan Quayle or Jack Kemp being president. Advantage not-Huckabee.
2. Huckabee might — might — increase the Republican vote in must-win (for them) states like Missouri, Arkansas, and West Virginia, which may otherwise vote Democratic this cycle. Advantage Huckabee.
3. The rich people who run the GOP don’t really like Mike Huckabee. Then again, they don’t really like John McCain either, so their ability to control things this time around is much smaller than usual. Toss-up.
What McCain needs is someone who can reinforce his rapidly disappearing moderate credentials, and who shares his totally insane foreign policy views without sounding like Buck Turgidson. Fortunately for him, the man who best personifies these views on the national scene has already endorsed McCain — Joe Lieberman.
As an added bonus, he already has experience at running for vice-president, and at winning vice-presidential debates for the Republicans.
February 8th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
ewwwwww. I wish they would quit referring to him as a democrat. We can argue about him once being a democrat, but when a progressive candidate beat him in the primary he changed his affiliation to independent.
/nit picky, but that’s the way I am.
February 8th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I’m guessing maybe Sam Brownback or Tim Pawlenty would be good bets.
February 8th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Irish: I’ve normally seen Lieberman referred to as an “independent who caucuses with the Democrats”, or (his preferred label) an “Independent Democrat”. I was happy to see that the DNC stripped him of his super-delegate status.
Al: Pawlenty seems to be a popular choice on the Internets. I don’t know anything about him, other than that he’s from Minne-soh-ta. Brownback seems too closely identified with the “agents of intolerance” wing of evangelical conservatism, and I imagine his presence on the ticket would result in lots of “Republicans in disarray” press about McCain’s controversial history with said agents
February 9th, 2008 at 9:44 am
I don’t like Lieberman any better than the next guy, but don’t see his positions out of line with the Democrats. I would even go so far as to say most Democrats are closer to him than the other independent Senator.
I think McCain will go for Huckabee over Lieberman. They have actually become good friends through the primary process.
February 12th, 2008 at 11:38 am
While Lieberman might actually be a solid choice for McCain, he won’t be the choice simply because Lieberman as veep would only serve to reinforce the belief of many conservatives that John McCain can’t be trusted. Much more likely would by Tim Pawlenty or Charlie Crist. Both would provide regional balance as well as adding some executive experience to the ticket.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
McCain needs Mike Huckabee to get the social conservatives to get engerized about his campaign. It would be a b-i-g mistake to ask some unknown to be his VP - McCain better forget what the talking heads on TV are saying and listen to the average American. Mike Huckabee is the man!