McCain's Veep Choice?

Hawkins runs them down. I'm interested in this one, so obvious I didn't think of it:

Duncan Hunter: My former employer is a very conservative, experienced Republican who served in the armed forces and has enormous credibility on border issues, so he could give the ticket a boost there and help out McCain with the base. However, he didn't do very well in the primaries, so how much of an asset he would be as Vice-President is an open question.

It's true he never caught fire and seems to lack charisma, but Dick Cheney wasn't Mr. Excitement either. Hunter has the most important attribute in a Veep -- he could serve ably as Commander in Chief at any time, if required to -- and I doubt there's a single conservative out there who doesn't like him.

It would be the Clinton-Gore model of building strength upon strength. In 1992, Gore was an unexpected choice because he seemed so similar to Clinton -- a Southerner, a boomer, a "moderate" (har-- if only we knew!), and a fondness for Ring Dings and Yoohoo.

Doubling-down on military credentials might make sense.

And... Romney set to endorse McCain in just about fifteen minutes in Boston, and some chatter about a Romney VP slot.

I doubt it. McCain's a thin-skinned prick and couldn't swallow enough of his family-sized pride to run with Romney. Besides, the knock on Romney from the start was that he wasn't a "real conservative" either, and also that he's a Mormon.

Not really sure why the hell this party seems to think the latter is important -- well, I do know why, and frankly it offends me and shames me as a Republican -- but neither of those two knocks have changed so I don't really see what Romney would add to a McCain ticket.

posted by Ace at 04:12 PM

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