Romney as vice president best chance for McCain to win this fall
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By Doug Gibson
Standard-Examiner Staff
C
onservatives who are dismayed that Sen. John McCain seems poised to take the Republican presidential nomination from former Gov. Mitt Romney should recall that a McCain triumph fits the GOP model. For 40 years, Republicans have nominated the guy "whose turn it is."
McCain is definitely the GOP establishment's choice, but he isn't the liberal activist right-wing radio talkers and bloggers claim he is. The Arizona senator has an 82 percent conservative ranking by the American Conservative Union. (Anyone want to compare that to the anemic ACU ratings of Sens. Obama and Clinton?) McCain is consistently anti-abortion. He opposes earmarks. He supports a balanced budget. He won't quit the battle against jihad in Iraq. He has promised to appoint conservative judges to the bench. His persona as "old warrior war vet" is also very attractive.
Despite that, there's no denying that choosing McCain, for many GOP conservatives, is like scarfing down warm liver on a sunny beach. This was reflected in Florida. McCain may have wrestled the state from Romney, but Romney easily beat him in ultra-Republican conservative counties of Collier and Lee.
Conservatives have legitimate gripes with some McCain stances: He opposes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, he is soft on gun rights, he gives lip service to the global warming fad, he opposed the Bush tax cuts, he refuses to distance himself from an immigration bill he co-sponsored with Sen. Ted Kennedy that some regard as amnesty, he opposes interrogation techniques in the War on Terror that have saved many lives, and he supported a trial lawyers "bill of rights" with Sen. John Edwards.
But even these positions do not constitute the key reason for the right-wing animus. I think many conservatives loathe McCain because they realize he just doesn't like them much. McCain feels more comfortable with the liberal Washington political and media elite. The Arizona senator is a guy whose nose is more likely to be aimed at Tim Russert's posterior than at the conservative foot soldiers who elected Reagan and busted their rear ends to re-elect President Bush in 2004.
Here's some straight talk: If McCain remains distasteful to conservatives, too many will stay home, and Clinton or Obama will win easily. McCain doesn't need to appeal to independents and liberals. He'll split the former with the Democratic nominee and lose badly to the latter. He needs to rev up the conservative base. The best way to do that is to pick Mitt Romney as his vice president nominee. There are several advantages Romney would bring to the ticket:
* The most important is Romney will bring the conservative base home. To win this election, Republicans will need far more than 60 million votes. A depressed right-wing base won't do.
* Romney will bring energy to the campaign trail.
* Romney will raise scores of millions of dollars for Republicans.
* Romney's economic expertise will be a big asset if we head into a recession. McCain seems weakest when he talks about the economy. Even his most liberal critics laud Romney for his handling of the 2002 Winter Games.
* Conservatives will see Romney as the natural heir to the Republican nomination in 2012 or 2016. Even if McCain wins this year, he will turn 76 in 2012. The stress of the presidency may persuade him to not seek a second term.
The recent trial balloons of a McCain-Rudy Giuliani ticket or a McCain-Charlie Crist (governor of Florida) ticket, or even a McCain, Retired Gen. Colin Powell ticket are depressing. These VP potentials are moderates and would induce yawns from the GOP base. A McCain-Mike Huckabee ticket would be just as bad. Huckabee's evangelicalism would turn off independents, and his big-government tendencies repel too many conservatives.
Of course, the race is not over. Perhaps Romney will surprise today with wins in Missouri, Georgia, Tennessee and even California. Even so, the odds favor McCain to grab the convention's nod. It's no secret that he and Romney are not friends, but friendship does not trump political expediency.
Romney is the conservative base's choice. McCain is smart enough to see that. A McCain-Romney GOP ticket is not a sure winner, but it is the best chance for the Republican Party to extend its grasp on the presidency.
Gibson is the Standard-Examiner's assistant editorial page editor. He can be reached at dgibson@standard.net.
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Romney for VP would most likely lock up the white-house for a Republican for the next 16 years. Romney would also bring much needed fundraising prowess to help out McCain. Did anyone else see that Hillary today jettisoned her Hispanic campaign manager for a Black campaign manager? Wow, what naked opportunism. Now that Hillary has the Hispanic vote, she doesn't need her Hispanic manager any more??? Does she really think she will win over the Black vote by this move??? Pathetic.