Let’s Speculate: A McCain-Romney Ticket? What About The Question?
Just assume, for a moment, that lightning strikes and John McCain selects Mitt Romney as his running mate. Would The Question rise up to bite them both?
We’re not seeing much lately among the punditry suggesting a lot of concern about that. Joe Gandelman, at The Moderate Voice, says McCain has been making interesting noises about Romney as a veep nominee:
The Republican party’s Presidential nominee to be, Senator John McCain, is now dropping hints that, yes, he would indeed seriously consider his former nomination rival former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as his running mate. . . . it would make sense. It would be perhaps the first Republican ticket in many years containing two media savvy politicos who know how to talk to the TV camera but also come across well on the TV camera.
Gandelman’s source is this Boston Herald Story, in which McCain is quoted as saying that
the former Bay State governor ran an effective primary campaign and is a rising star in national politics.
“Millions of Republicans voted for him,” McCain said during a swing through New Hampshire. “He’s earned himself a place in the future of the Republican Party.”
Notably, Gandelman lists the “downsides” to such a ticket, and . . . none of them includes Romney’s Mormonism!
Similarly, the CBS News blog (to which Gandelman links) says Romney’s attacks on McCain during the primary races could come back to haunt Romney. I don’t really think so, but again, like Gandelman, CBS does not mention Romney’s faith as a reason he’d be a bad choice.
What is going on here? Several possibilities come to mind.
First, these pundits could simply be clueless. Maybe the elephant in the room suddenly disappeared, but I don’t think so - not after 20 months of the news media talking about him incessantly.
Next, maybe the pundits are right - or a little bit right. Psychologically, maybe it doesn’t bother hard-core Evangelicals as much for the veep nominee to belong to a faith that upsets them so. That’s illogical, but I’m talking about psychology. Even though the vice president really is a heartbeat from the presidency, most of us don’t really believe the unthinkable will happen.
And yet . . . and yet . . . McCain needs to do what he must to win. If he really thinks he needs all the conservative votes he can get, then why would he risk alienating hard-core Evangelicals by choosing Romney?
Then again, those people are already about as alienated as can be. A “M & M” ticket would presumably not make anything worse.
As you may be able to tell, I am frankly undecided as to whether The Question would haunt a McCain-Romney ticket. What do you think?
John Takes A Stab: My off-the-cuff answer is “depends on Huckabee.” I am speaking metaphorically here. Let me break that down a bit. Most Evangelicals would have voted for Romney if there was not something they perceived as a more viable alternative in the race. There is a level of unease concerning Mormonism at the highest levels of government (no logic here, it does not seem to exist at the lower levels - it is a symbolism over substance thing) that can be overcome, relatively easily, unless someone specifically manipulates that unease, in the primaries that someone was Mike Huckabee.
That would be troubling for a Romney veep slot save for one fact - no one on the Democratic side comes with sufficient Evangelical credentials to pull off that manipulation. We are watching Obama’s religious credibility evaporate before our very eyes, and Clinton’s went away about a decade ago. No Evangelical leader worth the title is going to say a word at this point, they know the damage this whole thing has wrought.
If Romney is the veep choice, there will be rumblings - something like aftershocks from a major earthquake. There might be some that cause a little damage, but nothing fatal. The worst is over, the significant damage done. My guess is the only people that will pay attention at this point are political junkies.
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7 Responses to “Let’s Speculate: A McCain-Romney Ticket? What About The Question?”
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mrclark411 on 20 Mar 2008 at 3:19 am #
Why would evangelicals not worry so much about Vice President Romney?
An idea: Maybe evangelicals’ problem with Romney and Mormonism has nothing to do with him governing. Maybe it has everything to do with the perceived credibility boost that it would (or would not) be given if he were to be elected as the presidential nominee.
If Romney is not directly elected (as McCain’s VP), then if something were to happen to McCain and Romney becomes the President, evangelicals can rest easy that Romney was not voted into that most powerful office and thus his religion is not given the stamp of approval that a general election would require.
lkm55 on 20 Mar 2008 at 6:15 am #
I don’t believe McCain would chose Huckabee as veep. His record as a spender in AR will be enough to disqualify him, plus McCain holds grudges, and Huckabee did not bow out gracefully like Mitt did. McCains daughter has said on her blog it won’t happen.
I had hoped Mitt would return in 2012 the same way Reagan did in 1980. Unfortunately, it may take 4-8 years as the Vice President for the evengelical community to get over their predjudice of Mormons.
The most improtant thing is that Mitt Romney’s voice continue to be heard both in the republican party, and the nation at large.
CarlH on 20 Mar 2008 at 9:07 am #
Here’s one prayer for no lightning strike! Despite the current blip showing McCain ahead of either Democratic candidate, I fear the McCain-Whoever ticket–heading a Republican Party in total disarray and without anyone (including its presumptive nominee) articulating anything that even remotely seems to be resonating with voters–is destined to be Dole-Kemp redux (or worse). “The Question” would undoubtedly be used (and, undoubtedly, advantageously) by the very media people who are saying nothing about it right not, let alone the Democratic candidates to bog down an already problematic campaign for McCain. As for Romney, being the VP candidate on a losing ticket may get Romney some party-loyalty brownie points, but the stench of a losing–and possibly disastrous–campaign would overwhelm any such “bounce” (a political reality for which John Edwards is just the most recent “Exhibit A”).
4thnephite on 20 Mar 2008 at 3:28 pm #
Bro. Romney has given “the Question” to bed. I would like to hear the Huckster give his definition to the question, since he is the first and only one I know of who brought up this constitution matter.
McCain has already brought up his lack of knowledge with the economy, Mitt would be an excellent choice.
Why not the “Dynamic Duo” Nice ring and I know conservatives would be happy. I think John needs him now.
Tinker on 20 Mar 2008 at 9:53 pm #
The absence of the question re: Romney’s potential veep run is interesting. While I believe that the Obama fiasco and Huckabee’s exit are certainly contributing factors, I have a strong sense that it indicates something deeper that has largely been obscured, given the laser-sharp focus on the question.
I suspect that opposition to Romney’s run may have been more about the conservative way in which Republicans go about vetting their presidential candidates than the question itself. That would square generally with Nixon’s, Reagan’s, and Bush 41’s experiences, in which they all had to pay their dues before the party gave them the nod. While this wasn’t what happened for Bush 43, it may just be the exception which proves the rule, and conservatives who might feel burned by his less-than-stellar presidency, may be returning to old tried-and-true methods.
If this is really what’s happening, then it’s possible the question, and the illogical persistence of the flip-flop moniker, served as a convenient cover for the real underlying objection which may have been as innocuous as “Mitt, we hardly know ye.”
As an eternal optimist, I like the implications of this possibility. It would indicate that, contrary to the smug tongue-clicking of the MSM at their long held prejudice against the religious right, there may be a whole lot less bigotry against Mormons in the Republican party.
CarlH on 24 Mar 2008 at 9:42 am #
The Boston Globe’s Joan Venocchi, clearly not a Romney fan, does some speculating of her own (on Sunday, April 23): McCain and Romney: Mitt’s moment - at last? Yikes!
Romney’s Mormonism is mentioned only once (and as one of several possible “positives”) as perhaps helping McCain “in Nevada, which has a large Mormon population.” Yikes, indeed.
CarlH on 24 Mar 2008 at 3:08 pm #
Oops, that’s March (not April) 23 for Venocchi’s article! I thought DST had messed with my body clock–but Easter in March has pushed me over the edge I guess.