Give him a couple of years to mature, though, and he will be one of the GOP’s most
interesting leaders along with Gov. Sara Pallin of Alaska. Tough, smart, anti-corruption---which is sorely
needed in the criminal enterprise that passes for a political parties these days.
Others still argue for former Massachusetts Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, suggesting
he would bring the conservative movement with him. This argument identifies McCain’s
problem but Romney may not be the solution.
McCain has yet to unify the conservative movement that is not a wing of the GOP
but the glue that holds it together. Conservatives have been battered and bewildered
by eight years of betrayal, of Rovism, of Bushism and many are openly discussing the
possible strategic advantage of losing in November and having a government dominated by extreme
left wing liberals as a means of rebuilding populist conservatism.
The idea of picking Romney begs the question, if Romney was the darling of
conservatives, then why didn’t he get the nomination in the first place? Is it possible
that grassroots conservatives have become choosy shoppers, having been told by Bush
that he was one of them but then went and behaved like those other guys?
Upon scratching the surface, conservatives found out Romney supported mandates
in Massachusetts, antithetical to people who believe Freedom is their organizing principle.
Within several minutes of announcing for president, Romney flipped, flopped, and
then did a triple summersault on the Second Amendment, on abortion, on immigration,
on the odious McCain-Feingold, and other issues.
His boosters say his business background is a plus but as anyone who watched “Citizen
Kane” can tell you, it’s easy to make a lot of money when you inherit a lot of money.
Even the talking heads don’t say that Romney will bring along the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Having a son at college in Boston, I can attest that it is very similar to Beijing, only more repressive, but
cleaner.
Some tried the Michigan argument because his father was governor there when Lyndon Johnson was
President!? What? That is so last century.
In fact, the only running mate who ever delivered a state was Johnson, in 1960, and anybody who has
been in politics for more than 15 minutes knows LBJ and his cronies stole the state. No running mate in
the modern era ever delivered their home state.
For McCain, Romney ambition reminds many of what my old friend Lyn Nofziger said of Don Rumsfeld
going on the ticket with Ronald Reagan in 1980. “Rummy would be fine, but you realize we’ll have to
hire a food taster for Reagan!”
Romney is a fine man and has a very attractive family, but what McCain needs is a ticket of two stable
adults to offset the perceived immaturity of Obama. McCain needs to unify his party while
communicating seriousness to the American people.
He needs to look outside of Washington for someone unsullied by the unprincipled GOP. A stable,
reformist conservative with a track record of walking the walk and not just talking the talk.
There are still Americans who believe the presidency is serious business and how
a nominee picks his running mate is the first act in which he can communicate to
the voters that he is serious about the business of the presidency.