Romney for Veep?
Fred Barnes makes a surprisingly persuasive case--surprising to me, anyway--for the proposition that Mitt Romney is the obvious choice to be John McCain's running mate. Barnes argues from the proposition that the Veep needs mostly to satisfy two criteria: that he be a plausible President, and that he do no harm to the ticket.
Coincidentally, Politico notes that, in an interview that will air tonight, Romney told Sean Hannity that he would accept the Vice-Presidential nomination:
“I think any Republican leader in this country would be honored to be asked to serve as the vice presidential nominee, myself included. Of course this is a nation which needs strong leadership. And if the nominee of our party asked you to serve with him, anybody would be honored to receive that call … and to accept it, of course.”According to two separate reports, Romney is being talked up as a running mate by members of the Bush inner circle.
Traditionally, the Vice-Presidential nominee is called on to attack the other side. Romney showed some potential in that role:
"With Senator Clinton there is some confusion in perception that somehow being there while her husband was president made her a foreign policy-national security experienced person. She is not. She doesn't have any more experience, really, of a significant nature than Barack Obama does. But in Barack Obama's case, people recognize this guy was a state senator and before that he was a community activist. He has been a United States senator for a short, short period of time. He is in no significant way qualified to lead the country at a time of war, to lead the country out of an economic challenge. This is not a person who can stand up to Senator McCain.”To make his case, Romney employed a canine metaphor.
Listening to Obama and Clinton discuss their national security credentials, Romney said, is akin to "listening to two chihuahuas argue about which is the biggest dog."
"When it comes to national security, John McCain is the big dog, and they are the chihuahuas," he said.
McCain, unfortunately, came to dislike Romney during the primary season. If he can put those feelings aside, Romney may well be his best choice.
PAUL adds: Not only did McCain seem to dislike Romney, he also appeared not to respect him. This was because Romney had changed several of his positions, in McCain's view, entirely for political purposes. When I was on McCain's bus in November, Romney was the only political figure in either party McCain spoke ill of without prompting. However, Romney meets the two tests McCain articulated on the bus for his running mate: he is capable of performing well as president and he is highly knowledgeable about economic issues.
I find it interesting that, in both parties, there's talk about a ticket involving the nominee and one of his (or her) major challengers. Since 1956, I can think of only twice that this has occurred: 1960 when Kennedy selected Lyndon Johnson and 1980 when Reagan selected George H. W. Bush. A McCain-Romney ticket would be in the tradition of both of these precedents, in which a clear winner brought on a defeated rival from a different wing of the party. A Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket would be rather different.
To comment on this post, go here.
