Free Republic

John McCain has five weeks to choose his Vice Presidential running mate. Typically the most a presidential candidate can hope for is a partner who does him no harm. That criteria having been met, the choice is only important if the race is close; landslides aren’t caused or prevented by vice presidential candidates. So the question for John McCain is who, if anyone can significantly influence Americans to vote Republican in November. The answer is Mitt Romney -- and for many more reasons than that he can deliver Michigan’s 17 electoral votes to the Republican column for the first time...

MITT MATCH While Mitt Romney's set of paid PR minions are busy pushing out Mitt for Vice President spin, McCain campaign insiders say that while it's true they have polled Romney on the bottom of the ticket, the data confirms that such a move would be a political disaster for the party. "Mitt tanks the ticket," says a McCain insider. "We lose fiscal conservatives. We lose social conservatives. We lose Catholics. We lose evangelicals. All the groups were spending time and money on bringing into the camp would be lost. He just doesn't help us enough to do something like...

Once upon a time, people who wanted to be president were not expected to admit it in public. This mask of false indifference had to be dropped when the rise of primaries forced candidates to campaign actively for the office.

John McCain’s Veepstakes: Mitt Romney by John Gizzi (This is the thirteenth Veepstakes article. Already profiled have been Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Ohio Rep. Rob Portman, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint and South Dakota Sen. John Thune. ) When he launched his bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. (2002-06) Mitt Romney was viewed skeptically by many conservatives. The son...

Political experts say the weakening U.S. economy, the No. 1 issue for voters, could sway McCain to pick Romney, whose experience as a successful former venture capitalist could compensate for McCain's weaknesses in economic matters.