Obama Takes Maine
February 10, 2008
Barack Obama racked up another victory today, increasing his momentum. As with his victories yesterday, it was a convincing one: with half the vote in, Obama leads 58% to 41%.
Hillary Clinton fired her campaign manager today. It appears her strategy of conceding small states waiting to fight hard in Ohio and Texas is not working. I thought Mark put it best when he compared Hillary Clinton’s current situation to that of Rudy Guiliani’s.
Meanwhile, Mike Huckabee just gave a speech saying that we don’t need any laws other than the Ten Commandments. I know people are saying he is going to be the VP nominee. This guy is f*cking nuts. He’s funny, and if he had a talk show I would watch it. If he was a pastor in my neighborhood, I would probably attend his church occasionally. But this is not a guy who is a realistic candidate for President or Vice-President if he is put under any serious scrutiny.
Oh come on, I think all of us know just how wrong it is to make idols, just look at American idol, may god save us. Go Huck go!
I’ve heard lots of speculation about Huckabee being a VP candidate, but not from many political analysts — mainly just the rumor mill assuming that McCain will need a strong social conservative running mate to strengthen his base if and when he wins the Republican primary.
However, it would make more sense to choose Mitt Romney if he’s going to choose a primary opponent. McCain has self-admitted that his has limited experience with economic issues, and what political contributors I have seen make suggestions (through IndyStar Media and Wall Street Journal), they recommend a conservative with a strong financial background to run with McCain. As the economy is emerging as the primary election issue, McCain would be better with a strong fiscal conservative running mate than he would a strong social conservative one.
Romney, with a strong business acumen and an already recognized stance on social conservatism would fit that mold. Other suggestions were Congressman Mike Pence from Indiana, South Carolina Governor Mark Sandford, former Texas Senator and Republican Presidential candidate Phil Gramm, and Steve Forbes.
If McCain were to go with Governor Sanford, that would pair him with a leader from the strongly conservative south that has tended to lean Huckabee in recent primaries.
Huckabee himself is too over the top — and will turn away potential McCain voters, myself included, should he be the VP candidate.
And if Senator Obama chooses Governor Richardson as his running mate — that would be a tough duo to beat: vision and leadership paired with executive experience.
or mccain and lieberman? he’s been seen hanging around mccain a bit.
Senator Lieberman has been seen around Senator McCain, but I hope that’s not because there is a potential pairing between the two.
Lieberman left the Democratic party over Iraq issues; I wouldn’t imagine many liberal/Democratic voters would support him and many votes that Senator McCain could possibly pull across party lines wouldn’t follow him because of his running mate. Also, considering Senator McCain is far more moderate than most conservatives would like, choosing a moderate liberal will not help his cause with conservative base.
John McCain needs a running mate that is fiscally conservative, but also socially conservative (even if it’s just a tad - and preferably that would be the case) to garner support from the hard core Republicans.