Now that even the hardline right are growing to accept that inevitability of a McCain nomination, one thing is clear- Huckabee has outlived his usefulness. Rumors are beginning to swirl about Romney dropping out and endorsing McCain, so could we be looking at a McCain/Romney ticket in 2008? Or is there too much hate? Or is he playing for 2012?
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[…] John Cole wonders if now that Romney is out if it will result in a McCain-Romney ticket. […]
Tsulagi
Hate wouldn’t be a factor. McCain wants the Oval Office so bad that as with Bush who slimed him in 00 he’d give Romney hugs and kisses too if he thought it could help.
00 McCain says the loony Christian right is hurting the party. 07/08 McCain says God bless them. 07 McCain co-sponsored immigration reform the Tancredo wing hated. 08 McCain in the last Pub debate I saw was talking Tancredo-lite. He’s desperate this time around.
The real comedy would be if Mr. Straight Talk picked Huckabee for his ticket. But Flipper would be good for some laughs too.
PaulW
This just in: Romney suspending his campaign. I doubt Romney will be in the mood to be a Vice-President to either McCain or Huckabee.
What I wonder is, will the “conservative” whinebots now moaning and griping about McCain decide to anoint the Huckster as their Chosen One? If they do, say goodbye to Huckabee’s campaign just like all the others they’d supported… snerk.
scott
What does McCain get with Mittwitt on the ticket? He gets 1/3 of the party, the Oligarghic end as you’ve put it.
But, by putting Huckleberry on the ticket, he gets all the fundies and I think they’re probably the more important of the two legs.
Plus, doesn’t McCain really dislike Romney? Not that liking one’s Veep is a requirement for the job but if you look at candidates who clearly had partners on the ticket they didn’t like or had no intention of working with (Kerry/Edwards is a case study), said tickets have lost. At least Clinton/Gore and Bush/Darth campaigned as a team and worked the administration as one.
ThymeZone
McCain would hug the corpse of Terri Schiavo if he thought it would get him a vote.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Goodbye, Mittens.
Grand Moff Texan
So, two non-conservatives = jack shit when you put them together.
Mitt is only loved by the pundit class, and even their audience is sick of them. McCain can only win in states he can’t carry in November.
No, any meaningful combination would require two of the three severed limbs of the dead Reagan coalition, and Huckabee is the only one who has die-hard followers of any kind, however few in number.
This is deader than Dole.
.
Ned Raggett
The whole ‘suspended’ thing just makes me laugh. “I’m gone…but I’m a POWER still.” I think not.
Billy K
McCain/Romney makes a lot more sense than the McCain/Huck balloons they were floating a few days ago.
I believe Mitt will do anything to get his, um…mitts on the levers of power – even if those levers are only VICE Presidential. (Besides, howlong is ol’ John got left anyway?)
Dennis - SGMM
McCain/Huckabee ’08: Bullets and Bibles for All, Bitches!
Billy K
He gets fundraising. Don’t discount the money angle.
Kallisti
But what about his shoulders!? WHAT ABOUT HIS SHOULDERS?!
Punchy
Romney needs to drop out and throw his support to Keyes.
scott
True but at what cost? If the fundies stay at home (which a lot of them will if faced with a McCain/Romney ticket), then McCain has a harder time winning in states he might otherwise carry, like here in Misery.
Even assuming Clinton as the Dem nominee, she’ll carry Kerry’s states and then needs just one more. But without the fundies onboard, even with whatever the anti-Hillary hate vote turns out to be, she’d have a real shot at taking just one more state and winning.
McCain, like Dole in 96, needs the fundies if if, like Dole, he doesn’t get em, he’s toast.
Cassidy
Interesting
Ed Drone
So the ticket is Flipper McGee and Golly? (Radio reference)
Or maybe Mitt is Flipper to McPain’s Sandy? (TV reference)
Or maybe it’s the Bestest Ticket Ever© (questionable sanity reference)
Ed
Billy K
The guy can’t even get past the first paragraph in his argument without lying/being completely wrong.
Except that they offered Washington the keys to the Kingdom of America. Has Beck ever read a book?
A Different JC
Bye bye mittens.
Actually, I long assumed the natural running mate for McCain is Brownback. Brownback has been actively stumping for McCain’s campaign in the Midwest and in conservative strongholds.
I assume Mitt, if he wanted, could get a cabinet position… then again, he may want to go back to Bain to “replentish the ol’ coffers” to quote his fearless leader.
Svensker
Heard someone on Fox (of course) suggest Bill Bennett as the perfect Veep for McCain. Bwwaaahahahahhahaha.
The Huckster doesn’t actually pick up too much of the Evangelical vote because he doesn’t like war and torture too much. As if that makes sense…..
jcricket
I think the corpse of McCain and the husk of Schiavo would make a nice couple. Oh wait, McCain’s not dead? Could’ve fooled me.
I foresee a McCain/Huckabee ticket. Huckabee pisses off the increasingly unimportant “fiscal conservative” wing and gains you all the fundies – remember their turnout is important come November. This ticket will prove the Republican party no more stands for the mythical “conservatism” than the Democrats do.
Republicans have 100% become the party of: spend but don’t tax, WAR WAR WAR, anti-science, pro-life and pro-bigotry. How this mix leads to continued electoral victory is beyond me, but I shouldn’t underestimate the stupidity of the American public.
Digital Amish
I thought about Keyes the other day when whatshisname at RedState was going on about the racism that Obamas democractic campaign epitomized. (or whatever in the hell it was he was ranting about). There they have Alan Keyes, with the best conservative bona fides of the whole bunch and not drawing a whisper of support. What’s up with that?
NickM
Don’t many Movementarians hate Huckabee as much as they hate McCain? Wouldn’t that be a disincentive against choosing him as a running mate?
D-Chance.
You know why Romney had to drop out, don’t you? He’s just too good for us:
“Romney lost here for two reasons that are not mutually exclusive: class warfare and envy. People don’t like him because he is richer, smarter, better-looking and more successful than they are, and so much so, that it is impossible for him to camouflage the difference. Oh, they will make claims such as religion or flip flops, but it’s all hogwash. This is, of course, contrary to what conservatism ought to be, but it is in line with humanity as it is.”
/bangs head on desk…
BTW, note the use of ‘conservatism’ here… where the rich and the pretty and the powerful are “more equal” than the surrounding squalor and, as such, have every natural right to be our overlords. Amazing…
Hypatia
Some of them may,but it doesn’t seem to be a factor right now. McCain will choose anyone he thinks will help him carry the South, which has never been more crucial for the GOP. Right now it’s looking as if that guy is Huckabee.
But then a couple of weeks ago I said things were looking good for the Mittmeister, what with all the closed primaries coming up, etc……
NonyNony
What does McCain get with Mittwitt on the ticket? He gets 1/3 of the party, the Oligarghic end as you’ve put it.
McCain needs the oligarchic end of the party. His fundraising is down the tubes and he needs the moneymen to back him.
Plus – McCain is freaking old. There’s a possibility he might kick off during this presidency just from cancer or age or stress or something. So his veep choice isn’t going to be “symbolic” or “grooming the next generation” or anything like that – it’s gonna be someone that the money guys can trust to take the reigns right away if McCain passes on while in office. So it definitely won’t be the Huckster.
But McCain needs the majority of the GOP voting base to back him. He may not need to true fringe, but he needs the reliable GOP voters. That means he needs a “true Christian” in the mold of W as his running mate. So it won’t be Mittens either.
He needs an oligarch (southern accent optional) who at least attends a bible thumping church on occasion and can speak the right code words to soothe the voting base while simultaneously sanding down his rough edges with the guys providing the funding.
I got nothing – seriously. If such a candidate was out there already he’d be the frontrunner for the nomination at this point. Maybe McCain will tag some unknown CEO with a strong military service background. Or maybe he’ll throw caution to the wind and pick someone who doesn’t appease either camp but doesn’t actively piss them off either.
But it won’t be Mitt. And it won’t be Huck. And it won’t be Rudy or Ron Paul or Fred Thompson or any of the rest of the clowns we’ve seen so far. It’ll be someone new.
jcricket
It’s the “all maverick” ticket, that the press will just lap right up. Ignore the fact that neither are in any substantial way different than the current GOP in practice (Spend + tax cuts + war + mixed messages on immigrants).
I still think the MUP and Clagina can beat the combined ticket, but only if they both understand how much “offense” they will have to play.
stannate
McCain/Gingrich ’08: Why settle for just one white-haired guy?
jcricket
Hunter? Tancredo? I hear that Larry Craig guy’s in need of a job too.
ThymeZone
Then they ought to tap him.
jcricket
Or get Mark Foley to page him.
ThymeZone
At the very least, bend over backwards to accomodate him.
jcricket
You can end up quite “Haggard” from all that accommodating.
or
Vitter? I hardly know her!
“Crist” these GOP-s*x jokes are getting old (bonus points for anyone who gets the last one)
NonyNony
McCain/Gingrich ‘08: Why settle for just one white-haired guy?
Unfortunately, I think McCain is smarter than that.
Too bad though – the “angry old white dude” ticket would have been a comedy gold mine for late night talk show hosts.
Chinn Romney
My sources tell me that Fred Thompson is the Man. It’s an easy gig, no heavy lifting or endless glad handling, just show up at a couple of TV Debates to blow kisses at the loonier members of the Base. His Wife has approved the idea and all that’s left is to find that Red Pickup Truck and they’ll be back in business.