Mitt Romney, the man synonymous with “expensive failure,” has fueled expectations by publicly making nice with his former opponent, John McCain. Could we be looking at McCain’s running mate? While the New York Times and the Economist seem to think so, or at least have been suggesting that McCain would be foolish to ignore the former Massachusetts governor, there’s no reason to expect that a McCain/Romney ticket would be the Dream Ticket…
…except for the Democrats. John McCain draws his appeal from being, allegedly, a different type of politician, a straight-talker, a moderate, and a bi-partisan reformer. Despite my own personal opinion of the many ways in which McCain fails to live up to that hype, McCain would be foolish to do anything that could be construed as imperiling his moderate credentials. Picking Mitt Romney as his running mate would do more than imperil McCain’s moderate image: it would positively shoot it in the face.
Romney is the epitome of the double-talking, say-anything-to-get-elected politician. Despite his failures, I respect McCain’s intelligence and pre-2008 bona fides, and McCain and Romney are night-and-day on those points. While McCain’s approach to a difficult problem – say, the sagging Detroit economy – is to postulate bold new plans to revive the city, Romney’s approach to the same is empty promises and empty words. This is the Romney who wants to double the size of Guantanamo, while McCain wants it closed. This is the Romney who cackles at unemployment…
…and this the same Romney who demeans the honor of our nation’s servicemen and women by equating his sons’ campaign assistance to the sacrifice of soldiers in Iraq..
Nor would Romney bring evangelical voters to McCain. Remember, bigotry is its own worst enemy: evangelical fears of Mormons, in the primary season, trumped even evangelical fears of liberals. No, McCain may be no good, but Romney’s flaws are far worse, and far more public. America under Mitt Romney – a real possibility, sad to say, if McCain won with Romney as his running mate – would approximate Andrew Lloyd Weber’s evaluation of Argentina under Eva Perón:
Instead of government we had a stage,
Instead of ideas, a prima donna’s rage,
Instead of help we were given a crowd,
[He] didn’t say much, but [he] said it loud.
I’m honestly surprised at the media for suggesting that Romney would be an asset to McCain. Unless this is a secret lib’rul media ploy to get McCain to tap Romney, thus ushering in McCain’s imminent demise – in which case, guys, I didn’t get the memo, sorry – then
Submitted to a Candid World 
Romney is an empty suit. If McCain picks him Obama will probably get my vote.
“He didn’t say much, but he said it loud.”
Funny, I read that and think of Obama.
McCain has a problem with low support with the most important segment of the GOP, the Conservative Base. It’s commonly said that, if he wants to reach across the aisle, he should reach to Republicans.
There is a difference between having conservatives back into voting for McCain and enthusiastically supporting him. See Bush’s narrow victories in Florida and Ohio in 2004, where both states had over 100,000 volunteers working in a wide variety of capacities for the Bush campaign.
Sen. McCain’s campaign, after nearly imploding during the summer months, was financed by a $6 million loan Sen. McCain personally took out and living off his name recognition. He was not setting the base on fire. McCain only became the nominee because Mike Huckabee took Base votes away from Romney during the primaries. Specifically, Huckabee’s “off the record” remark about Mormonism swung Iowa to McCain and that was the big momentum-shift.
Now, you say “expensive failure,” I say he raised a lot of money and got Perot-ed by foul play from Huckabee. Fundraising is not going to be irrelevant against the Obama money-printing machine.
Romney is an economics-first guy and McCain admits he doesn’t know a lot about the economy. Romney as VP would allow McCain to focus on his strength: foreign policy.
Further, reaching toward the base doesn’t hurt McCain’s centrist appeal in places like Florida, especially if he can remind people how far-left Obama’s voting record is.
The thing about “evangelicals would be scared of a Mormon” held true in the primaries, where Romney was running against Minister Huckabee.
But that argument is totally without merit in the general election. I shouldn’t need to tell you how quickly those voters would embrace even a Mormon when a man named Barack Hussein Obama is in the other corner.
Well, I think the people that would be put off by a Mormon would be put off by the Muslim smears as well. But as a VP I don’t know how strong that would affect the decision.
Sorry, that should have read that Iowa swung to Huckabee. And that hurt Romney and helped McCain from there on.
Oneiroi, good point – I was talking about Romney when he was running for the nomination; his role would matter less as a VP. I’d be careful to point out, though, that while Mormon smears against Romney were carried out by candidate Huckabee, Muslim smears come from the New Yorker.
And, to challenge another of Ames’s points, the fact that Romney and McCain disagree on a few points (Guantanamo) shouldn’t disqualify Romney as a VP choice. Every VP pick differs from the man at the top of the ticket in some way. Kennedy and Johnson barely spoke to each other and managed just fine. Romney and McCain could work it out, like two people sharing a ticket always do.
Because I’m running out of arguments against Romney, I’ll pick one Ames didn’t make – that Romney provides no ethnic or gender diversity. The more I think of it, picking a relatively green Sarah Palin just to put a woman on the ticket could backfire if it’s seen as the product of disingenuous political calculation.
If I was Senator McCain, I would pick Senator Clinton as my running mate. That is the only way I think he could guarantee a victory against Senator Obama. Even if he lost all the conservative base votes, they wouldn’t vote the other way. And, Hillary was pretty good at kicking Obama’s ass in the primaries (and all that said, I should mention I was a huge Hillary supporter). So, if they took the middle and a little of the left, they’d win handily.
Any other VP choice, and it’s a crapshoot that Obama easily wins unless he seriously damages his own credibility in the next few months.
He would never in a million years pick Hillary, and she wouldn’t accept even if he did. Lieberman is at least considered since he agrees with McCain on some issues and is already “campaignign” for him.
But overall, I think there is concern over McCain’s age and having a Democrat as a VP would be quite a gamble that I don’t think the Republican Party would go for.
To have the presidency switched over to one of the one of the faces of the Democratic Party would be a disaster to them.
Besides, from what I’ve seen, McCain isn’t worried about moving to the middle yet, let alone left.
My guess….Lieberman or Jindal.
Why? I think he wants to steal Obama’s spotlight and both of these picks would go a long way to bring major media attention to his campaign.
A man synonymous with “expensive failure”. Would that be Abraham Lincoln as well? You say that like its a bad thing to fail.
Secondly, why did I find this under “religion”? Because he is a mormon, and that therefore means that anything he does or says must be categorized as a religious topic?
Secondly my dear writer, would you really want a Lieberman Veep? Or any other Veep? Listen, this election will be about the economy. This election will be about gas prices and oil. I guarantee you, if McCain puts Romney on the ticket, he will be nothing but an asset.
Seriously, what does America have to fear from a mormon? You think he’ll impose a seven wives law? You think he’ll sermonize about the Book of Mormon? Evangelicals who believe that are ignorant bigoted fools. If that happens to be you my dear writer, then perhaps you should read the Book of Mormon. You’ll find no evil in it.
I think you are too eager to be angry at the post. Or didn’t read thoroughly…since the author did reference “bigotry” in reference to evangelicals distrust of Mormons.
And the arguments against Romney as a VP have nothing to do with a value judgment on Mormonism as a religion. More on Romney as a politician and his viability in bringing in votes with the Republican Party.
[…] soon as John McCain clinched the Republican nomination – beating out Mitt “Double It” Romney – America knew that Guantanamo Bay’s days as a legal black hole were all but numbered. Both […]
[…] Obama, Democracy, War As soon as John McCain clinched the Republican nomination – beating out Mitt “Double It” Romney – America knew that Guantanamo Bay’s days as a legal black hole were all but numbered. […]