First District GOP Web Blog

Over at The American Spectator is an article speculating on who could be John McCain’s VP.

The Nation’s Pulse
McCain-Somebody ‘08
By John Tabin
Published 3/5/2008 2:46:25 AM

With last night’s victories, John McCain crossed the 1191-delegate line, winning the nomination. Now he has the luxury of standing back, letting Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama beat each other up and raising money for the Fall race.

And what about that running mate? The question for McCain is what function his pick should serve. McCain certainly doesn’t need to ballast his ticket with age and gravitas, as George W. Bush did when he selected Dick Cheney. McCain will be 72 when the next president takes the oath of office, and might want to go with a relatively young running mate who can carry the torch into the 2016 election. That would rule out Fred Thompson, who will be 66 on inauguration day.

As much as I hate to say this, It is true about Fred’s age. Unfortunately, this is his only hindrance. He was a thee true conservative over all of those who had run in the ‘08 POTUS race.

Since McCain will be running against a Democratic candidate who is either black or female, some have suggested he practice a bit of tokenism in his selection. Colin Powell is too old (70) and too unpopular with conservatives. Condoleezza Rice seems uninterested in electoral politics, and in any case would muddy McCain’s foreign policy message, which has emphasized his track record of criticizing the Bush administration from the right on the management of the Iraq occupation. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is 64, which may be too old.

Michael Steele, former lieutenant governor of Maryland, would be high on the shortlist if he’d won his 2004 Senate race, but he didn’t. Other names in this category that get tossed around include congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, former congressman J.C. Watts, and Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin.

I am willing to admit there is some case to this. But at the same point I would like to think the Republican Party should be above “identity” politics. Some of the people mentioned above would be great, such as Condi Rice, Michael Steele or J.C. Watts. The others, I agree on the age thing or I don’t know too much about them. But I do believe that if they are the running mate, they should be chosen based solely on merit.

The article goes on to mention geography balance.

Less abrasive southern Governors Sonny Perdue of Georgia, Haley Barbour of Mississippi, and especially Mark Sanford of South Carolina might be able to satisfy southerners and social conservatives without angering other factions of the party.

Now, I really like Haley Barbour.

McCain might follow this logic and select his friend Rudy Giuliani. It would dismay social conservatives, who are already slightly skittish about McCain, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t do it if he decides he wants to. [Read all the possible choices here]

Mitt Romney is left out of the “equation.” If it can’t be Fred, I would like it to be Romney. I think he needs to have a running mate who would be good for the economy. Thoughts?

Also posted on Michigan Redneck II.

Warning: Some things may be offensive to my fellow First Districters, apologies in advance.

It has been a rather busy blogging day for me today. Some of you may know that I blog on Michigan Redneck II. I want to keep my loyalties to my personal blog, while keeping my loyalties to the First District, by contributing to First GOP Blogs.

I have been following the ‘08 election since the ‘07 Michigan GOP Convention, after seeing Mitt Romney speak there. I started supporting Mitt Romney, then went to supporting and blog Mike Huckabee, then Fred Thompson, then back to Romney. Once Romney dropped out of the race, I did not support anyone but continued to follow the POTUS race. I am staying neutral on John McCain. As odd as it sounds, I am still supporting the party on state and national level, just staying neutral on McCain.

So I figured that I could blog about issues that concern me and work on blasting on the Democrat candidates. Most of what I have found to blast on, in conservative news sources has been about Barack Obama. Not much on Hillary Clinton. What I have found about Barack has been rather scary. Him, those he associates with and those his associates associate with are not the sunshine and lollipops that he portrays with his happy words of “hope,” “change” and “Yes we can.” His “minister” Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Obama’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago is a racist and Isreal hater. Let’s not get into “Reverend” Wright’s revering of “Loony Far-off-can’t” AKA Louis Farahkan(sp?). At least not yet.
I am a firm believer in “guilt by association.” These associations are scary. These are people I do not want to see either of them come anywheres near the White House. Sometimes I think Barack’s talk of sunshine and lollipops could be a manipulation. He may not be as “innocent” and “wet behind the ears” as he seems and that is worse than outright attacking.

That being said, we know what Hillary is about. Or do we? Could she actually be worse than what we see? As I said above, I was a Mike Huckabee supporter. Even though there were things I did not like about him towards the end, there were still things I liked about him. When he wasn’t even a blip on the radar he said to not underestimate Hillary Clinton. Where would he get such a thought?
He had been the former Governor of Arkansas. Wasn’t Hillary’s husband, oh what’s his name, the Governor of Arkansas also? Mike Huckabee started his Arkansas political career as the Lieutenant Governor to Jim Guy Tucker. Jim Guy Tucker was the Lieutenant Governor to Bill Clinton before Bill was elected to president. Mike Huckabee watched Bill Clinton climb his way to the top, even before he got into politics. He knows about the “Clinton political machine.” He claimed that Clinton’s had a hand in Arkansas Democrat politics even after leaving the state. When I had blogged for his campaign I recall finding an article where he said that he “knew a secret about Hillary.” Probably more than one, but I digress.

So all in all, this is why I do not want to see either one of them become president. Unfortunately, one of them will be the Dum, I mean Dem nominee. I just don’t think Hillary should be left off the hook. There are some out there that may think that if Barack is knocked around a bit Hillary will be the nominee and she will be easier to beat. I am not so sure. Since it is not known who will be the Dum (oops did it again) nominee and they are both scary the negativity on both should start coming out now. That way, regardless of who their nom is, the negative stuff will be remembered about whomever once the general election rolls around.

Kathy
michiganredneck.wordpress.com
www.firstgopblogs.com/mackinac