“well you don’t just hope and pray he picks a good VP. You give it to him straight. “
He needs to have advisors smart enough to pick up on the conservative base’s issues and tell him as much. I dont have his cell phone # to tell him myself. :-)
its pretty clear the VP pick would be a signal. it’s tough, though, because if there was a unifying and popular conservative-base-vote-getter, he’d have been in the race and won!
McCain will have to do all that *and* think outside the box ... Here’s how. Pick this woman:
http://blackburn.house.gov/
Marsha Blackburn is clearly more conservative than John McCain on immigration and other ‘hot-button’ issues. If, as I suspect, Obama wins and Hillary does not make it on the ticket, we will have a situation then where the ONLY WOMAN ON THE TICKET WILL BE THE REPUBLICAN CONSERVATIVE!
I’d like Haley Barbour myself for nailing down the base and getting the ‘competence’ issue on his side. Barbour did okay post-Katrina.
. Romney is not a half-bad pick as McCain needs an economic boost. you might not be a fan, but 4 million primary voters were, and Romney had the best campaign organization and is a good articulate messenger on what we need to do wrt economics.
But I think McCain’s pick, if it is to nail down multiple things, southerners, conservatives, and drive a bit into the ‘womans vote’, it wouldnt hurt to go Blackburn route at all.
Whaddaya think?
I like her. But I’m afraid it won’t go down well outside of those who already know of Marsha or who are ok with whomever McCain picks.
There are millions of conservatives who never heard of her.
I think it would seem like she came out of nowhere and that McCain was pandering. Somehow trying to thread the needle by appearing to want “change” by picking a woman while simultaneously picking a very conservative woman to mollify conservatives.
The thing is, I like the idea of Mike Pence. No, he isn’t perfect. But this man will sell. He has gravitas. Yet he looks young and is telegenic.
So, you say he isn’t known very much more than Marsha. Fine, I agree. However, for an unknown, I’m confident he could sell to the public extremely well. I can’t say I have that confidence that the ignorant public would buy Marsha when SHE comes from nowhere.
Mike Pence has white hair. Two white haired white guys. I say, might as well go for a big contrast.
We don’t need to sell a VP to the ignorant masses. We need to sell a potential President. People will have McCain’s age and health in the back of their minds. Pence would help enormously with that.
There is something very reassuring about him.
well as I always point out, there are really 4 legs of conservatism. social, fiscal, security and the 4th one is practical experience. Marsha doesn’t satisfy the 4th leg and that’s a bigger problem than not having a woman on the ticket.
I think Mark Sanford deserves it. He was one of the newt revolutionaries and he really believed in it. Unlike many others who turned into pork deliverers, he kept his term limit pledge and became governor (and re-elected). He challenged his own party when they wanted more spending. He’s like mcCain in that respect (and that’s why it’s hard for me to not appreciate him) except that he goes all the way and completes the picture.