The Telegraph is reporting the Dems are quaking at the prospect of McCain naming a female VP running mate tomorrow. As a political move it would have the one-two punch of being both smarmy and canny. The Republicans have never had a woman on the presidential ballot, so McCain’s ticket would be given instant historic import. It would also cast him the definitive alpha male, something that might be a problem, say, if he were standing next to the younger, chiseled Mitt Romney.
Herewith the femme front-runners:
The safe/uninspiring choice: Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Republican senator from Texas. The 65-year-old Hutchison is pro-life and knows Washington sub-committees, though she has never held office. Her name keeps resurfacing in cyber-chatter but months ago she said she doesn’t want the job.
The favoured outsider: Meg Whitman, the McCain campaign’s national co-chair. The 52-year-old billionaire former eBay CEO would bring major business cred to the ticket. She’s also a globalization expert and ace fly fisherman. The fact she’s an internet/technology guru will come in handy with a candidate who’s famously internet illiterate. McCain has referred to her as one of his three wisest advisors. And Whitman has made no secret about having political ambitions. Plus, she’s already been given a primo speaking spot at the GOP convention. That she lacks exposure to foreign policy machinations is a decided liability when squaring off against Joe Biden. She’s also pro-choice, a stance that could alienate McCain’s base. It’s a big risk for McCain to bring on a pro-choice male, say, Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman, as has been rumoured. But a pro-choice woman could be political suicide.
The dark horse outsider: Carly Fiorina, 53, former CEO of Hewlett Packard, one of McCain’s top economic advisors. Fiorina’s well-connected, presents well (Fox News has tapped her as a business commentator even though she’s sane) and she brings economic smarts. But she has already provoked a campaign flap about abortion, even though she’s is pro-life. And her high-profile ouster from HP could come back to bite her.
And the potential masterstroke: Sarah Palin, the 44-year-old governor of Alaska. She’s charismatic, popular (her approval rating is over 90) and a mother of five (including a newborn). She’s also a member of Feminists for Life so the pro-life McCain could score points endorsing female power while continuing to contain their reproductive rights. She’ll appeal to the GOP faithful (she’s pro-gun) but is known to stand up to oil companies. It’s high-risk/high-reward choice: the June-November pairing could give McCain’s campaign vitality and generational breadth. Or it could end up making him look like her out-of-it dad. But, then again, if John McCain brought aboard a working mother of five to replace Dick Cheney he’d go down as the most subversive presidential candidate in history.
Print
Comment
Does anyone remember the Cheney-Edwards debate in ‘04? Me neither. No one cares about the VP debate. Pretending for a moment that it does matter, I wohuld argue that Palin has the most to win from that encounter due to the expectations game. All she has to do is not crater, and she will be judged to have done well. Biden, OTOH, is in a no-win situation. He has a rep for being a bit of a verbal bully and blowhard, so he will really have to be on a short leash that night.
[...] campaign tactic. More curious is the complaint from some Democrats that Palin is a token “chick pick.” Especially coming from those who so fervently championed Hillary Clinton’s [...]
[...] But knowing that his first choice was Joe Lieberman, let’s take a look at how that went. He campaigned all over the place with Lieberman, who even began a PAC to campaign with him. His campaign floated the idea of a pro-choice candidate in the weeks before his selection. Karl Rove was reported to have contacted Lieberman personally to plead with him to abstain. Both men have denied that the contact ever took place, but the fact that it was reported tells you exactly how much of a secret his vetting and near-selection was. Compare that with Palin. By their own admission, they only met once before that Thursday night, and had only spoken twice. She’d never campaigned for him, never made an appearance with him, and never did any serious national press. Now I’m not saying that her name was never floated, I’m just saying that it was never mentioned as anything but an extreme longshot. Even when discussing the possibility of naming a woman, she was typically last among the likely choices. [...]