Posted on 07/21/2008 8:54:05 AM PDT by Reagan Man
So it's getting close to crunch time. John McCain by now should be cutting down his big field of vice presidential contenders to a short list of six to eight names. To stay a step ahead of him, then, in order to make sure our criteria and our favorites at least make the cut, we on the outside should be explaining how the candidate should be reaching his final choice.
~snip~
Choice #1. Former House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich: More and more, the Pennsylvania native and former Ohio congressman looks like, all things considered, the wisest choice. Compare Kasich to his fellow Ohioan, Portman. Kasich's credentials are more Reaganite, while Portman is heavily tied to the unpopular Bush. Kasich helped lead the fight to balance the budget; Portman was OMB Director when the deficit was huge. Kasich represented a tougher (less Republican) district in Ohio than Portman did and is more likely to attract swing voters in that state -- plus in his native Pennsylvania, too. And Kasich's blue-collar persona is far more likely to attract Reagan Democrats than would Portman. (A friend of mine who works in Portman's Cincinnati office building and often rides the elevator with him said, perhaps unfairly, that Portman strikes him as "somebody who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple.") Plus, through his regular host position at Fox News and his popular books, Kasich starts out with higher name recognition than do most people on this whole list. Plus, he left Congress while it still had a reformist bent and many successes to point to, before it fell into disrepute.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Re: Guiliani
I dread the prospect of Rudy-Tooty being one heartbeat away from the Presidency as much as you do, although IF McCain made that choice I suspect it would be not so much due to his desire to bring Rudy aboard for Rudy’s positions but because McCain needs to put either New York or California in play, Guiliani would have a fair shot of doing that, while out west the only conservative Republican that could possibly help pry loose California from the ‘Rats would be Congressman Duncan Hunter.
As much as I would like to see Hunter in the VP slot, I don’t believe there is a lot of chemistry between Hunter and McCain, and Hunter’s puzzling endorsement of Huckleberry Hound probably didn’t endear him to the McCain campaign, so I suspect McCain is looking at New York as the state he has to work some magic in.
Yep! Condit’s buddy Kasich was out here in Condit’s district campaigning with his friend.
Kasich dropped out of politics when a connection to Condit/Levy was discovered. Likely, much more to that story we will never hear.
Lets hope he stays somewhat sane and says no to Rudi.
I like the way a chant at a baseball game, planned or not has turned into a John/Rudi ticket though.
He needs to be very thoroughly vetted.
I bet McCain picks a young, energetic person with legislative experiance. Someone just right of center.
Ain't that the truth in a nutshell? But everyone I can think of who has the stones for the job has other problems.
Have I left anybody out?
I like John Ashcroft a lot. But how much appeal does he still have in Missouri? Didn’t he retire from politics permanently?
Eric Cantor isn’t well known enough, is he?
If I were a betting man, that's where I would put my money.
Rudi has the most name recognition. And outside the conservative ranks, in a general election, Rudi would do quite well.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again...McCain/another white male = defeat in November. That’s just the way it’s going to be. We’ll have a rerun of 1996...only the margin of defeat will be even greater.
No, that was Joe Scarborough. But Kasich was close buddies with Scarborough and Gary Condit, and was rumored to attend some sex orgies in Condit's apartment with young interns and staffers. The stories included some heavy DNA all over the apartment when they were searching for the missing Chandra Levy. 9-11 happened at the perfect time for all of the scandal to be swept under the rugs.
I think that the VP choices will eventually be narrowed down to three final choices: Jindal, Palin, or Romney. Palin is the best choice of these three, IMHO, but I see McCain going with the most moderate of the three: Mitt Romney. McCain still does have the habit of upsetting conservatives with what he does and doesn’t do on a variety of issues. I would seriously place the majority of former ‘08 GOP Presidential candidates into leading cabinet positions in a McCain administration and have John Bolton controlling Homeland Security. My final VP pick would be Mike Pence, if I was choosing for McCain.
You left out Senator Light Loafers from South Carolina, Lindsay Graham, the number one McCain suck-up.
Kasich and Condit? I hadn’t heard...
I was a lurker here for a long time and even remember FR threads from 2001 and 2002 linking Condit and Kasich.
How are the Donks going to attack Palin as having little experience with Mr. Thin Resume at the top of their ticket?
I guess after Kasich dropped out of Congress, he kind of dropped off the radar, for me. I liked him when he came up, but I couldn’t fathom why he would leave with so much unfinished business.
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