Picking Vice Presidents
With the primaries for the Republican and Democratic nominations now over, and the candidates for each party chosen, it’s time to turn our attention to the next big topic on the horizon for the 2008 election: who will McCain and Obama pick as their running mates?
Let’s start with John McCain - for the past few months McCain has been rubbing elbows with several GOP vice presidential hopefuls (many of them his vanquished adversaries from the primaries). I’m going to have to throw my hat in with the prevailing opinion that McCain should, and probably will, pick Mike Huckabee. Huckabee deserves a lot of the credit for shutting down McCain’s biggest rival, Mitt Romney, on “Super Tuesday”, thus solidifying McCain’s ascendance. Simply put, McCain owes him - big. Beyond this debt is the fact that Huckabee could give McCain some much needed support from deeply conservative Republicans, many of whom are less-than-enthusiastic about McCain’s centrist tendencies.
As for Barack Obama, I disagree with the prevailing sentiment that he should pick Hillary for his veep. There has been too much bad blood between the Clinton and Obama camps, and while some speculate that this merger would console angry Hillary supporters, her continued presence in this election will only serve to keep the memory of her battle with Obama alive. Furthermore, I think Obama faces a very real danger of being painted as a far-left liberal - someone out of touch with America - and Hillary (universally reviled by Republicans) won’t be able to offset this perception. All things considered, Barack would do well to court the new Virginia Senator, Jim Webb, as his running mate. Webb’s record of military service, as well as his conservative attitude on several issues, will increase Obama’s appeal to independent voters. Webb would also help Obama project an image of strength where military policy is concerned. This is who Obama should pick - as to who he probably will pick, I’d put my money on a former primary competitor such as Joe Biden or Bill Richardson (John Edwards has stated that he isn’t interested).
These are my thoughts about who the candidates should, and will, pick for their running mates. It should be noted that my criteria for who the candidates should pick is based soley on who is most likely to help them win. What do you think?
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June 7th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Q&A How can McCain SIMULTANEOUSLY attract both Hillary AND Bob Barr voters? Answer: PALIN Veep!