Posted by
on Wednesday, February 06, 2008 2:12:41 AM
This has been an interesting year. McCain definately seems to be ahead, but if I recall, just about everyone's been ahead at one time or another, so I'm not prepared to call it until one of the candidates has a clear supermajority. I do think that WV deal between Huckabee and McCain is a cause for serious concern, the reason being: aren't we voting for a presidential nominee? Let me be a bit more clear here. It isn't a problem if McCain wins and picks some random Republican as his running mate, because then we just have the old "enemy of enemy=friend thinking", which is kosher for this kind of event. It also isn't a problem if Huckabee wins (though this appears extremely unlikely at this point), and picks some random Republican. But if McCain picks Huckabee as his VP, which has been looking, we'll say, less and less unlikely, then it will look like a fairly textbook case of conspiracy. Now some people will say all's fair in politics, and I'm all for the no crying, no whining, no blood no foul kind of game. I don't mind harsh criticism of candidates based on their records, statements, and all, provided of course that what is being said is true and is given enough context not to be deceptive. However, when you have two candidates conspiring, claiming to run separately but in fact coordinating with the plan to unite their totals at the end, then it allows for a kind of microsegmentation of the population that is difficult to run against, however qualified a candidate may be. For that reason, I think if McCain wants to win this thing Huckabee had better not be his running mate or a lot of conservative Republicans may call foul and decide they've been used enough for one year.
Additionally, if McCain does manage to get the nomination (still hoping this doesn't happen) it will be very important who h chooses as his running mate. He has reminded us repeatedly that his mother is still alive and kicking, but whether his longevity will more closely resemble his mother or his father remains to be seen. Anyway, his VP will probably get a lot more scrutiny than either a hypothetical Clinton or Obama's running mate would.