Romney Lieberman Pawlenty
By Johnny Roosh
CNN claims John McCain will announce his VP choice on Friday. Speculation has the choices narrowed down to three candidates.
Mitt Romney – more Presidential than Vice Presidential. Not exactly a natural choice given the way the two went after each other in the primaries. Plus he’ll never bring Massachusetts with him. He is pretty though. Nice hair.
Joe Lieberman – you’ve got to be kidding. He’s too whiney looking. Plus he also won’t swing a state. Too old. Between his age and McCain’s, doesn’t it add up to like 200?
Tim Pawlenty – in this crowd, I give him a better than 50% chance of getting the nod, and Minnesota could swing narrowly in McCain’s favor. Clearly Pawlenty has had as much visibility as anyone on the team (at least since Romney dropped out) and has been well received. He’s young, surprisingly effective for the party in a blue state, and has successful executive experience with a high approval rating during some challenging times. The downside, save the bridge collapse, he’s not well-known nationally. Assuming the bridge is completed soon, he will get some positive national exposure again, but not before Friday.
Politico says the lucky guy will get tapped tomorrow. Look for MIB (more than usual) near the capital tomorrow morning (assuming the Gov is in town).
How about the bumper sticker test? Which one sounds/looks “right?”
McCain/Romney? Nope.
McCain/Lieberman? Sounds good. But too long.
McCain/Pawlenty? Clumsy sounding.
Update 8/28: Drudge is reporting that there is a leak that there will be a leak at 6 PM today that will be confirmed at 8 PM today. Got that?
Discuss.
August 27th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
What do you think of the Kay Bailey Hutchinson rumors? I think she’d do better in a debate with Biden than Pawlenty. Still, Pawlenty would probably add a bit of youthful zeal that McCain wouldn’t mind having. Heck, if Obama’s ready to be president after a few years in the Senate, Pawlenty’s ready to be VP after 6 years as a governor.
Of course, part of my perverse desire to see Pawlenty get it is so Carol Molnau succeeds him – on the (very long) list of people the DFL hates with a burning passion, she’s near the top.
August 28th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Isn’t announcing Friday just barely a step above announcing Saturday morning at 3 AM? Is it possible both presidential candidates couldn’t find anyone good to run with them?
August 28th, 2008 at 1:58 am
DS – Friday is the only business day between the two conventions. If he waited for the weekend, there’d be less effect, and McCain gets to dominate the news a bit longer following the DNC. Looks like a good day to me.
August 28th, 2008 at 5:46 am
“Assuming the bridge is completed soon, he will get some positive national exposure again.”
The new bridge being completed is good news like the surge in Iraq is good news. It means a terrible situation is becoming less terrible.
As Barack Obama says, if you drive into a ditch, and after a few years you’re halfway out of the ditch, that’s not an impressive accomplishment.
August 28th, 2008 at 7:18 am
The new bridge being completed is good news like the surge in Iraq is good news. It means a terrible situation is becoming less terrible.
Jeff: nice try. Twist the Gist and Inject Iraq. How novel.
Nobody said it was good news. It was good exposure. It highlighted Tim Pawlenty’s ability to be an effective executive during a terrible tragedy.
August 28th, 2008 at 7:47 am
I think anyone other than Romney would be a mistake (politically speaking.) He could carry the conservative flag, he shores up McCain’s weakness on economics, and he’s had executive experience.
August 28th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Disco Stoo,
Excellent point – maybe McCain should introduce his Veep tonight, immediately after Obama’s star turn, in a midnight moonlit angry mob rally of the sort that Kerry mounted immediately after the 2004 Republican convention. Who can forget that magic moment, which catapulted Kerry to the Presidency? Oh, wait. …
Friday’s the day. In the morning.
As for the options that are apparently available, put me down for T-Paw. He’s experienced, smart and he won’t be afraid of Biden, whose attack dog skills are being vastly overrated this week. Long-winded attack dog? Brilliant! Pawlenty also takes the plutocrat thing out of the equation, because T-Paw, like Biden, isn’t a rich guy.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:01 am
I think Mitt brings the most to the ticket. Like T-Paw. Lieberman? Well, he is an honest guy, good on foreign policy, but yes, two old guys? No. and he is soooooo liberal on domestic policy.
K-Hutch….being mentioned recently. I thought she was ruled a bad choice a while back, but perhaps not.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Geesh, I just did a cruise through MSM web sites. They are so in the bag for the Messiah. Someone out there must do a Rush style collage.
The latest….the half white, half Kenyon who grew up in Indonsea and Hawaii, is just like MLK and other African-Americans who grew up up in the Jim Crow South.
August 28th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Yah, Joe Lieberman. That’s the ticket…if McCain wants to drive away any last hope he’ll ever have of garnering a single conservative vote.
There was a discussion with Senate Maj Leader Reid about Lieberman. Reid has been furious with Lieberman. A fellow Dem Senator pointed out to Reid that Lieberman votes with the Dems on every single radical BS unconstitutional bill with the sole exception being the battle in Iraq. Every radical left wing issue. And why oh why would I or any other real conservative want to vote for a ticket where the guy who is one heartbeat away from the Oval Office votes for everything I loathe?
McCain/Lieberman runs. Obama/Biden wins.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Romney would be my first choice. Shores up what could be swing states like Nevada and Colordo. Helps solidify a very thin lead in Michigan and could help with Ohio and Pennsylvania due to his strength on economic issues.
I do worry with Romney how strong really the anti-Mormon bigotry is. Common sense tells me it’s negligible, but after hearing Huckabee again recently, I’m not so sure. I’m convinced the only reason he stayed in the race as long as he did was his anti-Mormon bigotry.
Pawlenty would be a solid second choice. His one advantage over Biden or even Romney is his genuine, folksy manner. He helps with the midwest (Minnesota, Iowa and to some degree probably WI and the Dakotas). Not sure electorially that would have the same impact as what Romney brings.
Not a fan of any of the other choices. The only other one that intrigues me is Palin. She can talk circles around any of them on energy. The female factor could help with some of the independents that were comfortable with Hillary, but not so sure on Obama or McCain. Don’t know how much the Ted Stevens factor would come into play, though.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:19 am
I say Kasich.
After all, you really want to continue the Traditon of Faux News up the White House’s *ss.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I think the anti-Morman thing is a wash. Yes, there are anti-Morman Christians, but are they going to vote for the guy who supports infantcide instead?
Most of the religous bigots (or more accuratly, anti-religous bigots) that I run into are liberal Democrats.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Spelled “Fox”. Learn how to read in a non phonetic manner. It will make even you seem smarter.
So if Obama gets elected, will the White House ass be able to contain all the other networks, newspapers, etc? I predict a very painful White House rump in the future, should he win.
August 28th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
But, I don’t want to seem smarter than I really am, Mr. Lightyear.
And, I did go to grade-school in the 70’s, so my pronounciation is handicapped.
For years I pronounced “gigolo” as “Jig-a-low”, until I learned it was pronounced “Ol-ber-man”.
But I got “blow-hard” right. It’s “O’Reilly”.
And “A**hole” is “Chris Matthews”.
And yes, if either candidate wins, they are guaranteed at least one network up their *ss.
Soreness will prevail, either way.
August 28th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
If the McCain campaign is so excited about the pick that they plan to leak it tonight, then I’m guessing it’s not Pawlenty.
They might think that announcing Lieberman is enough to upstage Obama’s speech, but I think that would be overreach.
Most ordinary people I talk to (that is, people who are not political junkies) don’t recognize Sarah Palin, so I don’t think that announcing her would be a dramatic move.
The ultimate way to pull the carpet from under Obama would be to pick Colin Powell for VP.