Posted on 05/27/2008 7:18:15 AM PDT by shrinkermd
My first thought on the running mate question is that to balance his ticket, Barack Obama should pick a really old white general. Therefore, he should pick Dwight Eisenhower. John McCain, on the other hand, needs to pick someone younger than himself. Therefore, he also should pick Dwight Eisenhower.
...If John McCain is elected, he’ll face a political culture threatening to split at the seams. In defeat, Democrats will be enraged at everything and everybody. The Republican Party will still be exhausted and divided. McCain will find it hard to staff the administration since so many Republican advisers were exhausted over the previous eight years.
Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota, is one of the G.O.P.’s leading and most likable modernizers. The son of a truck driver (his mother died when he was 16), he is the godfather of Sam’s Club conservatism, the effort to reconnect the party to the needs of the working class. Pawlenty could help McCain play the Theodore Roosevelt-style role — reforming the nation’s institutions to fit a new century and epoch...
Obama will need a vice president who knows the millions of ways that power is exercised and subverted in Washington. He’ll need someone who can be a senior, authoritative presence in a cabinet that may range from Republican Senator Chuck Hagel to the labor leader Andy Stern. He’ll need someone who can supervise his young reformers and build transpartisan coalitions more effectively than Obama has as senator.
Sam Nunn and Tom Daschle seem to fit the bill. Nunn is one of those senior Democrats (like David Boren and Bob Kerrey) who left the Senate lamenting the dumbed-down nature of modern politics. Daschle was more partisan as majority leader, but he is still widely trusted and universally liked.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A pathognomic sign that a moderate is going to the dark side, is to crack jokes about their previous allies. In this instance Brooks fails at both humor and ability to reason. He will please "the real conservatives" on FR who, like him, are ignorant of the fact that Freud pointed out personally directed humor has its genesis in emotionally and illogically based hostility.
Alternatively, Pinch is going to decide, in view of the declining NYT fortunes, who is going to leave. Snuggling up to pinch by telling him what he wants to hear is a NYT custom.
As far as Pawlenty, besides being the natural choice of a military strategy--attack at their strength--and Pawlenty's help and loyalty in the dark days, there is one fact that reformed or secular Jews miss. That is Pawlenty is a member of the largest Evangelical church in Minnesota and his pastor, Leith Anderson, is president of The American Evangelical Association. Pawlenty then brings unequivocal Evangelical credentials and the leader of the Evangelicals.
As far as Obama, I note that Mayor Bloomberg has exactly the same foreign policy views as Senator Obama, he is a Jew and richer than any candidate or pair of candidates. I guess Pastor Wright is about to learn, "the chickens are coming home to roost." Finally, Bloomberg would bring the 80% Jewish vote back in the Democrat fold and allay their fears of of Pastors Wright and Jackson et al running the country.
“Pawlenty then brings unequivocal Evangelical credentials and the leader of the Evangelicals.”
They already tried that with Huckabee and failed miserably. I think a lot of people are tired of the evangelical dance.
What if Obama picks Jim Webb for his VP? Hopefully this won’t be perceived as racist, but I believe Obama must pick a white man as his VP in order to have any chance this Fall against McCain.
Hillary is old and unaccomplished. Eisenhower was old but very accomplished.
That's the difference.
And, BTW, Hillary is not 61 - she's 60.
“Finally, Bloomberg would bring the 80% Jewish vote back in the Democrat fold and allay their fears of of Pastors Wright and Jackson et al running the country.”
A man with all his billions is not going to play second fiddle to Obama, not gonna happen. In fact, I think Mayor Mike will ultimately endorse McCain.
the Demonicrats will then have the perfect ticket, a black and a poofter who tried to start WWIII in Kosovo...
I find it hard to believe Sam Nunn would be on anybody's speed dial or Fave Five, let alone on Obama's list of potential VP's.
McCain/Forbes 2008
Barack Obama should pick John McCain as his VP! Problem briefly solved. At the same time, McCain should pick Obama to be his VP. Then, the political fighting between Obama and McCain can really begin, and all of the conservative voters will have to choose between minor political party Presidential candidates Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party and Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party.
Pawlenty was elected governor in Minnesota by tiny margins. He’s not bringing those Electoral Votes to the table. The Times knows it and wants the pick wasted.
The only non wasted pick is one that at least makes a case for bringing marginal blue EVs to McCain. That would be Michigan. A moderate who can make a try to steal Michigan is optimal.
Yes, Hillary was born October 26, 1947; she will be 61 in five months. I am surprised most and Brooks believe Eisenhower was old at 62 and Hillary is young at 61. That does not include you does it?
Incidentally, Senator McCain is 72; I guess ten years makes you senile. President Reagan was 69 when he took office. So I guess three years makes even more of a difference.
Yep, after all they're both RINOs.
Evengelicals don't have a leader.
Sola Scriptura
A man with billions especially craves recognition and power. Just having billions and being mayor of NYC is not sufficient.
Mayor Bloomberg, like many in politics, has a lifestyle of “will-to-power.” They enjoy the challenge and treasure moving upwards and onwards to personal immortality in the public press.
yet she doesn't look a day over 75.
Obama is all about youth. I can’t see him picking a VP that much older than him, which means his choices are quite limited.
For this reason, my guess is that he has zero interest in asking Wesley Clark to be his VP, as Clark is nearly two decades older than Obama.
David Brooks no longer deserves to be taken seriously when he brings up the names of nonstarters like Chuck Hagel and Andy Stern along with nonentities like Sam Nunn and Bob Kerry, while failing to mention Hillary. Republican newspaper columnists, please grow up and get over your cancerous Hillary hatred!
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