Thoughts?
Louisiana needs Bobby Jindal more than America needs him.
Not Romney is a step in the right direction.
I like the preacher - JC Watts.
Sanford and Romney would be the strongest candidates. They both a bring strong economic background, which I believe is McCain weakest link.
Romney would also take Michigan away from the dems and bring in some votes in the N.E. region. Romney’s economic strength would also play well in Ohio and Penn whose economies are not doing so hot right now.
Sanford is well respected in the south. He would strengthen McCain in the south immensely. He would help with Florida and pull in many southern swing voters.
I think the gov of Louisiana would be a poor choice. One, he’s very young. Two, he’s about as experienced as a governor, as Obama is a Senator. Three, I don’t know how many votes outside of Louisiana he would bring for the ticket.
Palin would be my first choice.
Jindal as VP would leave LA will Governor Mitch Landrieu. Jindal has work to do to clean up that state.
Crist is only considered because of Florida. He’s no more experienced than Palin or Jindal and the homosexual rumors about him are strong.
Despite the advice of certain FRiends I don’t have a problem with Romney.
Engler and Thompson are washed up.
Mark Sanford must be strongly considered.
Jindal would be a solid choice. I would have bet the farm against him picking Romney or Crist. My gut is Lieberman or someone like George Pataki.
If true, I think it’s heartening that McCain is not seriously considering either Romney or Crist as his runningmate. McCain needs to pick someone that is (i) at the very least acceptable to both social and economic conservatives, and preferably inspiring to conservatives, and (ii) ready to serve as president from Day 2. While Romney and Crist have the experience to serve as president, they both have quite liberal records and would be disastrous as McCain’s runningmate.
Bobby Jindal would be an outstanding VP (or perhaps even presidential) nominee for 2012, but I think that he needs a few more years of gubernatorial experience before making the jump. Besides, he’s only served as governor for 6 months and has way too much important work to do in LA to leave the government to the Democrat Lt. Gov.
I think McCain’s best bets are the same two guys I’ve been proposing ever since it was clear that McCain would be the GOP presidential nominee: SC Gov. Mark Sanford and MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Former OH Congressman Rob Portman is an intriguing choice as well, given the importance of OH and neighboring PA and MI. WI Congressman Paul Ryan (who was one of my longshots along with fellow House conservatives Mike Pence and Steve King) is also a principled conservative from a swing district (51% for Bush in 2000)in a swing state (50% for Kerry) in a swing region (the WI-MN-IA tri-state area went to Kerry by only 50%-49%), but is a young, good-looking guy who could get Dan Quayled by the media despite his accomplishments.
Whoever McCain picks, he or she better be a conservative or he’ll lose in November (and make our dim House and Senate prospects even dimmer).
Well I know I feel better...
/s off...
This is all speculation from an anonynous blog. McCain would be foolish to pick some rookie governor with zero name recognition at the national level.
VP’s tend to be someone from the senate, the current or past administration, or one of the defeated candidates in the primaries.
The senate and the current administration are very unpopular so he’ll probably look to his former primary opponents. And among those, the only ones who won primaries were Huckabee and Romney.
Huckabee would probably be McCain’s best pick to run against Hillary, but against Hussein he’ll need no help to carry Arkansas, Kentucky, etc.. Huckabee adds nothing to the ticket. He’ll go with Romney.