However, regardless of this historical reality Senator McCain has a unique opportunity as the leader of the Republican Party to anoint an heir to the Republican throne. McCain is 72 years old! If he were to win and run a second time he would be 76 by the time the next election comes along -- Considering his age he has to look to the future with his nominee.
Many pundits and analysts have zeroed in on Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota as a safe and "do-no-harm" type of pick. I predict that this will ultimately be Senator McCain's choice, as a safe non-descript and innocuous selection. Pawlenty will enthuse no one, but he will also offend very few. He is the vanilla ice-cream cone selection.
Unfortunately, the pick of Pawlenty disregards the two people who are most deserving of the selection -- Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. We may have forgotten this year's primary, but it was the spirited campaigns of Romney and Huckabee that allowed McCain to squeak to the nomination in state after state after state. Romney and Huckabee combined dwarfed the votes McCain received in the contested primaries. They both are excellent communicators experienced governors and have passionate supporters and population centers that they would shore up. They proved themselves competent debaters and would be capable of responding to Obama's positions and serving as the attack dog while McCain remains above the fray.
The problem is that they and their most passionate supporters are not fans of each other -- This causes rage in the blogosphere towards both men.
However, should the best choice for all be eliminated just because of the loud rage of the most vocal few?
My proposal is simple. McCain needs to pick one of the two.
My proposal is simple. McCain needs to pick one of the two.
If it is Huck, Romney supporters should chill out -- If it is Romney, Huckabee supporters should do the same.
It just seems unreasonable that the two people who are most deserving, most fully-vetted and most prepared to bring with them an organized and enthusiastic base of supporters should be completely ignored.
How about it Romneybots and Hucksters?
It just seems unreasonable that the two people who are most deserving, most fully-vetted and most prepared to bring with them an organized and enthusiastic base of supporters should be completely ignored.
How about it Romneybots and Hucksters?
Can we forge a truce, waive the white flag and rise above the differences for the good of the nation?
It seems like a common sense approach. I trust McCain's judgment if he picks between the two.
How about it?
It seems like a common sense approach. I trust McCain's judgment if he picks between the two.
How about it?
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5 comments:
I'm writing a VP profile series and in my first post about Jindal I say there is no way McCain can pick Huck or Mitt. The truth is these two groups of supporters seem to want the other dead. Sorry man I don't see a truce. What do you think about Sarah Palin?
http://www.thenewconservatives.blogspot.com/
This reminds me of Laura Ingraham before super tuesday. She was talking about how the two men had to come together in order to stop McCain. She finally started talking about Huckabee's good points. I remember many of us emailing her positive notes about Huckabee. She did all of that, however, because she wanted Huckabee to drop out. Then she turned again, stating that she was pulling the lever for Romney and starting going negative again on Huckabee. Same with Hannity saying that Huckabee was taking votes away from Romney, and it was a two man race, and we needed to come together to stop McCain.
The problem with this, is these two examples show how they sold out their values, for someone who did not have the whole package. Hannity wanted Giuliani and Thompson, and settled for Romney. Ingraham wanted Hunter, but he lacked pizazz and never took off, and Thompson was a bust, so she settled on Romney. I am sure there were many others like them who originally wanted someone else, but settled for Romney.
Huckabee, it seems, on the other hand, wasn't someone people settled on. He was someone people wanted. We may have looked at all the candidates early last summer, but once we heard Huckabee speak on the issues, we were sold. And soon we were enthusiastic, working hard for him.
If Huckabee had the bigwigs donate to him like Romney, Giuliani and Thompson, had the money for the campaign structure like Romney, had the backing of the republican elite like Romney and McCain later did, and had the initial perception of him that he was going to win like Giuliani and Thompson did, he would be the nominee. So given all that was against him, and how far he came, and all the hearts of Americans he touched, it was because of Huckabee himself and his message that he was so successful. I do not think that true Huckabee supporters can just throw all of that aside and get behind Romney who had everything going for him, but failed.
The problem is that you can't have a rational conversation with Hucksters like texasc. Texas names 2 people who he/she claims "settled" for Romney (and "sold out their values" LOL) and then draws the conclusion that the millions of people who voted for Romney also "settled."
The fact is that Romney, before withdrawing after McCain had the nomination wrapped up, had more than a million more votes than Huckabee. Here is Romney, a one term governor, competing against politicians like Huckabee who had a 10 year run in office, and Hucksters complain that their candidate could have done better if only more people would have donated money, supported him and voted for him -- he could have won! What brilliant political insight! LOL.
The fact is that Huck is not going to be picked for VP and even Hucksters are beginning to come to grips with that fact. That is why they have started up again on the Romney attack adds. DO I think Romney will be picked? No, probably not. And the result may be that McCain maintains his relatively comfortable leads in Alabama and South Carolina but loses the election in the battlegound states.
A truce? Sure. Hucksters can stop taking out Newspapers adds trying to intimidate and threaten the party's nominee. That might be a start.
I have to admit it was pretty shocking within a few minutes of posting, I would get a wildly irrational comment from a Huck supporter, basically saying to put the truce where the sun doesn't shine.
Is there any room for a reasoned debate? Both Mitt and Huck would ignite a certain segment -- I would rather have someone excited than neither -- with a pick like Pawlenty.
Doesn't that make sense? Let McCain decide and go forward. My impression from some Huck supporters is if Romney was selected, they would sit out the election in protest...
huck or rom wont be vp. outshine mccain
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