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That’s right gang, the time in the election process where the Presidential Candidates begin to hunt down their 4-8 year soulmates. The yin to their yang, the Ed to their Johnny, the Triscuit to their Easy Cheese…
You get the idea.
So while Obama does but doesn’t have someone hunting for possible running mates (he’s keeping mum about the whole ordeal), McCain is using his hunt in a more savvy a way… as an election tool with battle ground state Florida providing the home for at least one contender for the next best thing.
Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and a onetime rival for the Republican nomination, have all accepted invitations to visit Mr. McCain at his ranch in Sedona, Republicans said.
Mr. McCain himself has said his choice of a running mate would draw particular scrutiny from voters given Mr. McCain’s age; he is now 71, or “as old as dirt,” as he likes to joke, while quickly adding that he is in good health. More than that, with Mr. Obama’s selection as his party’s nominee now almost assured, Mr. McCain is contemplating a contest against an energized Democratic electorate after a campaign that has highlighted race and gender issues.
Mr. Crist, a fairly popular first-term governor, has been included on various lists of potential running mates for Mr. McCain, whom he endorsed shortly before Florida’s January primary, which effectively helped Mr. McCain claim the nomination. Mr. Crist said Wednesday that he and Mr. McCain had not discussed the prospect, not even at a fund-raiser in Miami that the two attended Tuesday night.
As governor of Florida, Mr. Crist, 51, would bring obvious assets to the Republican ticket, beginning with his popularity in a state that is almost always an electoral battleground — and where Mr. Obama appears to be struggling. Mr. Crist’s relative youth could also be an asset for Mr. McCain, who has made clear that age will be a consideration in his search for a running mate.
In Florida, Mr. Crist has long been known for his affability and a campaign skills. Instantly recognizable because of his perpetual tan and striking white hair, Mr. Crist, who was Florida’s attorney general before being elected governor in 2006, has also acquired a reputation as something of a hard-liner on law and order issues.
He supports the death penalty, largely opposes restrictions on the rights of gun owners, early on earned the nickname “Chain Gang Charlie” because he favored allowing convicts to be used in road work, and has described himself as a “pro-life and pro-family” candidate.
Mr. Romney, the former chief executive who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 2008 and who was born in Michigan, has made no secret of his desire to join Mr. McCain’s presidential ticket. Mr. Romney’s M.B.A. skills, and business background — including running the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games — could address concerns about Mr. McCain’s ability to manage a struggling economy.
Mr. Jindal, who was born in Baton Rouge, La., to a family that had just arrived there from the Punjab area of India, took office in January after serving three years in the House of Representatives. In a race with four candidates, Mr. Jindal, who was born a Hindu but converted to Roman Catholicism as a teenager, won 54 percent of the vote after campaigning as a social conservative, opposing human embryonic stem cell research and abortion in any form, and favoring teaching “intelligent design” in schools as an alternative to evolution.
So we’re looking at “Chain Gang Charlie”, Romney (the guy who failed at getting the nomination because of party distrust an inability to connect with voters and record of flip flopping on issues), and the guy who (prepping for backlash now) believes in magical tales of how we came to be against evidence that would prove the contrary, and wants all our kids to learn it that way too, regardless of whether they follow the same beliefs or not (and I won’t even further the shit storm I could be earning here by getting into abortion or stem cell research).
Those all sound like solid arguments to keep from voting on the Republican ticket, and here I thought I’d already had enough reasons.
As of this moment there’s no word on who Hillary Clinton in her alternate universe version of the elections is going to choose for her running mate.
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