I thought Mark Sanford (South Carolina Gov.) sounded like a good choice who hit the right notes.
The downside, of course, is that we would have four to eight years of Cox jokes.
Are there no female voters who are anti-choice but still want to see more women in public office?
The ones who are anti-choice are already going to vote for McCain. A pro-life woman on the ticket does not pull any women who weren’t already on board – in other words, it won’t help him get any Hillary voters.
Just food for thought, but how about Condoleezza Rice?
As the article points out, she is a preacher’s daughter, one the most popular members of the Bush administration, and has a good personal story.
Also, if McCain/Rice wins, and McCain croaks midway through his term, Rice will be the first black and female president. Beating both Barack and Hillary to the punch.
The only reason not to pick her is if you are hoping to win by getting the racist vote. Condi on the ticket would prevent democratic racists from voting for the white ticket, since bought tickets will have a black candidate on them.
Otherwise, as far as attacking Obama goes, this is as good as your going to get.
Ain’t gonna happen:
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She has never held an elected office in her life.
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She’s a lesbian.
- Choosing her (as unlikely as it is) ties McCain irrevocably to Bush and his fumbling of the Iraq War.
Not only is she a lesbian she’s also pro-choice, and she wouldn’t exactly help McCain scrub the stink of Dubya off his suit. Rice has problems on both sides of the political spectrum. She’s too closely tied to Bush to appeal to the center left, and she’s too gay, black, female and pro-choice to appeal to the far right.
As opposed to how it is now?
Well, it doesn’t exactly cut the albatross off.
I’ve seen a lot of pundits saying that McCain needs to pick a solid social conservative (maybe Huckabee) to shore up his base. I disagree. I think his problem right now is keeping the independents. They haven’t followed along with him on his journey back to the right. I think his best shot would be to choose someone who appeals to the middle-left, not the right. I don’t know who that would be – maybe Powell, maybe Hagel, maybe even Rudy – but all his pandering to the right has hurt his credibility with the indies.
I think he has to be careful with just stunt-casting a woman or a minority, though. It would have to be a substantive choice, and not just a transparent marketing ploy.
How certain are you of #2? I’ve certainly heard the rumors to that effect, but I’m surprised at the matter-of-fact claim you make.
Ya know. Not every unmarried forty something professional is necessarily gay BG. Just for the record, neither Rice or Crist is openly gay, I’ve never seen any actual evidence that they were closeted homosexuals, and both have been romantically linked with people of the opposite gender.
Rice would take away the attacks on Mrs. Obama for being the mean black lady.
I have inside information on this. My father was career State Department (recently retired). Rice travels (and lives) with a long-term companion who is tacitly understood to be her spouse. It’s not publicized, but I hear from an impeccable inside source (my dad) that’s it’s accepted as a matter of course in the State Department and an open secret in Washington that Condi Rice has this longtime girlfriend named Randy.
So Bush’s most trusted aid is a black lesbian?
I actually just experienced a moment of respect for George W. Bush. :eek:
How about Jeb! Bush? He can help carry Florida and he appeals to Hispanic voters. In fact, I cannot think of any negatives.
His last name?
Hey I was going to suggest a black woman who is gay not even realizing we had one!
The genius choice would be Jesse Ventura, as the most successful representative of the Andersonian schism that left the GOP & became “Independents.”
But it’s arguably smarter for Jesse to run for the Senate instead & hope to let the GOP bleed to death.
On the other hand, whichever candidate doesn’t pick a female running mate is simply disarming himself. In that vein:
Liddy Dole, 'cos duh, she’s Liddy Dole. The not-quite-so-ancient half of the original Washington power couple.
Heather Wilson, known as an independent-minded Republican but one that only the most benighted dittohead would mistake for a “librul.” Of course, she’s also from the Southwest, but the last two successful tickets were men from neighboring states (or really the same state in the case of Bush/Cheney).
That’s why I said irrevocably, in a way that’s set in cement, unlike any future, guaranteed flip-flops and “I didn’t say/hold that position, when we have proof he actually did” lies.
Does anybody actually think Powell would accept the VP if asked? I doubt he would.
I actuallly hope he will pick Rudy. Now there’s a combination that’s an express bus headed fast to Nowheresville. Rudy has a lot of baggage – big loser in the primaries, bad judgment re Bernie Kerik, having nothing to add but “a noun, a verb and 9/11” without any real natiional security or foreign policy experience.