By John Tabin on 3.5.08 @ 2:46AM
Who will he pick for vice president?
With last night's victories, John McCain crossed the
1191-delegate line, winning the nomination. Now he has the luxury
of standing back, letting Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama beat
each other up and raising money for the Fall race.
And what about that running mate? The question for McCain is
what function his pick should serve. McCain certainly doesn't need
to ballast his ticket with age and gravitas, as George W. Bush did
when he selected Dick Cheney. McCain will be 72 when the next
president takes the oath of office, and might want to go with a
relatively young running mate who can carry the torch into the 2016
election. That would rule out Fred Thompson, who will be 66 on
inauguration day.
Since McCain will be running against a Democratic candidate who
is either black or female, some have suggested he practice a bit of
tokenism in his selection. Colin Powell is too old (70) and too
unpopular with conservatives. Condoleezza Rice seems uninterested
in electoral politics, and in any case would muddy McCain's foreign
policy message, which has emphasized his track record of
criticizing the Bush administration from the right on the
management of the Iraq occupation. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is 64,
which may be too old.
Michael Steele, former lieutenant governor of Maryland, would be
high on the shortlist if he'd won his 2004 Senate race, but he
didn't. Other names in this category that get tossed around include
congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, former congressman J.C. Watts, and
Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin.
Some candidates aim for a geographically balanced ticket, as
Georgian Jimmy Carter did when he selected Minnesotan Walter
Mondale as his running mate. With that in mind, some have suggested
McCain needs a Southerner. Mike Huckabee, who dropped out of the
race and endorsed McCain last night, is often discussed as a
possibility.
But Huckabee is thin-skinned and often shortsighted. He picked
an unnecessary fight with economic conservatives by labeling the
Club for Growth the "Club for Greed" in response to their criticism
of his record on taxes. McCain has enough problems as it is
reassuring conservatives that he's an acceptable candidate.
Less abrasive southern Governors Sonny Perdue of Georgia, Haley
Barbour of Mississippi, and especially Mark Sanford of South
Carolina might be able to satisfy southerners and social
conservatives without angering other factions of the party.
There's another way of approaching the geography question, of
course. McCain might want a running mate who gives him a leg up in
the November by shoring up a swing state.
Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida is often mentioned as a
possibility and he clearly wants the job -- though there are some good arguments against giving it to him.
Tim Pawlenty, the Minnesota governor who is McCain's campaign
co-chair, seems a much more likely choice, particularly since he
endorsed McCain in January 2007 and stuck with him even when his
campaign seemed dead. Crist only endorsed McCain shortly before the
Florida primary, by which time it was clear that McCain had
momentum coming out of South Carolina.
Vice-presidential nominees don't always provide balance to the
ticket; sometimes they mirror the ideology and biography of the
nominee. The idea is to harden the narrative of the candidacy
rather than soften it. That's what Bill Clinton was up to when he
selected Al Gore, a fellow southerner.
McCain might follow this logic and select his friend Rudy
Giuliani. It would dismay social conservatives, who are already
slightly skittish about McCain, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't
do it if he decides he wants to.
Of course there's no rush. John Kerry clinched the Democratic
nomination in March of 2004 and didn't select John Edwards as his
running mate until July. But if McCain wants to send a message that
the GOP is united and ready to fight even as the Democrats remain
mired in a divisive scramble for superdelegates, an early
vice-presidential nominee announcement would be a good way to do
it.
topics:
Taxes, John McCain, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Iraq, Alaska
