Republicans would be wise to ignore the advice of Dick Morris, who sometimes appears to be a sleeper agent for the opposition. When he’s wrong about something — such as the Condi-Hillary matchup he wrote a book about — he is SPECTACULARLY wrong. He tries to make the case against Mitt Romney as a VP choice, and this part makes some degree of sense to me. But the alternatives he presents are completely unacceptable to conservatives — including Mike Huckabee. Morris thinks that he understands what conservatives want, when in fact he is absolutely clueless about that. He continues to hype Colin Powell, Condi Rice, and Joe Lieberman as VP choices, presumably because this demonstrates McCain’s bipartisanship or something. This would only serve to remind conservatives of something we see as a McCain weakness. Yeah…that’s a winner of an idea.
All of these options would be more of a mistake than choosing Mitt Romney. He says that choosing Powell or Rice would give the choice a “WOW” factor. “WOW” factors are just as overrated as most of Morris’ advice. If McCain really cares about what conservatives want (and there isn’t much indication that he does), then he needs to look outside of Morris’ preferred circle of VP options, and disregard most of the media’s shortlist as well.
Who’s my pick? If we rule out Palin and Jindal (and we have to, since they aren’t credible as the next in line to the Presidency just yet), I have to echo the suggestion of some other conservative blogs and throw former Congresscritter and FNC guest host John Kasich into the mix. If we must pick someone from Ohio, why not someone most conservatives already know from TV? He’s a solid fiscal conservative and an effective defender of our worldview, and I would love to see him mix it up with Obama’s VP pick. That debate would be very watchable. Picking a relative unknown like Rob Portman doesn’t deliver Ohio for McCain. Not that picking Kasich would necessarily accomplish that, but it certainly would have more of Morris’ famed “WOW” factor for conservatives than a Portman pick would.
I’m pessimistic about McCain’s inclination to pick someone who thrills conservatives, but I can settle for his choice — as long as he ignores Dick Morris’ picks and doesn’t pick his BFF Lindsey Graham. Nobody really knows what McCain will do with his VP pick, so the best approach right now is to ignore most of the speculation, and wait to see what happens.
I’ve long suspected Morris to be a sub-plant too. I honestly don’t think he makes much sense. And why Republicans would believe him is beyond me. Morris’ real motivation is to get back at the Clinton’s and not necessarily the Democratic Party. Anyways, I think politically speaking McSame’s best choice is Big Love. Lieberman would be like committing suicide since he still caucuses with the Democrats, and not to mention he’s actually very liberal. Aside from his views on Iraq and forever war, Lieberman is the most liberal person in the senate. Jindal would probably be the worst pick since I don’t see too many Republicans wanting to vote for him. But Kasich would be good too. I guess I see it between Romney and a no-name.
Well, I really don’t have much to offer here so I’ll catch ya later.
It may surprise you to know that I’m not totally sold on a Romney pick this time around. (*Or it might not, if you have read my previous posts on the subject.) Like I said, Jindal and Palin aren’t really credible VP choices, when you take political experience into account. I’m curious to know why you think Jindal wouldn’t get a lot of Republican votes. I hope you don’t buy into the concept that we would reject him because he’s not one of Dick Morris’ “boring white guys”. He’s not ready for it yet, and Louisiana needs him. Those are my reasons.
But back to Romney —
In some ways, Romney would be McCain’s best choice. But the distrust of Romney is still there with some social conservatives and many others who see him as a political opportunist. There hasn’t been enough time to address the trust gap between the socons and Mitt Romney. Some of them, as recently as a few months ago, mounted a campaign opposing Mitt for VP. Some of those folks supporting that campaign were even kind enough to post here explaining their position on this. Michigan Dems are running attack ads against Romney, and you can expect more of that from the Democrats if McCain picks him.
Romney would make an excellent President. He would make an excellent VP. Just not now. He has some conservative bona fides to build and a trust gap to bridge before he can be the candidate of choice in ’12.
Sorry my post wasn’t exciting enough to inspire fiery opposition. 😉
Yeah I understand your hesitation with Romney. I think he is probably the person with the most experience for the job the GOP has right now. He’s clean as far as scandals go and aside from his monumental flip flops, which are forgiven with time, there isn’t much not to like about the guy. I don’t care for his religion too much and I think if he were a Democrat his religion would be much more of an issue, however. I’m not sure where else for McCain to turn if he doesn’t pick Romney.
Sorry to say but I just don’t see Republicans picking Jindal mostly because of race. He’s definitely socially conservative enough but sometimes socons are the least tolerant as well. Does the GOP even have a minority candidate on any ticket in the entire country? They might, I really don’t know but it wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t.
I think Romney is a solid pick for McCain but I also think it might make the ticket look too moderate/left of center for the GOP. It will definitely be interesting to see what happens.
Wow…I think we are agreeing almost totally!!
Referring to Romney as ‘Big Love’ is about as mature as referring to Obama as ‘Big Ears’.
Clearly, Romney is the best choice for McCain.
Although Kasich is an interesting suggestion.
Who ever said I was mature? It’s about as mature as calling Obama a magic negro I suppose. Big Love is one of the nicer things to say about the Mormon acceptance of multiple wives.
… which Romney does not subscribe to.
It would be hard for him to denounce polygamy since he’s a product of it. That would be like asking Obama to denounce aspects of his church that doesn’t jive well with the mainstream, and I know the right wing would never do that.
Romney’s entire family is built around polygamy. If he doesn’t subscribe to it, he’s throwing his entire family under the bus.
Do some research, not all Mormons are polygamists.
Ah Chris… always looking to excuse Obama’s association with Rev Wright.
Keep tryin’.
Once again, Jaz the king of making stuff up has credited me with something I never said. Please, just read what I write and not what your inner Rush Limbaugh is telling you. Where did I say all mormons are polygamists? I said it would be hard for Romney to distance himself from it since he is a product of it. And then I link to a CBS story outlining the history of polygamy in is family.
It is true, not all mormons are polygamists. But the mormon church did openly embrace polygamy. And many mormon churches still very much do. And, Mitt Romney is as much a product of polygamy as anyone could be. If you applied your rule that someone’s spiritual guidance (polygamy) cannot be separated then Romney is in deep trouble. But lucky for Big Love, you get to make up the rules as you go along and apply them sporadically and chaotically.