Romney Willing to Become VP
Former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney told Sean Hannity that he’s more than willing to become John McCain’s running mate. Some reports say that “members of the Bush inner circle” are talking him up as a running mate, but that McCain isn’t willing to ask Romney, because, well, basically because he hates his guts.
“I think any Republican leader in this country would be honored to be asked to serve as the vice presidential nominee, myself included,” Romney told FOX’s Sean Hannity.
When asked whether there are hard feelings between himself and McCain, Romney said: “There are really no hard feelings, I don’t think, on either side of this. There were no pacts and so forth that make people feel like that we will never come together. Instead these campaigns are all coming together. We are supporting our nominee enthusiastically, aggressively.”
You know what, I think that Romney is dead serious. He doesn’t dislike McCain. There’s no anger. But McCain has an entirely different (and in my opinion therefore perhaps not right for the presidency) character; he’s more vindictive.
But Romney would be a good choice for McCain. That would also make it more likely that Romney will be the Republican nominee after McCain’s presidency (if, if, etc.). And Romney understands the economy. And Romney’s young and energetic whereas McCain is, well, not.
It would be a good fit, I think.
Romney also had some nice things to say about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton: when listening to these two bickering about who has national security credentials it’s like listening “to two chihuahuas argue about which is the biggest dog.”
That’s a good line right there.
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If McCain truly does hold a grudge, it’s because of the way Romney ran his campaign. He ran an extremely negative campaign, constantly attacking McCain and Huckabee. He’s not being magnanimous in being the one who says there’re no hard feelings; he’s the one who caused the hard feelings, so it’s unfair to expect McCain to put aside his feelings as easily.
I also really question the fundraising part. If he was so good at fundraising, then why did he have to use so much of his own money? I don’t have a problem with the idea of someone self funding, but in a way it’s a symptom of a problem: if someone is doing that, they’re not getting the donations, which may indicate that his actual support is weak. Basically that person is trying to buy the candidacy for himself, because there aren’t enough people out there who actually wanted him as the candidate strongly enough to support him financially.
In truth Romney raised more than the other candidates. He just wanted to spend even more. So that’s a pretty weak line Christine.
McCain – Huckabee: are you kidding me? Romney was the one who went negative? He questioned their record, and he attacked them on it. These people, however, turned personal. McCain lost a whole lot of respect from me, as did Huckabee.
I agree, CS. Romney may still harbor ill-will towards McCain, but as a businessman pragmatically sees the VP slot as a back door way to get into the WH.
I also wonder how far he would have gotten if he had to rely only on money he was able to raise, and not on his considerable fortune. IMO, McCain should avoid the offer, even tho the administration seems to be supporting this.
Compared to the Dem candidates, Romney’s fundraising wasn’t very impressive. How is that a weak point? Sure, he did better than the other GOP candidates, and they all had a rough time of it under the circumstances- but all I’m saying is that his fundraising ability didn’t rise to the level of being a huge plus in his favor, to make him a logical choice for McCain’s VP on that basis.
The ‘personal’ attacks that McCain and Huckabee were making on Romney were in response to his attack ads, which mischaracterized his record. They were responding to that by questioning Romney’s honesty. At times they went too far, IMO- saying that he was dishonest rather than just saying that the ads were inaccurate. But I honestly felt they had reason to question his integrity in that way, because he was extremely negative (I don’t remember one ad that he made which didn’t either distort his own record or attack McCain’s or Huckabee’s in a dishonest way.) And he ran this kind of campaign right out of the gate, it was obviously a calculation on the part of his team to go negative first, and like it or not he has to deal with the fact that this backfired on him. It probably factored in to his loss of the nomination, and it may now also cost him the vice presidency.
Actually, Kim, the fact that there’ve been rumors that Bush and Rove are pushing for a Romney VP slot might be the final kiss of death for Romney. Why in the world would McCain want to add more fuel to the fire of opponents portraying him as a Bush lackey?
I honestly don’t dislike Romney (I realize it’s coming across that way- I do have some specific criticisms of him but I don’t dislike him in general) but I really think it would be politically quite a dumb move for McCain to put him on the ticket.
What? He was the number one Republican fundraiser. That’s not good? Face it, McCain will need all the money he can get, and Romney is a good fundraiser… for a Republican.
Michael, are you deliberately not reading what I wrote, or just busy and not giving it much attention? I said that yes, he did better than other Republicans, but in comparison to the Dems it wasn’t a good enough showing for this to be a decisive factor in choosing him for VP.
Another important point is that the best fundraiser in the world won’t help if it ends up that McCain is locked into public financing.
No doubt, "e"nquiring minds want to know the VP selection, but as a straightforward piece of political calculus, I don’t see the need for rush to judgement. I think McCain will be better served to use the next couple of months seeing how he can best fare on his own…..do the foreign visits, hone his policies, improve his message. Let the Dems beat themselves up some more and see what his own (and R machine) fundraising can do. At that point, use the additional time and information to help assess where the VP selection might help him most.
I agree, co. There are a number of directions he could go with it, and campaigning on his own while watching for the signals of where his greatest liabilities are will be the best strategy.
Generally speaking, whenever someone is perceived as trying to get the VP nomination, they fail to get it. This is simply because the presidential candidate wants to be seen as picking his/her VP rather than having the VP pick him/her.
Prediction: Romney will NOT be the VP pick. It will be one of the following: Huckabee, Pawlenty, Sanford, Crist.
And if it is Huckabee, I won’t be voting for McCain, unfortunately.
Jason; it’s one of the last three I think. Crist.. could be, but I’d put my money on Pawlenty or Sanford.
If McCain picks Romney, I will either write in or vote third party. There is absolutely no way I’d ever vote for Romney. If he’s our Veep choice, we’ll deserve four years of Obama or Clinton.
In Most elections fundraising is the most important factor. In this election, too often, Romney’s money advantages and excellent on-the-ground organization did not translate into votes. There was a significant disconnect, probably because he seemed too plastic and had flip-flopped on key positions. Mitt couldn’t compete at any price with Huck’s charisma or McCain’s hero status (despite claiming that his sons were doing their part in the war on terror by working for his campaign). He’s not stupid, realized he was getting no traction and withdrew. I’m wondering if he met with administration allies and hatched this idea before endorsing McCain.
CS- I agree. A choice of Romney as VP might help with some conservatives, but would offend those (moderates and independents) who like McCain but can’t stand Bush.