Interesting- this morning someone said Thune is as close as we get to Obama- young, charismatic, articulate etc...a possible VP choice..
I’ve never seen Thune on TV or heard him speak. I’ll have to pay attention.
Bobby Jindal has been mentioned as a rising GOP “star,” but it’s early yet.
Man, I hope McCain has the sense to select a real conservative as his running mate.
He should pick Rice in that case.
I, and many other freepers, lost alot of respect for Thune when he decided to use John Bolton as a human shield and made no bones about the fact he was willing to slit the throat of a fellow conservative if he didn't get his pork on some totally unrelated bill. Imagine if the situation had been reversed and Bolton had said "Sorry Senator, but if Congress doesn't give me the pork I want for the state department, I'll support the Democrat candidate in SD. It's nothing personal against you, I just need to blackmail people to get my pork here."
Totally beyond the pale. The thing is, Thune would not have won that seat if he had only the resources of South Dakota Republicans, he owes it to Republicans around the nation to thank for their selfless efforts in providing money and volunteers from out-of-state to put him over the top.
Thune has a pretty solid conservative voting record, so he fits one of those categories of people that make acceptable Senators, but whose "leadership" skills should rule them out for any kind of promotion to leader of the free world. Thune has proven himself to be a McCainiac who went on record telling Republican candidates to "distance" themselves from Bush on Iraq and made it perfectly clear he will knife fellow conservative nominees and conservative bills at a moment's notice if he needs to get attention about his pork.
I find it amazing that freepers are more "outraged" about the Gang of 14 "betrayal" (which actually turned out to be not tha bad, as we got some great judges comfirmed from that), than "Republican" Senators like Thune and Chafee throwing Bolton to the dogs.
We don't need a right-wing version of Daschle a heartbeat away from the Presidency.
Add that to the fact Thune is from about the safest, non-descript GOP state you can find and it holds a mere 4 electoral votes, and this guy brings nothing to the ticket that any other conservative Republican Senator would also have.
McCain needs to cross off Thune's name on the veep list.
And don't get me started on Rice. The fact anyone on this board would still support her for veep after her tenure in the State Dept. is mind-boggling. The RAT party is for selecting candidates on the basis of affirmative action, NOT the GOP.