Who’s NOT Talking About the Vice Presidency This Week
By Jennn Fusion | Related entries in Veep1. Tim Pawlenty told a crowd of 1,700 that he “hadn’t talked to Senator McCain in about a month” and that all this VEEP talk was just “pure and raw speculation.”
2. Mitt Romney says he also has not talked about the vice presidency with McCain, adding that he “looks forward to supporting McCain’s team, not being a part of it.”
3. Charlie Crist said he “ate too much, had some great chicken, great barbecue” but didn’t discuss the vice presidency at McCain’s ranch last weekend. He added, “It’s not something I concern myself with.”
4. Bobby Jindal said: “There was absolutely no discussion of the vice presidency, either joking or serious.” It’s “very flattering” but he likes the job he’s got, he said.
5. John Thune told the Des Moines Register that the VP rumor is “probably being circulated by [his] mom.” He also said, “There’s a lot of speculation right now, but at this point that’s all it is. At the end of the day, there’s one person whose opinion matters, and that’s Senator McCain.”
6. When CNN asked Mark Sanford if he wanted to be McCain’s #2 on Sunday, he said: “No, I’m just trying to survive the week. I made it to Sunday. I got another week ahead of me. … There’s nothing wrong with being vice president. But it’s not on my radar screen. I’ll worry about that lightning strike if it comes my way.”
VicePresidents.com says: Did anyone really think McCain was going to explicitly TALK about the vice presidency at his Memorial Day BBQ? Did the VEEP hopefuls think the media was envisioning them in an auction-type setting, all openly vying for the position? Or perhaps they were sitting in a circle all discussing their qualifications, trying to outdo each other. Maybe they had a cook-off to see who makes the best barbecue and they’d just settle it that way. Obviously this social event was just a chance for McCain to inwardly ask himself, “Who do I want to be spending the next four years with? Who do I get along with?” This was to be fun, to get everyone to let loose and be themselves, to get to know people better. So why does everyone feel they need to come out and say, “No, I wasn’t asked. We didn’t even talk about it” …? I guess the vice presidency is still very much seen as a Consolation Prize that no one really wants but will always accept.
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June 2nd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Further diminishing the likelihood that Pawlenty will be picked as McCain’s VP is the unlikelihood that he will help the Republicans carry the state in the presidential general election.
With history and polling data at his guide, Eric Ostermeier at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs gives a good rundown of Pawlenty’s potential as a running mate, at least in this capacity at the “Smart Politics” weblog.
“In 25 presidential elections during the past 100 years since 1908, the presidential tickets have not carried the running mate’s home state in 19 instances (38 percent). The most recent example is Democrat John Edwards who failed to carry North Carolina for John Kerry in 2004.
Of the 31 instances in which the running mate won their home state, more than two-thirds were in states that the VP’s party had already won during the previous presidential election. For example, VP nominee Dick Cheney and George W. Bush won Wyoming in 2000, but Republicans had already carried the Cowboy State in every presidential election year since Richard Nixon’s victory in 1968.”
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Let’s see…19 instances where they didn’t help; 31 instances where they did. Makes a total of 50…out of 25 elections. What am I missing here?