McCain Looks to Fill Ticket, and 3 Hopefuls Step Up

The other female that would be a promising choice for McCain's VP is Marsha Blackburn, a third-term Congresswoman from Tennessee (before that, she was chairwoman of her county's Republican Party, a state commissioner, and then a Senator in the State Legislature). The congressional district she represents in Congress is heavily Republican, and her voting recording in Congress has been staunchly conservative. She's won election in her congressional district by margins all 66% or higher. She's been married for 32 years and has two children. I'd imagine she's a huge friend of country music being that her congressional district includes Nashville, her state commissioner job was as the chairwoman of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment and Music Commission, she founded the Congressional Songwriters Caucus in the US Congress, and that her website claims she has "strong ties with some of the nation’s premier songwriters and performers" -- It'd be interesting to see some of the bigger names in country music strongly going out of their way to support McCain (playing concerts, etc). She's also been named the "hottest woman in US politics" by an online poll.

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The male candidate that McCain aides even admit is near the top of the shortlist is Tim Pawlenty, a 47-year-old second-term Governor of Minnesota who has been mentioned a US presidential candidate before. He is known as bright, charming, and charismatic. He went from City Councilman to Representative in the State Legislature (where he became the Republican Party Majority Leader) to Governor. He's the chairman of the National Governor's Association.

One of five children of a Teamster milk truck driver (his mom died of cancer when he was in his teens), he went to law school and became an attorney. He has a wife and two children, and his wife is a former state district court judge.

One important thing about him is that his state, called the "Holy Grail" in 2002 by Karl Rove, hasn't been won by Republicans since Nixon in 1972.

Quotes from McCain referring to Pawlenty include:

"I know of no one who will make a greater contribution to the future of America than this great leader."

"This is the kind of leadership that I'd like to pass the torch to."

Sara Taylor, former White House political director and a veteran of both Bush-Cheney campaigns, said that "By far, he's the strongest candidate" to serve as McCain's running mate. "He's a conservative, rock-n-roll Republican and is counterintuitive to the party stereotype that we're old and rich,” says Taylor, who recalled visiting St. Paul and finding the governor jamming in his office to recording artist Bruce Springsteen. “He's young and blue-collar."

“He’s a phenomenal talent,” says Lawrence Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political science professor. “He’s Clintonian in terms of being able to connect with an audience. It just drives Democrats crazy.”

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Senator John Thune of South Dakota gets a good bit of attention as McCain's possible VP. A former three-term Congressman from South Dakota, his major distinction was that he was the guy that knocked off the Democrat Senate leader Tom Dasche in the 2004 election. He's got an MBA, was a legislative assistant for a US Senator, worked in the Reagan Administration, was the Executive Director of the South Dakota Republican Party, and a state commissioner.

John Thune with his wife and two children.
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The better question is why is JohnLSU, writing bios and posting pictures of potential repub vp selections at 3:17 AM.

Id seriously like an answer to that question.:huh:

 

More prayers for Bush's health during that administration than ever before. :hihi:

 

Bush-Quayle had a dominant victory in the 1988 election, winning 40 states and the electoral vote by a total of 426 to 111. After the 1988 election, Republicans carefully studied the "Quayle factor," and found that the Vice President cost the ticket no more than 2% of the popular vote, not a big deal (link: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,976160-2,00.html[FONT=arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1][/SIZE][/FONT])

Quayle was an embarrassment in many ways, but not for his youthful handsome appearance. Quayle was an embarrassment because he came across like a such a moron, his lack of intelligence was mocked constantly -- his lack of raw political skill, all the embarrassing and dumb statements he'd make in public, all the Quayleisms, especially the famous "potato/potatoe" incident where he corrected an elementary school student's correct spelling of potato" to "potatoe." He was also heavily slammed for being a spoiled rich kid who used his family connections to dodge service in Vietnam. Finally, there was the famous VP debate where Quayle compared his service in the Senate to that of JFK, and the Dem VP candidate slammed him by saying "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

Anyway, regarding the issue of choosing a VP that brings youthful, good looks, charisma and raw political skill to the table, I'd start by looking at Kerry's decision to pick Edwards as his VP in 2004. You want to talk about lack of political experience, it doesn't get any worse that John Edwards. The guy was a career personal injury plaintiff attorney before he won a seat in the US Senate in 1998, and served one term as a Senator (he didn't seek re-election in 2004 because he was focused on his VP campaign instead). Before Edward's one term as Senator, he had zero political experience, not even at the local or state level. Yet, I don't remember his lack of experience being a huge deal in either his impressive campaign for the 2004 Presidential nomination or during his campaign as Kerry's VP... although it should have been a very big deal.

 

Palin would be a super candidate for VP, but she just gave birth to a child with Down Syndrome and has stated she needs to stay in Alaska and care for her family. She will not accept the VP slot if offered, and I doubt if it will be offered. Clearly she is one of the rising stars of the Republican Party.

 

Yep.

 

Absolutely. Chaney with his experience was the best choice Bush could have made. It worked out well.