« Free Advice to John Kerry | Main | The Insufferable Martha Zoller »
June 11, 2004
McCain's No
McCain saying no makes perfect sense. If Bush wins, well then he supported the winning team and everything pretty much stays the same as it is now, with McCain continuing for 4 more years as every media outlet's favorite Republican.
But if Kerry wins, wouldn't McCain be better off as VP? Not necessarily. If Kerry wins my guess would be that the minority of Republicans who supported Bush through thick and thin and who can't stand the Bush/DeLay/Frist/Lottism of the past ten years would be feeling pretty vindicated. And who would their natural leader be? Probably one John McCain.
And then instead of being Kerry's yes man, he'd likely be the go to guy in the Congress to build support for whatever initiatives Kerry decides to pass. I'd assume that McCain would be pretty instrumental in crafting said initiatives pretty much however he wants. And if you think about it, wouldn't you rather be running the Senate than presiding over it?
One thing that makes me hopeful about all the McCain rumors is that if true it disproves the notion that Kerry is too vain to pick someone who might outshine him, namely Edwards. Edwards has got nothing on McCain in that department. Everybody I know has been worried sick since Kerry wrapped up the nomination that he'd completely screw up the VP pick by choosing someone exactly like Vilsack or Gephardt, and those rumors scare me!
I've constructed a very simple statement that JK can use as guide when selecting his running mate. Here it goes: If Sam Nunn will do it, pick him. If not pick Edwards. It's that simple.
Posted by Chris at June 11, 2004 10:33 PM
Comments
Watching some of the Reagan coverage last week, there was some interesting history around the 1976 and 1980 GOP conventions. In 1976, Reagan was unable to beat incumbant Ford for the nod, and then declined to become the running mate, letting Bob Dole be first mate on that sinking ship. This positioned Reagan to win the nod and the White house in 1980, and even entertain having Ford as his VP for a few days! Anywho, I think if Edwards is smart, he'd do like Reagan (because I think he can BE like Reagan) and try again for the big job on his own in 4 years. There is no guarentee that Kerry is going to win, (its a little sad for JFK that with low-mid 40s approval rating for Bush, he is not taking an appreciable lead) and Edwards goes down as a losing VP candidate, then it could hurt his chances of securing the nomination four years later (Lieberman)
Posted by: MikeD at June 14, 2004 11:47 AM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)