McCain's VP? Just a guess...
The McCain campaign is desperate for something to re-set the playing field and dampen the Obama love-fest.
Policy is not going to do it. Slick ads won't do it.
The only proactive thing they can do at this point is to be incredibly bold with the VP pick:
Joe Leiberman - Nah. That guy doesn't even excite the Jewish community any more.
Mitt Romney - Not terrible, but not great. The guy suffers from the same "say anything to get elected" malady that's taken McCain from maverick to mediocrity. One of my colleagues says this could buy the GOP a chance at Michigan, but I disagree.
Tim Pawlenty - A solid bet if you're doing the electoral math (puts MN in play). Also, a very boring bet. Look - the GOP picked a Midwestern White guy.
Bobby Jindal - Young and and (sorta) exciting. But at the end of the day, what does a 37-year-old Indian-American from a State in the deep south and five years of legislative experience buy you?
Condi Rice - This would take over the news cycle indefinitely. Sure, she's black, female, gay, and a concert pianist but hell - this is a change election. She's got the respect of the cloth coat Republicans, the admiration of (some) feminists, and so on. Even though she was shoe shopping during Katrina, she'll get a pass on domestic issues. Her realpolitik will soften McCain's war mongering on the foreign issue front. Bottom line: It's the ONLY pick that would make a story good enough and big enough to break Obama's stride.
Policy is not going to do it. Slick ads won't do it.
The only proactive thing they can do at this point is to be incredibly bold with the VP pick:
Joe Leiberman - Nah. That guy doesn't even excite the Jewish community any more.
Mitt Romney - Not terrible, but not great. The guy suffers from the same "say anything to get elected" malady that's taken McCain from maverick to mediocrity. One of my colleagues says this could buy the GOP a chance at Michigan, but I disagree.
Tim Pawlenty - A solid bet if you're doing the electoral math (puts MN in play). Also, a very boring bet. Look - the GOP picked a Midwestern White guy.
Bobby Jindal - Young and and (sorta) exciting. But at the end of the day, what does a 37-year-old Indian-American from a State in the deep south and five years of legislative experience buy you?
Condi Rice - This would take over the news cycle indefinitely. Sure, she's black, female, gay, and a concert pianist but hell - this is a change election. She's got the respect of the cloth coat Republicans, the admiration of (some) feminists, and so on. Even though she was shoe shopping during Katrina, she'll get a pass on domestic issues. Her realpolitik will soften McCain's war mongering on the foreign issue front. Bottom line: It's the ONLY pick that would make a story good enough and big enough to break Obama's stride.
posted by isaacjosephson at 10:59 AM
4 Comments:
weird, i just read this and steve earle's "condi" came on my ipod. god, i hope that doesn't happen.
I think Condi would definitely grab headlines (even after her adamantly stating she doesn't want the position), but I see several problems with her:
1) it doesn't do anything to distance McCain from the Bush administration.
2) McCain doesn't care about social issues, sure he's conservative, but over the years he's made it pretty clear that he thinks many social issues should be up to the states. Most of his experience and the attraction to him lies in his foreign policy. Bringing Condi onboard would be redundant as that's her specialty as well.
Jindal while not helping McCain get any independent votes, would solidify the right wing conservatives.
Then again, to win, McCain may be able to just sit back and let Obama shoot himself in the foot by pandering to whatever crowd he's talking to. I still can't believe he stated that he needn't worry about immigrants learning English, the will, but we should make sure our children learn Spanish.... what a load of crap. Sure learning a foreign language is extremely helpful, but he's obviously never spent time in a place like NYC where there are families that have been in this country for decades and still don't know the language.
-mdj
Hmmm...mdj
McCain has sorta mastered pandering and flopping his flips, so not sure that argument holds up.
And, is this the quote that you consider a load of crap?
Speaking in Georgia on July 8, Obama said in response to a question on bilingualism, ''We live in a global economy. And, you know, I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, 'We need to have English-only.' They want to pass a law, 'We want English-only.'
''Now I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this: Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English - they'll learn English - you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.''
I just don't get what's so outrageous or crappy about that. And since Obama has spent a large part of his life in Chicago, I think he's pretty familiar with the language barriers that exist in some of our more diverse cities.
As for Condi, the choice would definitely get attention in the beginning, but I think it would eventually be see for what it is: a political stunt. McCain is acting a little too desperate as it is.
if being bilingual is so important in this "global economy" why not push for chinese (pick a dialect....)? If being bilingual is that important then why do most american schools not start foreign language until junior high school? Many other countries that teach english start much earlier.
BTW, ballots and drivers exams are both offered in spanish. 1)to vote you must be a citizen, to be a citizen, don't you need to know the language? 2) road signs are in english. If you don't know enough english to take the drivers test, you shouldn't be driving.
If being bilingual is that important, how about forcing chinatown, washington heights, coney island, and spanish harlem to all learn english. I wish you luck.
Not to say that being bilingual isn't worth while, but there are for more pressing issues.
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