It’s Not Romney
By Doug Mataconis | Related entries in 2008 Election, McCain, Republicans, RomneyIn addition to Tim Pawlenty essentially taking his own name off the list this morning, Fox News is reporting that Mitt Romney, who may or may not be in Dayton today, is not John McCain’s choice for a running mate:
Sources told FOX News that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will not be McCain’s choice, even though Romney is scheduled to appear at the Dayton rally.
The focus now is on Alaska Govenor Sarah Palin who reportedly arrived in Dayton by Gulfstream last night.
If it is Palin it would be, all at the same time, a surprising, risky, and very, very interesting choice.
Update: ABC News reports that Palin’s office says she’s still in Alaska:
ABC News’ Kate McCarthy Reports: As vice presidential speculation swirls, Gov. Sarah Palin is watching the fireworks from her home in Wasilla, Alaska.
(…)
The Governor’s spokesperson, Sharon Leighow, tells ABC News she’s going to the State Fair in Anchorage, Alaska.
Going to the state fair ? Didn’t Tim Pawlenty use that excuse too ?
Of course, Pawlenty did it in person and it’s early enough in Alaska right now that a “she’s still at home” story is hard to verify unless she actually walks out her front door to get the morning paper.
This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, McCain, Republicans, Romney. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:06 am
Probably not Palin (see website I posted above under my name)… I’m going to bet on Cantor, Ridge, Hutchison and maybe a distant Lieberman.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:12 am
Reports this week said that both Ridge and Hutchison declined an offer to join the ticket for “personal” reasons.
Justin linked to a Politico article last night that seems to confirm that it’s not Lieberman.
That leaves Cantor and Palin and, between the two, Palin would be the smarter choice for McCain.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:22 am
I just read this at:
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/08/palinmania.php
All things considerd, if you’re going to get involved in an abuse of power scandal, one that involves an attempt to fire a state trooper who “had been involved in a divorce and child custody battle with Palin’s sister, Molly McCann†and who “was briefly suspended for ten days for threatening to kill McCann’s (and Palin’s) father, tasering his 11-year-old stepson, and violating game laws†doesn’t seem like the worst possible way to go. Certainly by the standards of Alaska GOP corruption it’s kind of small potatoes.
But of course the weird thing about the Alaska Republican Party is that while they send these endlessly re-elected legislators to DC to push for hard-right legislation, pork, and various forms of sleaze they’re running a government based on a weird form of socialism in one giant swathe of sub-arctic wasteland. Normal governors don’t get involved in controversies about state-owned dairy farms and the like (I believe it was Mikhail Gorbachev who moved to privatize the agricultural sector) and there’s no other state whose oil tax revenues are big enough to just cut the entire population welfare checks. It’s a bit hard to know how you shift from that into non-fantasyland world of federal policymaking.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:26 am
I don’t know if Palin is all that good of a pick… she’s been governor for less than two years of a state with 6 million people. Before that she was the mayor of Wasilla, which had a whopping 6,000 people. Not exactly going to help McCain with the experience argument against Obama. Sure, some women might be excited by it but when you put her one heartbeat away from being the President of the United States, I’d imagine people will take into consideration her very tiny resume.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:27 am
sorry i meant 600000 above. not 6 million.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:34 am
My money’s on Palin at this point. She’s a darling of the faithful, which simply cannot be overrated. Remember, the single most delightful moment of the last 4 years for party faithful was when they got their way on the scotus nom by using uproar to veto Harriet Mears.
Pailin is new and shiny enough that she has no negatives. And the democrats can’t use the “too young and inexperienced” argument against her for VERY obvious reasons.
But the best reason, IMO, is that Palin does something for the GOP ticket that guys like Romney and Pawlenty and Ridge don’t. It makes then interesting…it makes undecided folks more eager to give the GOP a 2nd look and kick the tires.