Nov 13 2007
Lieberman For GOP Vice President
Bill Kristol has said what I originally drafted – and then deleted – in my recent post on Joe Lieberman. And that is Lieberman would be a great Vice President under a Giuliani (or other moderate GOP) Presidency. Personally I think it would be an outstanding idea and a clear indication to the fringes, left and right, that America is fed up with their zero sum stand offs. Either the fringes start compromising with the middle or they can go off and fume about all the terrible “impurities” they see in this great nation of diverse people. Either way America takes a huge leap forward. It is about time we stopped making “compromise” part and parcel of “treason”. The real crime is stopping progress, not making it (as imperfect as political processes always are). And of course America’s strength has been its acceptance of people from all walks of life, not in enforcing ideological purity.
Nope. Not going to happen.
Classically, you pick a VP candidate to balance the ticket. Ideologically and regionally. And you may need to pick a rival…to get his supporters behind you in the general election.
If Guliani is the nominee, he needs a conservative from the South or Midwest. My money would be on Thompson.
Likewise, if Thompson gets the nomination, he is most likely to go with Guliani.
Where things would get interesting is if Thompson gets nominated…and Guliani turns down the VP slot (possibly in favor of a Senate run). THEN Lieberman would be a possible running mate.
Nope. Not going to happen.
The VP pick needs to balance the top of the ticket ideologically and regionally. And if there is a serious rival, the VP slot is a great way to co-opt that person’s supporters.
If Guliani gets the nomination, his logical running mate is Fred Thompson. And vice-versa.
Romney? For him, Thompson works well…but if I were in his shoes, I’d be courting Huckabee. He’s an ordained Baptist minister, and his presence on the ticket would defuse a lot of the anti-Mormon prejudice.
Mike M,
I agree it is not going to happen, which is why I deleted from my post on Lieberman. But it would be huge!
Sorry for the double post there…something about the posting software wasn’t taking my inputs.
I would vote for a Rudy/Lieberman ticket. But Lieberman is way too liberal for me on some issues. He would be beholden to organized labor and is something of a Global Warming band wagoner.
Not a bad combination for a country desperately in need of a unifier in the White House. Both are basically honorable men without the seeming illusions of grandeur that the rest of the pack suffers from. But in the end too much Northeast (New York) influence for the rest of the country to swallow.
There is no such thing as unifying the country when so many are intent upon smear and lies.
But….if you want to swallow their cool-aid, then all will be back to normal.
Ick.
Wow, how far have the left and right gone!!! Lieberman is a great society liberal. Big government, big spender, higher taxes, liberal on social issue without being wildly progressive but not a friend of traditional values. And he is being considered for the Republican ticket? He got thrown out of the democratic party over Iraq and because he will compromise on some issues.
Rudy is basically a post new deal liberal. If he didn’t have such a huge exposure on 9-11 terror issues, he would not be the Republican front runner. At that he is sure to lose S.C. and will need to win Florida to have a chance on February 5th.
Mark:
Lieberman is an honorable man and while I do not agree with him on everything, I think he would be a good VP.
But it won’t happen.
As far as Republican values are concerned, I am old enough to remember when Republican did not mean right wing. It seems to me that there are people on both extremes taking it upon themselves to decide what the “values” of each party are supposed to be.