Political Commentary

Who I Wish McCain Would Pick

26 Comments

If he did, I’d actually vote for him, as opposed to against Obama.

Fred Thompson. He’d mop up the floor with almost anyone in a debate (particularly Obama’s rumored finalists) and he’d only have to campaign for two months. And in the unfortunate circumstance that something happened to McCain, we’d have him for a president.

26 thoughts on “Who I Wish McCain Would Pick”

  3. Fred Thompson would be terrific as a VP, but I’m not certain he would be a good VP campaigner. He was my man in the primaries. Unfortunately Fred seemed to believe the press last summer that he was an automatic front runner and ran a snoozer of a campaign before it was too late to recover. Could McCain put a fire in his belly for the VP slot? I’m not sure.

    What about Dr. Condoleezza Rice as the VP candidate? I’m not certain she is pro-life (she is kinda cagey about it) which could really anger the conservative wing of the Republican base. Also, her stature within the GOP seems to have fallen a bit since becoming Secretary of State. Finally, she is an unproven campaigner. On the other hand, she is smart, attractive, articulate and as a very accomplished black female she would stand in stark contrast to the empty suit Obama. She could also seal the deal with disillusioned Hillary backers who want to see a strong woman one the ticket. Finally, I believe that McCain likes and respects her a great deal. She would certainly be an interesting choice and shut up Obama’s hysterical race baiting tactics.

  4. Sometimes I thnk Condi Rice is too academic and maybe her critics are right that she was a bad national security adviser and a worse Secretary of State but then I remember an August, 2000 column of George Will’s in which he wrote:

    “[Rice] … was asked her thoughts about gun control. ‘I am,’ she answered crisply, ‘a Second Amendment absolutist.’ ”

    and I forgive her everything else.

  5. This would also make me vote for the Republican ticket instead of against the Dems. And everyone in my part of NY state would know what my Official FredHead bumper sticker means, finally. 😉

    Folks can grouse about 2 old codgers in the WH, but with the new threats coming from our old enemy there should be a real justification for toughness and grit over feel-good pabulum and dangerous appeasement. Of course not a single mention in the Drive Bys this election season about gravitas. Heh.

  6. Plus, it would also be like having the USA Women’s Beach Volleyball Team of first ladies.

  9. The reality on Fred’s campaign is that, unlike the other frontrunners, he really was a reluctant candidate. He really did start almost a year later than the other candidates, including Romney, McCain, and even Huckleberry, which is why his ground campaign was so behind the curve, and, in the end, pathetic. Exemplified by the fact that even as he conceded on South Carolina, he had no idea that he was in the process of winning Louisiana’s caucuses.
    I think overall it comes down to his never having been an executive or having great ambitions to be president.

    But he could probably do the job as president if forced into the role. Like Rand said, Fred’s pretty much the only VP candidate who would actually make me more likely to vote for McCain.

  10. I think Fred would be an excellent choice as McCain’s running mate and VP.

    Whether enthusiastic for the Republican nominee or not I’m always voting against the Democrats.

    I think Condi was a good National Security Advisor. I think she’s the worst Secretary of State any Republican president has had in my adult lifetime (Born in 1955). If she went to the Department of State as a hunter she’s been captured by the game.

    By the way she is pro choice no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

  11. I was a huge Fred supporter. In fact, I may have the only car in all of Kahleeforneeya still sporting a Fred bumper sticker. Having said that, he’s too old. You can’t have two old men on the ticket. Instead, I’m going back to my first choice.

    Meg Whitman for VP!

  12. Too old? You mean they’ve experienced events that others have only read in a book? Neither one needs a walker so I’d say they’re up for the job. They can take turns napping. 😉

  13. Nominating Thompson as McCain’s VP would be the only way we’d vote McCain. For all his virtues, expressed foreign policy resolve, McCain is a RINO senator without executive credentials– anti-First Amendment (McCain-Feingold), an open-borders nut (per 2007’s extraordinarily deleterious “DREAM Act”), a global-warming alarmist, tax-and-spend advocate… you name it.

    Probably, a President McCain would not put up a Harriet Miers for ye olde Supreme Court, but with three vacancies pending you can bet he’d find another Breyer, Ginsburg, Souter rather a Roberts or Alito.

    Legislators in general make poor executives, even poor administrators. Absent Fred Thompson down the road, a McCain incumbency would likely resemble Millard Fillmore’s: Well-meaning but uncomprehending, readying pacts with the Devil in hopes of staving off “irrepressible conlict.”

  14. Yeah. My sentiments exactly.

    I’m still not entirely convinced I’m not going to vote for “other” (or just leave the prez blank: I’m not sure that I don’t approve of the idea of electing the guy who will be MOST legislatively challenged …and that would be Obama …vs. the guy who will almost certainly cause a setback in conservatism in the Republican party, and that certainly describes J. McCain). Nuance.

    And paybacks: John McCain has too often gone out of his way to actively offend conservatism on key issues.

    I’m not for thinking that I wouldn’t actively enjoy seeing McCain lose and lose big (and since I think Obama will be singularly ineffective …and that we’ve survived ineffective presidents before …and that – while he may be a moonbat – I think he’s a genuinely “nice guy” …I don’t worry as much about the fate of the country in the interim as others seem to in the event of an Obama win; but a McCain win would be a disaster for conservatives).

    But the addition of Fred! to the ticket as VP would definitely cause me to vote with a positive raison d’tre for the McCain ticket.

    Anyone else for VP? – Not so much.

  16. Sarah Palin is the go-to-girl. Thompson creates a “two old guys with cancer” ticket. No. Thank you.

  18. Yes.

    I read the headline and thought, “Well, Fred, of course” and was pleased when you met my expectations.

    Fred is about the only person McCain could pick who would motivate me to vote for him.

    But from a tactical point of view, McCain might be wise to pick a VP from the center, shedding his right wing in the expection of picking up net votes from the center. The center is where the battle is in this campaign. McCain would be smart to position himself as the “70% candidate” to Obama’s “30%” Ayers-Wright-DailyKos.

    On the other hand, as conservative as Fred is, he is still a popular, avuncular figure. Maybe most of the same centrists would vote for McCain-Thompson.

    BBB

  19. Please?Please?Please?Please?Please?Please?Please?Please?Please?Please?Please?Please?Please?Please?

  20. I would love Fred or Condi as VP. By the way, Oxbay said:

    “By the way she is pro choice no ifs, ands, or buts about it.”

    I think you are 100% dead wrong. In 2000, I went to a GWB rally where Condi was a speaker. She gave a great speech and in it she talked about the sanctity of life. Her father was an Alabama preacher. I think we could count on her to be a pro-life leader.

  21. Fred Thompson’s plain statement, from the very beginning, was that he didn’t particularly want to be President or anything else, but if asked he would do it and do the best job he could.

    I like that. I think we have ‘way too many people in office whose only real qualification is a Nixonian “fire in the belly”. I don’t believe that the desire for power correlates positively with the ability to wield power.

    Thompson then proceeded to lay out an outline of what he would try to do as President that meshed very well with my own ideals and attitudes. Like Rand and several other commenters, appointing him as VP would give me a reason to vote for McCain instead of against the Chicago Machine bagman.

    Regards,
    Ric

  22. I’d love to see Fred as VP, but would it do anything to assuage the biggest concern most people have about McCain; his age and health. He’s 72 and has had skin cancer. Fred is only 6 years younger and had a bout with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma himself.

    How about Fred for SCOTUS?

  23. I would rather see Fred as AG. The vice-presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm spit according to one of the previous Vice-Presidents.

  24. I don’t see McCain going for more than one term if he wins. He’s even floated promising that as a trial balloon. If that’s so, Fred could still run next cycle and be ready to overcome that ‘fire in the belly’ stupidity from the media. I don’t see anyone that measures up to FDT. I wish I did.

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