Posted on 07/28/2008 4:48:25 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Announcement coming “very soon.” Geraghty notes that Pawlenty’s still scheduled to give a routine speech on Wednesday, but TNR noted over the weekend that he’s already pulled out of one event and his plans for this week are suddenly and suspiciously hazy. See this recent item from Marc Ambinder, too, passing along a rumor that McCain was planning to meet with his inner circle about VP yesterday. And then of course there’s that CNN item claiming an attendee at a fundraiser heard McCain say conservatives are “really going to like” Pawlenty. Put it all together and today’s scurrilous veep du jour meme seems a tad less scurrilous than usual.
Here’s a bullet-point argument, again from TNR, about why Pawlenty is a “slam dunk” pick. His working-class pedigree is all to the good, but between the lack of name recognition and the “boring old Republican white guy” effect, I’m underwhelmed. He doesn’t even have serious religious cred to reassure antsy evangelicals. Let’s hope the report’s wrong, although given the general savviness of McCain’s campaign these days, it probably isn’t.
Update (Ed): Well, I live in Pawlenty’s state and have met him on a couple of occasions, and this pick would not make me too glum at all. Pawlenty has a good center-right track record, especially on holding the line on taxes with a hostile Legislature. He demonstrated real leadership during the bridge collapse and its aftermath, keeping the gas-tax-increase advocates at bay and convincing the rest of the state to ignore them. He’s also pro-life, and a humble but telegenic man who will inject a little vigor into the campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
McCain is well on his way to making Bob Dole look like a dynamic campaigner!
Well, I was trying to be facetious.
But you make a valid and unfortunate point.
I had heard of him but don’t really know anything about him and never expected him to be the choice. Don’t know if I missed this but does anyone know, is he pro life? And where does he stand on the 2nd amendment and on terrorism?
Actually I’ve been trying to look it up but haven’t been able to find it.
I think it’ll be Romney. Lots of drawbacks but he knows how to run, and he takes little crap from the media.
You’re right...it was Kristol and Birnbaum. Dr. K. said Mitt. On Sunday, Bill said that McCain really wants Ridge or Jindal but the campaign wants Pawlenty or Mitt. Bill wants Palin. I want Mitt. And you?
I saw something about larry king live,mccain and VP while channel surfing....
Wonder if he’ll announce it there tonight,lolol..
Yawn.
I don’t know, maybe they’ll just talk about it with their panel of morons, everyone speculating something different. I would watch H&C instead.
I find it a little suspicious that there hasn't been a peep about her.
My $0.02...
McCain-Larry King
This is why I worry about the man.
He killed us with McCain-Feingold
He gve us McCain-Kennedy
“Obama or McCain, which candidate do you want to loose the election?”
Hmmm....both?
Even though he's not thoroughly conservative, Romney probably has the broadest voter appeal.
If McCain picks Pawlenty, his staff ought to have their pee pees spanked.
The conventional wisdom is wrong. I’ve been saying it all along...Obama cannot win this election unless McCain REALLY screws up. McCain’s pick should be a safe, conventional one.
If McCain picks the only governor with a mullet, at least the rumor is that Obama is picking Tim Kaine, a governor with the worse hair.
But can you help me out with something more substantive underlying your prospective disappointment? It seems to me that no one would not vote for McCain because of Pawlenty, and McCain could make a number of worse choices—Crist, Graham, Ridge, Fiorina, Romney and, at this point, Jindal.
Seems a little out there on ethanol and cap and trade, not as libertarian-leaning as I’d like, and kind of average—but still better than some of McCain’s possible picks.
I generally agree, but the battleground of the electorate is the middle 35.7% (or whatever the number is): The independent/moderate party (IMP); politically speaking, the IMP is an apathetic, middle-class, but loyal, i.e., not socialistic, demographic. It’s Senator McCain’s target.
Anyway, seems to me these voters are not viscerally opposed to two white guys on a ticket.
But, I am sorta of rooting for Gov. Palin of Alaska. (I read an interesting essay recently down-playing the assumed requirement that a VP choice must bring a contested State into the fold. An earlier poster here recognized that that “rule” would not apply to a person who is not a typical white guy.)
Palin has good and solidly conservative instincts, she is quite attractive and telegenic, and would definitely add excitement to a campaign that surely bores the dead.
She has at least as much or more gravitas and experience than Senator Obama. I think she would help McCain with women voters. And men voters.
Off topic: I read today that the origin of McCain’s skin cancer may be traced to his days as a POW, kept in the sun all day. I had not seen this in the msm.
Mitt here too.
Who knows, maybe he actually was talking about Atmospheric Gravity Waves.
Why? Everyone already hates all the ones we've heard of :-)
Well.
I’m praying, hoping, and working for the best. I must say though - and I know some of you hate the comparison - but if the Pawlenty rumors prove true, this is looking more and more like Dole/Kemp redux.
I cannot understand why the GOP never gets it with the Veep choice. If you’re expecting a close election, or trailing behind, you need to drop an atom bomb of a pick, not “Hey, I’m choosing person X, from non-swing state X, who brings no new voters or states to the ticket, but is very loyal to me personally...”
Now is the time for Jindal or Palin. I’m sorry - I would have my first real beef about a McCain blunder if it does turn out to be Pawlenty. Imagine two white guys again while Obama picks a woman. Where exactly are our new voters going to come from? How exactly does Pawlenty energize a base that desperately needs energizing?
Heck, Rush Limbaugh has all but said he’d go to bat for McCain with Jindal as the Veep. Palin brings some Hillary voters to the table. Pawlenty just shows more Bushitis to the public: two white guys, picked because he’s part of the nominee’s “friends and family” program, no close state brought to the table at a time when swinging 100 votes might change the Presidency.
Oh, and before anyone tries it - Mondale’s only State is NOT voting GOP - Sorry.
I’m sorry, I’ve been saying not to count McCain out for some time, and I mean it. But giving Obama the keys to the White House by blowing the Veep pick is not wise. The day McCain picks another unknown white guy to be Veep just because he’s loyal - you can pretty much bet your first born Obama picks a woman for his Veep. And she’ll actually get the chance to be Veep, because the election will be over that very day.
Everyone says that Veep doesn’t matter - but it does. It mattered with Bush I, it mattered with Clinton, and it mattered when Gore made history by picking Lieberman, giving his campaign a HUUUUUUGE boost.
I DO NOT WANT TO RELIVE DOLE/KEMP!!! So why does everyone who ran the Dole ship have the keys to this campaign? Why is the same strategy in place? I don’t get it.
That’s my vent for now.
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