Another Blog Post About Lieberman as VP
Joe Lieberman has been presumptive Republican nominee John McCain’s travel buddy for months now, visiting scenic locales from Baghdad to Boston with Connecticut’s ‘Independent Democrat’ Senator. With all of this bipartisanship, and Sen. Lieberman’s proven ability to appeal to moderate voters, there has been rife speculation that McCain will put our Senator on the GOP ticket as a candidate for Vice President. Salon’s Walter Shapiro took yet another whack at this story today.
It is fair to assume that in the young one-term Senator from Illinois, Lieberman probably sees little more than a second edition of Ned Lamont. But its also fair to say that Lieberman has been more loyal to his own principles over the years than he ever has to Party – much to his credit. Says Salon: “No McCain campaign sidekick — not South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham nor former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina — does more than Lieberman to burnish the GOP candidate’s reputation as a different-drummer Republican.”
Lieberman as a Vice Presidential pick would be an earthquake in the political landscape. Florida would probably move solidly into the GOP camp, and would open up New Jersey (15 electoral votes), Pennsylvania (21), and Connecticut (7) as targets of opportunity for McCain. Flipping PA’s 21 electoral votes more than offsets the potential loss in Virginia (13 EVs). At that point, Connecticut’s seven votes could be an offset against unforeseen losses in Montana and/or North Dakota.
The political map is more fluid than it has been in years – it is, for all of Obama’s rhetoric, a “change” election. The pick of Joe Lieberman as VP would certainly signify change.
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The main reason why McCain should consider putting Lieberman on his ticket is to render all of Barry’s talk of ‘change’ as the empty rhetoric we all know it to be. By doing this, Senator Obama can talk all he wants about being a ‘new and different politician’ but Senator McCain would instantly BECOME one.
Everyone is concerned about ticking off the far right of the Republican Party. But let’s face facts here: they only represent about 15% of the population, much like the far-left Democrats represent another 15%. That leaves 70% of people in the middle who do NOT consider themselves ‘Republican’ or ‘Democrat’ totally unrepresented. Much like McCain represents ‘centrist’ Republicans, Lieberman speaks to ‘centrist’ Democrats, which would allow them to capture most of these people.
The icing on the cake is this: when they win, Governor Rell would then be able to APPOINT a conservative replacement for him in the U.S. Senate, allowing the Republicans to pick up a seat.
I write this to play “devil’s advocate” on this issue. Personally, I believe that he should put Mitt Romney on the ticket to alleviate America’s fears about the economy. Furthermore, a McCain/Lieberman ticket would probably completely destroy the Republican Party. (I could just see the convention in St. Paul now, an entire hall booing Joe and the national media there to spin it.) But then again, maybe we need to burn it down so that true conservatism can rise once again from the ashes. Let the discussion begin…