Posted on 07/30/2008 6:57:53 PM PDT by pissant
He’s going to transform the party — by turning us into hawkish Democrats? Nuance.
There’s a bigger point — and this initial volley, they say, lays the groundwork for it. They will be sharpening McCain’s message that he, not Obama, is the true change agent, a man who’s repeatedly taken unpopular stands, made the hard calls and forged bipartisan alliances.
Part of the calculus now is how his VP choice will further sharpen that message. There is significant support among top McCain advisers that he make a “transformative” pick who would change the Republican Party — someone who would appeal to moderate Republicans and Democrats…
A person who fills that bill, these advisers say, is Joe Lieberman.
Lieberman, an Independent Democrat, flatly denied his interest to ABC’s Ron Claiborne earlier this month, but McCain is now seriously considering him as that “transformative” pick, sources tell ABC News…
What’s more, some McCain advisers believe Lieberman would dramatically enhance the point they are now trying to make about Obama in this “celebrity” ad campaign.
McCain and Lieberman are anti-celebrities, the argument goes. They have, as one top adviser said, felt the heat after taking unpopular positions because they were willing to do “what’s right for the country” — whatever it meant for their own popularity.
Good news for that unpredictable five percent in the middle he needs to win, not so good for, er, everyone else in America. Are evangelicals going to vote for a guy who scored 100% on NARAL’s annual report card? Are Reagan conservatives jittery about McCain’s maverickiness going to feel reassured knowing Al Gore’s choice for VP is waiting in the wings? Is the left going to reach hitherto unscaled heights of apoplexy at the thought of the one pol they hate more than George Bush somehow ending up on the Republican ticket? (No, no, and yes, respectively, if you’re scoring at home.) Think of it in practical terms. Assume the worst happens and through some misfortune Vice President Lieberman becomes President Lieberman. Either the Democrats’ animus towards him results in hopeless gridlock in Congress or the breach is healed and we’ve got a lefty executive working with a lefty legislature towards common goals — Iraq excepted, of course. I like Liebs; I don’t like the idea. But the signs are there if you’re willing to look…
Exit question: Maybe the left, true to its proud tradition of honoring dissent, will forgive Joementum his apostasy? Hmmm.
Well, the MSM helped ensure that Rudy McRomney would be chosen. So far they are batting a good average.
ABC is just messing with our minds. He won’t do it.
In the words of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “don’t panic!”
So, why am I panicking? Maybe because it is so like McCain to do exactly the wrong thing when things are going well for him.
Now that i wouldn’t put by him. McCain/Clinton 08
Face it. The Republican Party as we knew is is GONE.
Just keep OCommie from winning this time and we have time to establish and fund the FALCON Party.
Focus on your state elections as the source for the new movement. But don’t stay home or you have no right to complain.
Zell Miller, Joe Lieberman and Gene Taylor of Mississippi are a few of the rare democrats that are on our side in the WoT. President Lincoln, the first GOP president, chose a democrat (Andrew Johnson) as his running mate in 1864 on a “National Unity” ticket. Lieberman is no spring chicken, either, so there’s not much danger of him being president for long if Senator McCain passes away (God forbid)in office.
I think Lieberman is just a stalking horse for Tom Ridge.
People will be so happy that McCain didn’t pick Lieberman for VP, they won’t compalin when it turns out to be Ridge.
That is my prediction, and I am sticking by it.
Libercon: Bullshit. Just how many of us have SWORN over the last few years that we would NEVER vote for Juan McCain? And just who are most of us here going to vote for in November. We are tools.
I think McCain knows that if he gets elected, it will be because of Liberalism and Democrats who vote for him over Obama. Democrats are who will elect him, and the V.P. choice can reflect it, why not?
Really? Unnamed sources from ABC News makes it official to you?
Much more likely boob bait for the -- bubbas.
McCain would be freaking retarded if he picked Joe.
He has an infinitely more telegenic, youthful and CONSERVATIVE (both religiously and politically) Jew right there in the House - Eric Cantor (R-VA).
If McCain picked Eric Cantor, he could have Lieberman campaigning for the ticket as hard as he did in 2000 for Gore. Old Joe could hit all the Synagogues and old folks homes in Florida that he hit in 2000 but this time asking for them all to vote for the real Jew in the real instead of that radical black guy with all the friends in the PLO and Hamas.
Sounds like a winner to me!!!! Cantor even hits the evangelical circuit around the country as he campaigned in the last six years to get GOP House member elected. He’s pretty popular in the Gentile houses of worship as well as the Synagogues. I’d be seriously putting him on my list if I were McCain.
(Of course, if I WERE McCain I would be running an actual campaign and not just a publicity tour for myself as an independent POW. But that’s just me.)
But... can Joe Lieberman operate the wishbone?? Until somebody else can answer yes to that one, I’m sticking with J.C. Watts for veep.
Be careful... I absolutely guaranteed everyone that McCain would NEVER be the nominee.
Wrong. Republicans who voted for McCain chose our nominee. There were so many candidates this time, and our votes were spread out among them all. Sucks, but that’s the way it is when there is a primary with no incumbent, and with several conservatives running.
J.C. might be an interesting choice. He's been out of Congress long enough that their problems won't taint him.
McCain needs someone young, energetic and attractive, hopefully with strong fund raising ability and not another senator. That leaves out Lieberman.
But if he does step on his ****, well, I was planning to be out of the country for the next five or six years anyway.
Come Labor Day, I want you to ping me to this post of yours.
You may have latent psychic powers - by that date, we’ll know.
Yet another reason to question McCain's political acumen.......
ABC is just trying to piss off conservatives. It won’t work. McCain is more than able to piss off conservatives all by himself.
However....
Joe sold out by deliberately failing to take the role that Barry Goldwater did against Richard Nixon. Unlike Barry, Joe put his Party ahead of his nation, and allowed Bill Clinton to continue to infest the White House. Then, Joe sold out again for the "honor" of running for Veep with Al Gore.
Joe is damaged goods. His presence would trash the ticket. If John McCain doesn't know that, John is dumber than anyone here on FreeRepublic currently thinks he is. And that's a high standard (or a low one, depending on how you see it).
Congressman Billybob
Ninth in the ten-part series, "The Owner's Manual (Part 9) -- The Bill of Rights"
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