Lieberman and Ridge Were Close to Getting Picked

Submitted by Steve Peterson on Mon, 09/01/2008 - 11:14pm. Tags:

Politics

Apparently Lieberman and Ridge Were Close to Getting Picked:

Up until midweek last week, some 48 to 72 hours before Mr. McCain introduced Ms. Palin at a Friday rally in Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McCain was still holding out the hope that he could choose a good friend, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, a Republican close to the campaign said. Mr. McCain had also been interested in another favorite, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania.

But both men favor abortion rights, anathema to the Christian conservatives who make up a crucial base of the Republican Party. As word leaked out that Mr. McCain was seriously considering the men, the campaign was bombarded by outrage from influential conservatives who predicted an explosive floor fight at the convention and vowed rejection of Mr. Ridge or Mr. Lieberman by the delegates.

(The article is interesting overall so I recommend giving it a read.)

My guess is now that even if more and more stuff unfolds about Palin she can't withdraw then get replaced with Lieberman or Ridge. Dobson and crew would stay home in droves.

Would even Pawlenty or Romney be enough of a replacement? Or would this be a windfall for Huckabee?

Sticking it out with Palin might be the least damaging -- America has no problem voting for an air-headed veep -- but loopiness and the whiff of strangeness in her associations could be more problematic. My guidelines would be "dumb but normal" or "loopy and stinking rich".

Steven Palmer Peterson

Steve Peterson's blog
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The hits keep on rolling -- resume padding (#114983)

by Bill White on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 10:23am

St Louis Times Dispatch:

ALASKA PIPELINE: Amy Gwin, 43, of University City, grew up in Alaska and competed in the Miss Wasilla, Alaska, competition in 1984 against GOP vice presidential choice Sarah Palin. Gwin said Friday that she won the Miss Congeniality award in the competition, although Palin's Wikipedia entry says she won the contest — and the Miss Congeniality award. Gwin was a year behind Palin, now 44, at Wasilla High School, which had about 800 students. Gwin said Palin was "a high school star in a good way," a beauty who got good grades and excelled at athletics. Gwin, who was president of her class, does not recall Palin holding school office. The Wikipedia entry on Palin said she was head of the school's Fellowship of Christian Athletes and captain of the basketball team. Gwin said she was not surprised when Palin became the governor of Alaska, but is astonished that she got the GOP nod for vice president. Asked whether she would support Palin because she knows her, Gwin said: "I wouldn't support her if she was my very best friend. I support Obama and don't share any of her (Palin's) politics. She's very shallow." Gwin is the director of agency relations for the Rodgers Townsend advertising firm. Her husband, Brad Nuccio, is executive VP of the St. Louis Science Center. The couple have two children, Mia, 9, and Max, 7.

Yes, Amy Gwin could be lying or maybe a few nasty Democrats sabotaged Palin's Wikipedia entry but this sounds more like a low level version of Tuzla-esque resume padding.

Fence post turtles -- They don't get up there by themselves, some moron had to put 'em there.

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Miss Congeniality? (#114992)

by Bernard Guerrero on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 10:41am

Really, Bill? Really? :^)

On the upside, this election looks like it will remain just as amusing as it started straight through to the end. The comedic staying-power is impressive.

The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer

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Not the gambler people claim (#114944)

by caleb on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 7:44am

McCain gambling would have been to pick a pro-choice nom in either Lieberman or Ridge. THAT would have been gambling.

But McCain didn't gamble. He picked what he thought a very safe pick to shore up the base of the republican party with a very hard social conservative woman.

The fact he royally screwed up the process of said nomination is a different topic entirely.

This whole episode is not an example of gambling, it's of malfeasance.

~At times like these I am reminded of the immortal words of Socrates when he said...."I drank what?"

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McCain is a gamber in real life. An obsessive craps player (#114946)

by BlaiseP on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 7:57am

A game of no skill, high risk and a big house advantage. It's now emerging his people didn't vet Palin at all. This is a craps player's thinking, to the T. He's betting he can keep throwing, avoid crapping out, letting the Social Conservatives carry his water so he doesn't have to.

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Craps Actually. . . (#115321)

by M Scott Eiland on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 8:26pm

. . .has a very small house percentage, if you play it right (line bets only, backed by maximum free odds). If you can find a 10x odds table--not that difficult in Vegas--the effective house percentage is about 0.2% Cheap entertainment, really--particularly since drinking won't hurt your ability to play, and free booze is there for the asking.

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Oh, I know (#114949)

by caleb on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 8:19am

McCain can stand at a craps table for 14 hours straight. I know about his vice.

I just don't see this as "gambling".

Picking a nominee the party base would be ecstatic over is not gambling.

Not properly vetting is negligence.

~At times like these I am reminded of the immortal words of Socrates when he said...."I drank what?"

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Yep -- isn't that just like a craps player? (#114947)

by stillnotking on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 8:05am

Sure, it's impressive to see that guy at the craps table on a hot streak. Come back a few hours later and see if the chips are still there.

McCain may have the guts to gamble, but that's only half of what it takes to be successful. The other half is gambling on your own terms: knowing when and how to do it, and not letting the other player dictate those choices for you.

Last week I would've been amazed if anyone had told me that McCain's VP pick would make Joe Biden look like an inspired choice. Now, I have a clearer picture of the motives behind both, and Obama was much savvier.

The other day I heard that ignorance and apathy are sweeping the country. I didn't know that, but I don't really care.

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It is all about guts . . . (#114953)

by Bill White on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 8:44am

Tom Wolfe's original "The Right Stuff" essays contain a fascinating thesis concerning our 1950s and 1960s test pilots.

Wolfe argued that concerns over having the "right stuff" is a variation on the notion of Presbyterian election.

God either graced you with the ability to drink until 3:00 a.m. then suck pure oxygen from a tank to burn off the alcohol and by 6:00 a.m. strap yourself into a giant metal tube, light the engines and climb to 40,000 feet before ordinary mopes drank their morning coffee, or he didn't.

Therefore one must test fate. Push the envelope. If you have the "right stuff" you shall be safe. If you crash and burn, you never were one of God's elect to begin with.

Compare Pentecostal preacher Jimmy Swaggart -- consorted with prostitutes and then confessed his sins. If Swaggart truly was one of God's elect then he would be forgiven and that forgiveness would be proof of his special election. Circular reasoning AND a powerful incentive to gamble blended together.

The Pentecostal premise is that the direct experience of God trumps just about everything. Tradition, scholarship, prudence are for sissies. And this demands that folks push the envelope.

I believe McCain truly believed Hillary's PUMAs would flock to Palin and he believed this because he believes in his own election. Like a good fighter pilot MUST believe.

Fence post turtles -- They don't get up there by themselves, some moron had to put 'em there.

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Ridge would have been a formidable candidate... (#114930)

by Davinci on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 3:08am

He was who I feared the most... Palin is getting pounded... They did not vet her and who ever pushed this pick should get the old godfather boat trip....With his base problem why did he not go with Kay bailey Hutchinson? She at least has some gravitas?

Ask courageous questions. Do not be satisfied with superficial answers. Be open to wonder and at the same time subject all claims to knowledge, without exception, to intense skeptical scrutiny. Be aware of human fallibility. Cherish your species and your

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McCain campaign resorts to insulting everyone's intelligence (#114928)

by Username on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 2:50am

CNN's Campbell Brown tries to get some information about Palin from the McCain campaign and receives 4 minutes of gibberish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYYiw_y2qDI

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You know (#114915)

by HankP on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 12:49am

the more I think about this, the more I just can't understand how McCain could be so reckless, let alone his advisers. Were his internal polls so bad that he had to make such a radical pick? And even if that were true, the lack of vetting and even just talking to Palin is just incomprehensible.

The fact that Palin hits all the right keys for the cultural conservatives doesn't explain it, since I'm pretty sure that group was going to vote for him anyway. In fact, it's hard for me to see any group that makes up the Republican coalition would switch en masse to Obama. It's very puzzling.

I blame it all on the Internet

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Could be that he was on the fence (#114921)

by Username on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 1:21am

until the Clintons threw their support behind the ticket and Obama gave the most important and well-received speech of the past 8 years.

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I wrote about it in my last diary. She's a gambit. (#114916)

by BlaiseP on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 12:58am

McCain needs to get the Democrats to attack her. He needs to stir up the sympathy vote. He needs to muddy the waters with all the old wedge issues, Hank.

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There's gambits (#114919)

by HankP on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 1:14am

and there's borrowing against the mortgage on a throw of the dice. This seems a lot closer to a reckless gamble to me, and it doesn't even seem that it was handled with the basic professionalism that one would expect from a national campaign. I criticize the Republicans about a lot of things, but running a campaign professionally isn't one of them.

I also wonder - what if the religious conservatives get everything they want in a campaign, and it goes down in ignominious defeat? Will that make them abandon politics as too corrupt and the American people as too "godless"? Or will they come back pushing even harder? At some point they have to realize their positions are just not going to win on a national level.

I blame it all on the Internet

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Billmon on fire! (#114905)

by Bill White on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 12:20am

Ready, Aim, Shoot!

NYT -- 1 Sep 08:

Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background.

Billmon:

This does seem somewhat backwards -- like, if you'll excuse the metaphor, putting the condom on after having sex.

* * *

There is precedent, of course: Invade Iraq, then check to see if Saddam really had WMDs; and

Make Mike Brown head of FEMA, then check to see if he actually knew anything about disaster response, etc. . .

But I thought the whole idea was to get away from that kind of "leadership" (or at least fool the voters into thinking McCain would do things differently.)

Fence post turtles -- They don't get up there by themselves, some moron had to put 'em there.

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But if she stays (#114880)

by catchy on Mon, 09/01/2008 - 11:40pm

the MCCain campaign has to answer why, if Palin loves this country so much, she wanted to leave it 15 yrs. ago. Secession might not be that radical in Alaska or TX, but peeling off a state ain't exactly acceptable to the vast majority of voters.

"Why should we elect Palin to help lead this country if she didn't want to be part of of the US in 1995"? A recent secessionist only a heartbeat away from the presidency?

The campaign is in defensive mode for weeks, they don't get a convention bounce, and barring catastrophe it's President Obama.

If they ditch Palin, McCain's incompetence is on display and they're in defense mode for weeks, they don't get a convention bounce and barring catastrophe it's President Obama.

I don't see them recovering from this. What a royal F up. McCain is an idiot + deserves to lose.

I can't wait to see her speak!

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hunting season is coming up (#115110)

by nilsey on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 1:30pm

if i were sarah palin i would decline any invitations to go hunting from cheney et al....

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Dump Palin, pick Lieberman and it'll be (#114897)

by Bill White on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 12:10am

Obama in a blow out . . .

Fence post turtles -- They don't get up there by themselves, some moron had to put 'em there.

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Huckabee's Available ~nt (#114966)

by Model 62 on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 9:11am

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Yah -- if she is dropped (#114903)

by Steve Peterson on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 12:15am

Yah -- if she is dropped it's got to be someone more conservative.

That said, dropping her at all isn't a good option either. It's a choice of poisons at this point.

Steven Palmer Peterson

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Head-to-head Biden defeats Palin 54 - 41 (#114879)

by Bill White on Mon, 09/01/2008 - 11:38pm

"Suppose you could cast two separate votes in November -- one just for president and another vote just for vice president. Who would you be more likely to vote for if you could vote separately for vice president: Joe Biden, the Democrat, or Sarah Palin, the Republican?"

Biden: 54%

Palin: 41%

Neither: 4%

Unsure: 1%

CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll

and there also is this:

"From what you have heard or read, how would you rate Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night -- as

Excellent 36
Good 28
Just okay 13
Poor 3
Terrible 4
Didn't see 16
Unsure 1

But if she leaves the ticket won't Dr. Dobson go ballistic?

And there is this:

"Do you agree or disagree with the following statements?"

"John McCain chose Sarah Palin because he felt the time had come to nominate a woman."

Agree 43
Disagree 56

"John McCain chose Sarah Palin because he thought having a woman on the ticket would help him get elected."

Agree 75
Disagree 25

Fence post turtles -- They don't get up there by themselves, some moron had to put 'em there.

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