I’d still bet against it happening, but there is a lot of talk going around in political circles that McCain may choose Romney as his VP running mate. In this interview, Romney says he would accept if asked.
Will we end up with Romney on the GOP ticket after all?
UPDATE: Sean Hannity’s interview with Romney can be seen here.
I would love to see a McCain-Romney ticket. I think that pair could beat Obama.
I’m slowly warming a bit to Romney although I don’s see him as a great candidate – plus I think it’ll be hard to beat Obama.
Romney would be a bad choice though (IMO).
Given Romney’s Mormon liablity (alas), why on earth would McCain want to risk him on the ticket?
Clark, it only took you a month after Romney dropped out to warm to him. Wow, what could happen if he announced he was giving up politics forever? Then you’d really like him. 🙂
But seriously, I still think there would be better tickets than McCain-Romney. My choices would be McCain-Condi or McCain-Jindal. I don’t think McCain-Sanford or McCain-Pawlenty gets you anything you wouldn’t get with Romney, and Romney is a known quality.
A lot of conservative insiders are beginning to have the same reaction Clark had. Romney is beginning to look really good in retrospect, kind of like Reagan after he died. Sean Hannity, for example, spends a lot of time on his shows talking about Romney as a model conservative for our time. He didn’t have many positive things to say about him back in November or December when Rudy and Thompson were around.
What does Romney get you? Again, he really helps in the West. He helps with California, Nevada and Colorado. He helps put Michigan in play.
If you look at things purely strategically, McCain basically has most of the South sewn up. He has most of the inter-mountain West sewn up. Obama or Hillary wins New York, New Jersey, all of New England, Illinois, probably Washington state. So, the states that are in play are: PA, OH, CO, NV, Michigan, MN, WI, Iowa, Missouri, maybe Virginia, NM and maybe CA and Oregon.
Again, if you look at this purely pragmatically, Romney could be a good choice because he helps in three key states: Michigan, CO and NV. And he could help in California because he has a large base of very enthusiastic support there.
Any analysis of the 2008 election and running mates has to include an analysis of how that running mate helps the presidential candidate win.
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I’ll admit I didn’t look as closely at him before his taking the nomination as after. Some of the charges on things like guns, taxes, and so forth weren’t as bad as activists presented it. (Which is almost always the case – you get a litany of positions with black or white acceptance and no nuance)
I also brought myself around to believe he might get some half decent economists on board (his big liability), he is the first Republican leader in a while to take global warming and the environment seriously, he’s more moderate on immigration, and frankly he probably has a better chance of winning than any other Republican of note.
So in effect I noticed he’s moderate where I tend to be moderate.
I still really worry about him on some issues. And his bit about the autism/vaccine condition raised a few temporary doubts.
I’m still withholding judgment. But given a choice between Obama or McCain I’d probably go McCain simply because Obama is really positioning himself as a protectionist and as having a lot more government involvement in everything.
To add, McCain-Condi would be a disaster. For one it would cement ties to Bush that I think McCain would do best to attack. (If he wants to win he’ll have to attack a lot of Bush policies regardless of Reagan’s Rule) Secondly while I had high hopes for Rice I think her tenure as Secretary of State has been at best underwhelming. I can accept that a lot of that probably rests with Bush. But frankly what has she done that make you think she’s be a good President?
While Romney would help in MI, CO, and NV I think where McCain needs help is in getting activists in the South excited. McCain to have any hope needs a 50 state strategy. Romney just can’t provide that and brings a lot of negatives. Plus he’s just not a great campaigner. (Let’s be honest – he had tons of pluses as a candidate and screwed it all up through a pretty bad strategy and bad campaigning) The only thing Romney brings McCain is big money.
I’m not sure who McCain ought pick. All the names I’ve seen brandied around either seem like a big mistake or else I just don’ know enough about them to have an informed opinion.
Romney was right behind McCain all the way in terms of votes. In fact, if the republican delegates we awarded proportionately in every state (like the Democrats) we might have seen McCain and Romney fighting all the way to the convention a la Hillary and Obama. He had a little over 4 million popular votes to McCain’s 4.7 million at the time he withdrew.
Romney didn’t lose because he wasn’t liked. He had a large following of eager supporters. I think putting him on the ticket with McCain could really help unify the party, plus give McCain the credibility he needs on economic issues–and let’s face it, the economy is really starting to scare a lot of people.
Also, I think Obama will be easier to beat than Hillary. Hillary would divide the moderate vote more than Obama–on both sides of the party line.
McCain on Romney:
“There is nothing but goodwill between myself and Governor Romney….(he) has a big role to play in our party. Millions of Republicans voted for him so obviously I think he would be in consideration for a lot of different roles in a Republican administration.”
See:
http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/03/12/mccain-muses-about-romney-as-vp/
I would love to see Romney as veep, and he’s obviously got an edge over other veeps given his strong support in many areas. Given McCain’s age, his veep choice could be very important.
However, I don’t think the GOP is going to win this one anyway, so this is a paper exercise.
WillF, great video on McCain. Very interesting.
Jack was the only blogger to mention why it is essential that McCain picks Mitt as his V.P. He solidifies the conservative base, and he has the economic expertise to deal with the very certain economic train wreck our country faces.
It one thing to attack pork, as McCain does. But the Congress is very unwilling to forgo earmarks. Someone has got to attack the third rail of entitlements. GWB tried, but Mitt, I think, could get solid results with some of his PowerPoint presentations.
I missed this article from Michael Medved basically saying Romney is the best VP candidate. Medved’s opinion is certainly worth noting because he was one of the few national commentators endorsing McCain early on.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelMedved/2008/03/12/mitts_weakness_for_the_top_spot_could_help_him_as_veep
Though I agree with Medved on this point, it was Medved’s aggressive pushing of McCain that soured me to him (Medved).
Well, I’m glad he believes Romney to be the best V.P. candidate, but I think he overstates Mitt’s “pandering” as an advantage.
An interesting bit of news. While hardly unequivocal it looks like Condi’s open to being VP. I think this would be a mistake. (I think Romney would be better than Condi) But we’ll see.
A large number of religious right leaders have apparently lost their minds. They regret not supporting Huckabee instead of Romney, saying he shares their values best of all. They are warning that if Romney is the VP candidate McCain will lose. They have completely lost it. Huckabee does not get you a single additional state Republicans aren’t already going to win, and he hurts you in places like Ohio, PA, Michigan, CO and NV, states the Republicans desperately need to win. Romney helps in those states. Read on to see the brutal carnage these idiots are doing to the Republican party:
http://www.evangelicalsformitt.org/front_page/collectively_losing_our_heads.php