john mcCain; veepstakes

One of the first rules of politics is not to mess with what works. Early in the campaign the McCain team was putzing around with press-friendly events on poverty, trade, and global warming. And making up no ground on Obama.

Then the lightbulb went off that maybe they might want to get a few conservative votes. Suddenly, the focus went on Obama's lefty agenda and his tissue thin resume.  Now we are in a horserace.

Why in Wicca's name would one want to disrupt this?

The rumor out there is that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) might be Mac's pick.

Here's Larry Kudlow

Sources tell me that the two finalists for Mac’s veep are Tim Pawlenty and Kay Bailey Hutchison. Obviously, with the Hillary women’s revolt on the floor of the DNC and outside, McCain has a great opportunity if he nominates a woman

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzM5ZmU0YjJhMTUzNjhhNjIwMjU2ZWM3YmRhY2M1MDA=

I've already said this was one of Mac's "bad picks "

2.  Kay Bailey Hutchison  If we want a pro-choice candidate, a non Texan might have a better shot of trying to end up in the net vote dept. Much of America says "No New Texans"

http://www.thenextright.com/ironman/macs-bad-picks

Evidently the theory herein is that making a woman the running mate will suddenly rope in all the disgruntled female Hillary supporters. There's a simple reason it won't work.

They aren't from Texas.

"Texas" now has an image among moderates and weakly aligned Democrats inseparable from "Bush".  Putting a Texan on the ticket this year allows the Democrats to change the subject from one they are drowning on ---Is Obama qualified?--to one that will drown us---does America want four more years of a Bush-style presidency?

Pro-choice women unsure of voting Obama will automatically equate their poor opinion of Bush with Hutchison,

This is why Hutchison is a worse pick than Ridge or Lieberman . Both could arguably move numbers in a swing state (I believe Lieberman created the 2000 chad fest by juicing Gore's numbers in Broward and PB Counties)   If TX is remotely competitive the election will be called before sundown.

As we've seen in recent years, mastering the art of getting  big numbers in TX doesn't prove much about appealing to voters in the other 49 states.  There simply isn't a blue collar white Catholic bloc in TX and the yuppie female independents are a far smaller piece of the electorate than places like MI and PA.

Besides, Hutchison's abortion record isn't a whole lot different than Ridge's (it is better than Lieberman's) so why won;t the same folks blackballing Ridge go ballistic over her pick?

I recall she is a bit of a squish on immigration as well, so we get Michelle Malkin and co. lobbing rocks at the pick.

A pick that alienates conseratives for sure with a very speculative chance of gaining offsetting moderate votes-----that will remind people of the President they can't wait to see leave office?

Doesn't compute for me