Saturday, August 09, 2008

Short-List Joe

According to the Financial Times, Joe Lieberman is on John McCain's VP short list and being vetted.


No surprise there.


In many ways, Joe Lieberman is exactly that McCain wants in a VP candidate. More than anything else, Lieberman is a loyalist who McCain can count on to carry his water. Lieberman also has national name recognition that Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal, and Sarah Palin don't have. He has experience in a national campaign from the 2000 and 2004 campaigns. Finally, Lieberman is very smooth with the mainstream media.


It's easy to envision McCain using Lieberman in an unorthodox way. Instead of Joe campaigning on his own like other VP candidates, McCain could have Lieberman travel with him and serve as chief surrogate, minder, and friend all at once. Like Richard II, McCain "need[s] friends" and needs to have them by his side. McCain tends to get off track with his campaign principles and talking points. But he can count on Lieberman to stick with the McCain line even if he himself can't.


The only reason McCain hesitates with Lieberman is that Joe is a Democrat whose liberal social views (pro-choice on abortion, etc.) would set off a firestorm among social conservatives.

But it's not as if McCain either likes or respects social conservatives.

So, it could be Joe.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

NO JOE! -- Lieberman would be as much a disaster for John McCain as as Al Gore would be for VP for Obama. Lieberman is not popular. He was a loser with Al Gore, which in my opinion is the biggest phony walking the earth. Lieberman is looked at as a divided being as not really democrat and not really republican. He is in no-man's land. I see this glass half empty -- a lose lose situation. Sure he is buddy buddy with McCain simply because of the Middle East position of John McCain regarding Israel. That is not a Jewish issue but a political issue with the war in Iraq and our foreign policy. Lieberman is a political liability with the American public. Poor choice for VP because he could never deliver any votes.