Vice President McCain?
As I think I've made no bones about my personal political alignment, I thought I would chip in on something that's been in most of the news stories about Kerry's primary wins from last night.
There's some rumors that Kerry is considering John McCain for his running mate, despite that fact that McCain is a Republican. Slate.com has a little piece talking about how this might be possible, as well as the fact that there's a historical precedent, even though you have to go back to the Civil War to find it.
I have no issues with McCain personally. I have respect for him as a legislator and politician, even if he was one of the "early foot soldiers in the Reagan revolution", as this bio puts it (via Calpundit on the link). I honestly believe that if a Republican had to come out on top in the 2000 election, I wish it had been McCain and not W.
But that being said, I fail to see any way that this can possibly benefit Kerry were it to become a reality. McCain would immediately draw fire from the Bush slime machine, who would no doubt sell the image of McCain as a traitor to his party. It's a tarring that would likely stick. And I can't see McCain drawing more centrist voters than Kerry is already pulling according to the early polls, votes that would give him a real shot at taking the whole thing come November. Would the harm from McCain joining the ticket be potentially more damaging than the good?
Another issue with a McCain VP placement. Considering the fact that last year, Ralph Nader may have thrown the election to Bush running as a third party candidate, wouldn't the selection of McCain further support the rather simple minded perspective that Nader has that Republicans and Democrats are completely interchangeable? Why would the Dems want to give the left side of the party more reason to jump ship when they have a chance to unseat the incumbent? You have to figure the Dean supporters would walk out the moment McCain was announced.
Just don't make no sense at all....
posted by Hankblog @ 3/10/2004 10:02:00 PM
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