To win in November, McCain needs brilliant Veep pick
by Bob Hoig, Publisher
Midlands Business Journal
Even coming off a lopsided win in West Virginia Tuesday, Hillary Clinton needs a cosmic computer to show her a path to beat Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination in August.
There could always be a summer “surprise” of the type that was routine in the Clinton Administration, 1993-2001.
Things like FBI background checks on 500 top Republicans mysteriously turning up in the Clinton White House – all the better for opposition research on behalf of the Clintons as needed.
Hillary just might have something up her sleeve, but it had better be good. Or as the New York Post summarized her chances after North Carolina in one word – “Toast!”
The surprise could be revelations of new associations with people like Reverend Wright or the 1960s terrorist couple William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn or the Chicago machine fixer Tony Rezko, who helped the Obama’s financially and in other ways.
So far, good “oppo” research has been undependable or non-existent for Clinton’s campaign. She apparently missed Reverend Wright until far too late. She seems strangely disinclined to come down on Obama’s associations with Ayers and Dorhn or Rezko.
All of which is to say that John McCain can presume he will face Obama in the general election in November. Further, he can know that his success will rest on making a brilliant choice for a running mate.
This writer’s nominations are Condoleezza Rice and Newt Gingrich.
The “why” of action now is because, given the Obama-enchanted news media, no Republican can wait for September and hope to get a coherent message through by November. Distortions, “unfortunate” mistakes, subtle slandering, outright lies, charges coming the weekend before Nov. 4 with no chance for rebuttal. McCain can expect them all.
He can count on talk radio and that’s about it.
The media being the way it is, only Obama has the luxury of procrastination. And lucky for him, given the current hash of internal Democrat politics.
What makes Rice and Gingrich great choices is what makes them imperative for McCain. Both can articulate positions and repel attacks better than any politician now active. Obama is good. But only as long as his flow of oratory is unbroken and the crowd cheering.
This writer has followed Rice since the 1990s when she was a frequent guest on a PBS talk show.
Rice’s credentials are perfect for McCain. She’s an African-American woman. She’s experienced, smart, loyal and personally steady in her demeanor and thinking.
A recent poll quoted on the cable channels showed McCain and Rice beating any combination of Obama and Clinton by 5 percentage points. Fascinatingly, the poll was taken for New York.
As secretary of state, Rice had to be vetted in Congress to get the post. Privately, she was in the public eye as an academic and on television before coming to Washington.
This is to say that anything in her past damaging to McCain would be out by now, given the appetites of top Democrats Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Patrick Leahy, Barbara Boxer and some others.
Yes, we know, Rice was a part of the demonized George W. Bush administration. Demonizing is what Reid, Pelosi, Leahy and Boxer do.
As an aside, we predict history will be kinder to President Bush than any of these four.
Faced with a nuke-implying and certainly nuke-chasing mad dictator, Saddam Hussein, Bush acted. The president ridded America of at least the third leg of a murderous triangle – Mahmoud Achmadinejad, Kim Jong Ill and the late, unlamented Saddam.
Gingrich has been high profile since he was Speaker of the House in the 1990s and authored the Contract With America, which captured the House of Representatives for the GOP after 40 years of Democrat rule.
The thing that makes Gingrich and Rice so appealing is both think exceptionally well on their feet. They are at their best outlining positions and counterattacking opposition.
Some of the Republicans in recent contention are certainly smart enough. But they often fumble in expressing themselves, reminding us of the quote that the difference between the right word and the nearly right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.
We hope lightning strikes the thinking of John McCain. Rice or Gingrich would be just the ticket.
May 2008
