Confederate Yankee: Thompson for VP
Posted on February 8th, 2008 by davidwattsjr
Confederate Yankee points out what I’ve been thinking… that Thompson will be the VP of choice for madman McCain. The observations come from Scott Ott at TownHall.com and Vodkapundit.
But Varifrank says its a McCain/Huckabee ticket. I believe that’s dead wrong. Huckabee does nothing for McCain.
On the other hand, Thompson brings the following:
- appearance of a mainstream conservative
- a nationally recognized “brand”
- and the trust that exists between these two men -as fellow senators.
Mark it down. McCain/Thompson
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Picking a VP is about balancing the ticket with what you are missing. McCain has the cranky old senator angle tied down, so Thompson really doesnt help him much, in fact it hurts ( I can just see the Dems calling them the “The Sunshine Boys”). Thompson, despite what we all anticipated would be the case, didnt end up with that good of a showing at the polls. His best benefit ito McCain is that he is from the south and that he is conservative, but when the president-to-be is a 71 year old ex-pow, the number 2 man had better be the picture of health and vibrancy. Dead presidents we know how to handle, but dead presidents, followed quickly by dead vice-presidents will lead us to President Pelosi real fast.
Huckabee, despite having zero budget, seems to have quite a following, hes young and hes not a Senator, so to me, he seems more likely than you would guess on the first pass. Romney would also make a good candidate, but frankly ,Romney just didnt do all that well in convervative republican voters, McCain cant take a chance that number 2 is going to be a cypher to conservatives, he needs someone who is accepted at face value as a known conservative. Romney never managed to close the sale in that regard.
another example is that despite the fact that I liked him, Guiliani is almost certainly not the VP candidate. McCain has 9 months to get the conservatives to get behind the “no surrender” campanign, and Guiliani doesnt do anything to allay their fears that McCain is really a liberal. Attorney General Guiliani? Possible.
So what about Jeb Bush? No way, weve seen the last of the name Bush in politics for at least 10 years. Good guy, but thats how it goes.
I’d say you would look for a conservative govenor, on his last term who is young but largely unknown to the wider American public, Id look to the south. If it wasnt pandering to the obvious, Id say Michael Steele was also a good choice. If Bobby Jindal had atleast one term already under his belt, he too would be excellent. What McCain needs is a younger Cheney, someone vetted and a solid conservative who can take the reigns of government without skipping a beat. McCain has the middle, now its time to cement a lock on the right wing.
If I was an FBI profiler, I would say that the VP will be two things, from the south, and not from the Senate. beyond that, its anyones guess,