Dark Horse VP Candidates for John Mccain

[Lunar]

Gregg is very smart, fiscal cautious and flinty. My kind of guy. Keating is scandal tarred (I don't remember the details, but they can be looked up).

Well, I didn't see any scandals tarring him on Wikipedia. Are you sure you're not thinking of the Keating Five (that's Charles Keating)?  And the others?  I could understand Rell not contributing a lot.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It would be a mistake for McCain to pick a VP with the surname "Keating". Aha. "McCain-Keating" might remind people of things I'm sure he'd rather stay forgotten.

[Torie]

Gregg is very smart, fiscal cautious and flinty. My kind of guy. Keating is scandal tarred (I don't remember the details, but they can be looked up).

Well, I didn't see any scandals tarring him on Wikipedia. Are you sure you're not thinking of the Keating Five (that's Charles Keating)?  And the others?  I could understand Rell not contributing a lot.

You can read more about Frank Keating here.  The scandal was a weird one involving a phony drug, money fed to Keating over a decade, and the founder of the Dreyfus Mutual Funds, Jack Dreyfus. It ended his political career, permanently. Prior to that he generated buzz.

I have become cynical about politicians for a reason. I have lived just too damn long. The Native Americans (some of them) had it right.  At a certain point, dyspeptic geezers need to go up to the mountain to freeze to death. They just get to be too high maintenance and demoralizing, to the idealistic young filled with hope.

[JSojourner]

Gregg is very smart, fiscal cautious and flinty. My kind of guy. Keating is scandal tarred (I don't remember the details, but they can be looked up).

Well, I didn't see any scandals tarring him on Wikipedia. Are you sure you're not thinking of the Keating Five (that's Charles Keating)?  And the others?  I could understand Rell not contributing a lot.

The Native Americans (some of them) had it right.  At a certain point, dyspeptic geezers need to go up to the mountain to freeze to death. They just get to be too high maintenance and demoralizing, to the idealistic young filled with hope.

<SPEW>  LOL!

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Mainstream Out-of-the-Box Choices:
Smith

Is that Gordon Smith?

NO, its Fred Smith, FedEx CEO.   He would be a really awesome choice. (He's a Memphian )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_W._Smith

[Robespierre's Jaw]

If only John McCain could select Olympia Snowe, Richard Lugar or Colin Powell as his running mate. Not going to happen in the 21st Century Republican Party, but one can only hope.

[DownWithTheLeft]

Some of these have been mentioned, but are not mainstream:

Sen. John Thune
Fmr. Gov. Tom Ridge
Fmr. Lt. Gov. Michael Steele
Fmr. Gov. Christine Todd Whitman

And my personal favorite, but no chance in hell:
Fmr. Gov. Gary B. Johnson

[Spaghetti Cat]

DeMint, Thune, there's a good possibiliy he'll choose a businessperson.

[Lunar]

Can McCain pull off selecting someone like Fred Smith as his VIP?  Like I said, I think it draws subtle attention to Obama's name as outlandish.  But, McCain's line against Obama as inexperienced would have to become more nuanced.  If you stat to count things besides high-level governmental positions as 'experience' then you open yourself up to Obama arguing that his community leadership, teaching classes, historical background, etc. count towards his own experience. Sure, Fed Smith was a CEO and a leader, but my point is that one of McCain's most powerful lines of attack is going to become slightly more difficult to implement.

[Mr. Morden]

If you stat to count things besides high-level governmental positions as 'experience' then you open yourself up to Obama arguing that his community leadership, teaching classes, historical background, etc. count towards his own experience. Sure, Fed Smith was a CEO and a leader, but my point is that one of McCain's most powerful lines of attack is going to become slightly more difficult to implement.

Yes, exactly.  That's why McCain is never going to pick a running mate with as less experience than Obama.  Because Bush's policies are a drag on McCain, McCain has to maximize any advantages he has over Obama with regard to "personal qualities" (i.e., anything not tied to a particular policy issue) like experience.  Undercutting the experience argument by picking a running mate like Fred Smith would just be monumentally stupid.