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An out of the box veep choice for Mac

Submitted by Ironman on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 05:56
in

 

The current preoccupation among political junkies is trying to determine who will be McCain's Vice Presidential pick, and perhaps more importantly, who should be. Hence the floating of such non-household names at sites like RedState like RI Governor Don Carcieri or Congressman Mike Pence.   
 
Thinking things through. John McCain needs to make a VP pick that accomplishes a few things:
 
a) Passes the test of sufficient experience to credibly serve as President
b) Distances himself from failures of the Bush Administration
 
a third consideration is also the nominee preferably:
 
c) Does not have a record that would require fence mending with conservatives
 
As a result, such usual suspects as Lieberman, Ridge and Rice have one or more deficiency on this list; while newbies like Jindal and Palin fail the first test.
 
I also think despite the "rules" of "Baseball Crank" http://baseballcrank.com/archives2/2008/05/politics_the_mc_1.php     there is a huge desire for a nonpolitician in the electorate--not just a non DC politician---but a desire for someone who has never stood for office.  Such a person might enhance McCain's image as being over the petty partisanship which we can be assured the Obamatons will descend to, and attract many of the "swamp yankee" independents who are of conservative temperament but think the current edition of Republicans have flopped..
 
Thinking along these lines I had earlier thought Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard,  would work . But the more I think about it, there is someone who could neutralize much of Obama's alleged "post-racial" positive qualities and also run rings around Obama's credentials to serve as commander-in-chief.
 
He has no known positions irritating to conservative activists and clearly breaks from one of Bush's most notorious failures. And he strongly reinforces the national security theme of Mac's campaign.
 
This is waaaay out of the box, but this would also be the sort of surprise pick that would capture the public's interest.
 
Why not recently retired General Russel Honore?
 

 

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Comments

Really?

Submitted by Vote4Joe on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 09:52.

McCain already has Obama dead-to-rights on national security...why waste a VP pick reinforcing that?  Also, Bush carried LA by nearly 15% in 2004...not exactly a swing state.

Geography isn't the point

Submitted by Ironman on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 18:23.

The point here is to counterprogram Obama's appeal to nonpartisan voters by reinforcing Mac's  image as not being a traditional Republican

Obama is looking more and more like a traditional politician by the week. And he will certainly pick a career pol as his running mate.

The candidate who gets the furthest away from the Beltway wins in November. I'm all ears as to how to do this better than this idea.  

 

How about a Governor?

Submitted by Vote4Joe on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 19:11.

It's really not that hard to "get outside the Beltway" with a VP pick.  There's a plethora of qualified Republican Governors who can easily escape the insider label such as Pawlenty, Crist, Jindal, Palin, or Sanford.  I am not going to highlight the benefits and problems of each of those candidates, but on the whole they offer a lot more than General Honore, while still appearing to be "outside the Beltway."

They are still elected officials

Submitted by Ironman on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 21:43.

Usually that is a big plus, but no so much this year. And I think a retired 4-star general has more managerial (and foreign policy) experience than a recently elected small state governor like Jindal or Palin

Pawlenty, Sanford and Crist have all won mutliple statewide elections, but while they are the usual VP suspects, be aware the DNC has no doubt oppo'ed the hell out of all them and there will be zero surprise if one of them is picked.

 

crazy VP picks

Submitted by ElHombre on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 23:16.

If we're throwing out super long shot VP picks I got one. Brian Williams.

Sure he almost certainly wouldn't take it, and I don't even know what his personal political beliefs are. But he seems vaguely coservitive to me, is a normal guy, a great speaker, smooth, trustworthy, seems extremely capable and not connected with Washington at all. What else could you want.

 

More realisticly, I like Romney or Pawlenty.

Not sure a "realistic pick" is going to work in this environment

Submitted by Ironman on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 23:38.

We may be past that already.

If we are going to go unconventional better to go full boat than to nominate a Bushie who has also never run for office (Rice); a governor who has won once statewide and held office less than a full term (Palin or Jindal); or someone who never held a chief executive post (Steele).

Just throwing a name out there

Submitted by Walt Gilbert on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 23:42.

How about Christopher Ilitch -- CEO of Ilitch Holdings in Detroit, owners of the Red Wings and the Tigers?  It appears he maxed out for Giuliani in this cycle.  Could very well deliver Michigan.  Young, executive business experience.  Not sure about his social conservative credentials, but from what I gather, it's a very pro-military family.

 

well at least you did not suggest Peter Karmanos

Submitted by Ironman on Wed, 05/28/2008 - 05:49.

the guy from Detroit who moved the Hartford Whalers to Raleigh...not that we have such a great shot here in CT.

Seriously, I had thought Tom Monaghan might work in this role ( he is a serious Catholic benefactor) but I was surprised to find the man is about 70