Republican Sen. John McCain at one of his signature "town hall meeting'' campaign appearances in Denver today. AP Photo by Mary Altaffer.
by Jill Zuckman
For those wondering whether an eminence gris such as Warren Christopher or Dick Cheney will soon head Sen. John McCain's vice presidential selection committee, the answer is yes and no, depending upon whether you think of McCain as a wise old Washington hand.
"He's the chairman of the selection committee," said Charlie Black, referring to the candidate himself, during a lunch with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
Black said no timetables have been set and staff is uninvolved.
"He is thinking about names," Black said. "He's not talking to any of us about that."
McCain has referred to this as being in the "embryonic stage."
"He'll talk to a great variety of people as he does on all issues and matters of importance," Black said.
Yet Black acknowledged that the choice of a running mate is fraught with meaning for a 71-year-old candidate looking to reassure voters that they will be in good hands if anything should happen to him.
"Every nominee wants to make the best possible selection," he said, adding that they all "want to make sure they were picking somebody who could succeed and handle the job."
McCain is no different in wanting to pick the best person.
"There's always a lot of focus on it,'' Black said. "It's the first big decision a nominee makes.''
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Comments
Tough choice.
Huckabee...he'll have a tough one with this. He was the one who called them agents of intolerance.
Crist...He'll have a gay ol time with that choice.
Posted by: bill r. | May 2, 2008 1:59 PM
ps. Not that there is anything wrong with that....
Posted by: bill r. | May 2, 2008 2:00 PM
"THE CHAIRMAN SPEAKS"
MAYBE, MAYBE NOT!
MAYBE VICKIE!
MAYBE CINDY!
MAYBE "D.J. KARL ROVE"
MAYBE MAYOR OF COLO SOLO PANAMA CANAL ZONE 2008.
MAYBE, MAYBE NOT!
MAYBE "CHERTOFF"
MAYBE "DICK CHENEY"
MAYBE "JOE" JOE I SWITCHED PARTIES LIEBERMAN"
MAYBE "CONDI"
MAYBE "REV WRIGHT"
MAYBE "REV HAGEE"
MAYBE "PAT ROBERTS"
MAYBE "TED HAGGERT"
MAYBE "SEN. RICHARD SHELBY"
MAYBE ROBERT RILEY
MAYBE "ARMPAC"
MAYBE "RICK RE NZI RENZI"
MABYE "J.D. HAYWORTH"
EVEN EVAN MECHAM CAN BE ON HIS TICKET!
MAYBE "ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER" NOT A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN LIKE "COLO SOLO BORN" JOHN MCCAIN.
MAYBE "JOHN DOOLITTLE"
MAYBE LINDSEY GRAHAM AND HIS WIFE!
MAYBE RICHARD BURR
MAYBE EVEN GOV. BOUBOUR AND HIS 100 MILLION DOLLAR CREDIT CARD FROM "KATRINA"
MAYBE "MONICA GOODLING" AND SARA TAYLOR AS "NEW DUAL EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF THE VICE PRESIDENT!
HE JUST MIGHT PICK EVERYONE ON THE "SUPREME COURT"
BECAUSE WE KNOW!
BELLSOUTH CORPORATION
BELLSOUTH TELECOMMUNICATIONS
AT&T NATIONAL TELEPHONE
SPRINT CORPORATION TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESELLER ASSOCIATION, MCI WORLDCOM (FORMERLY) MCI TELECOMMUNICATIONS
WILL BE IN THE OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT JUST A DIFFERENT ROOM THAN THEY ARE NOW!
Posted by: Roger Morris | May 2, 2008 2:07 PM
Hmmmmmmmmmm..........
And here I'd thought that McBush had already picked Joe LIEberman as his VP loser for this fall.
http://yesterdayssalad.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/mccain_lieberman_hug.jpg
Posted by: John E | May 2, 2008 2:07 PM
"He's the chairman of the selection committee," said Charlie Black, referring to the candidate himself, during a lunch with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
Here you go people, get to know your John McCain campaign flunkies.
Charlie Black - John McCain:
Charlie Black, John McCain's Aide and Super-Lobbyist:
John McCain's primary defender in the Lady Lobbyist Scandal*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gEROVh8zK4
A man named Charlie Black. As a senior adviser to the campaign who is doing McCain's damage control right now, Black has to explain to the press that John McCain didn't have a romantic relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, didn't treat Iseman's clients with undue favoritism, and isn't too close to lobbyists in general despite his years of anti-lobbyist rhetoric.
Black, of course, is a lobbyist. In fact, as the head of the extremely influential lobby shop BKSH and Associates, he's one of Washington's most powerful influence-peddlers. In the Washington Post story today about the lobbyists that populate the upper ranks of McCain's campaign (here's another guy), Black is listed as working for AT&T, Alcoa, JPMorgan, and U.S. Airways. He works and has worked for far more companies than that, however.
After the jump, every company BKSH has worked for since 1998, along with the total value of their contracts, as provided by the Center for Responsive Politics lobbying database.
Full story here:
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/02/7302_charlie_black_j.html
Posted by: John E | May 2, 2008 2:37 PM
McCain is going to have the lobbyists on his campaign auction off the VP spot to the highest bidder.
Posted by: K-street | May 2, 2008 3:42 PM
Alt. Caption;
'Now, if I could just perfect the smirk..'
Posted by: C.Morris | May 2, 2008 3:47 PM
Tell me it isn't true, Swanpomania, Senator McCain isn't picking Charles Keating as his V.P., is he?? Here, I thought Senator Clinton was still in the running!! She would make a great Republican Vice-President, something akin to Cheney, who also loved to start a war!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, Chicago | May 2, 2008 4:07 PM
Looks like the comments so far were just for fun. My choice is Mark S. Schweiker. He has all the qualifications -- youth, business & economics experience, administrative experience, homeland security experience, and he could deliver Pennsylvania in November. I like him a lot better than his predecessor, Tom Ridge, who is often mentioned as a possible VP candidate. He has the economic experience and isn't burdened by close ties to George Bush.
Posted by: susie | May 2, 2008 5:54 PM
I am very glad to hear that Senator McCain is in charge of his own vp search and is remaining a maverick. GOP establishment is never right about anything (they didn't want McCain himself). I trust that McCain will select the right (only choice) man for the win. McCain/Huckabee 97.7% compatibility according to body language expert, 100% compatible to make a complete ticket and rally the party to unite!! McCain/Huckabee'08.priceless
Posted by: Linda Rayborn | May 2, 2008 6:28 PM
McCain will give the election to the Democrats if for no other reason than he hasn't learned the GOLDWATER RULE.
Don't express an opinion in plain terms. People think you mean it.
Posted by: chuncha | May 2, 2008 7:31 PM
It's me, isn't it...
Posted by: Mark LaFlamme | May 2, 2008 7:56 PM
McCain now has a new commercial out explaining that he really didn't mean we'd be in Iraq for 100 years. Well, Senator McCain, explain your cavalier attitude when you SANG "BOMB BOMB BOMB, BOMB BOMB IRAN!!! DOES JUST THE THOUGHT OF ANOTHER WAR MAKE YOU GIDDY??? WITH ALL OF YOUR NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES THIS ATTITUDE IS JUST ANOTHER TO ADD TO THE LIST!!!
Posted by: Mary in Ft. Madison | May 3, 2008 1:40 PM
Yes Mary...Maybe the next one will address why he didn't understand that the American people were feeling the pinch of the economy and brushed it off. The housing crisis was all caused by speculation so the heck with them. I guess when your wife has 300 million (probably we're still not allowed to know) you just don't feel the same pinch. But now...my friends, I feel your pain......right!
Posted by: bill r. | May 3, 2008 3:08 PM
I think Rudy Giuliani is a proven commodity that has shown he can lead in tough times even with an opposition majority opposing much of what he was trying to do. He showed he wasn't affraid to take on the Mafia and he would bring significant numbers of Italian votes. He might even pull New Jersey for McCain if Obama is the Democratic Party candidate.
Yes there are some personal life issues but Obama has been accumulating a lot of those himself lately.
Posted by: KW64 | May 3, 2008 5:45 PM
Here's my take on the situation.
DEFINITELY NOT! -- I really hope McCain has the brains and guts to just pass these folks by. If he picks one, it will be crass pandering* and/or total abandonment of principle IMO, plus a few of them are idiots not worth their reputation.
Joe Lieberman
Mike Huckabee
Ron Paul
Haley Barbour
Tom Coburn
Charlie Crist
Liddy Dole
Rudy Guliani
Tom Ridge
Christie Todd Whitman
Tom Tancredo
* and the pandering probably would not have the desired effect -- it just wouldn't work anyway!
WOW BUT WON'T HAPPEN -- interesting folks but probably can't happen this year, for a variety of reasons.
Bobby Jindal
Condi Rice
Jeb Bush
J.C. Watts
Marsha Blackburn
Paul Ryan
Fred Thompson
Colin Powell
Any qualified Hispanic
SERIOUS CHOICES -- my version of the possible short list.
Mitt Romney
Rob Portman
Tim Pawlenty (?)
Newt Gingrich (?)
Mark Sanford
Sarah Palin
Chris Cox
Kay Bailey Hutchison
Jon Huntsman
... and quite a few others, I'm sure. But why aren't there more female candidates?
Posted by: TomB | May 9, 2008 8:05 PM
Lots of haters here. Has McCain Derangement Syndrome started already?
Posted by: Buford Gooch | May 9, 2008 9:41 PM
Mary:
Why do Soros/Obambi paid Spammers keep posting the same seminar messgaes on all these blogs?
Can Soros afford to hire creative spammers?
Posted by: Dil mcIntosh | May 10, 2008 12:17 AM
I'm a potential Democrat for McClain but only, if he selects Hillary as his vice-president and she accepts, after the Obama male chauvinists have manoeuvered her out of the nomination.
Posted by: Vera Locke | May 12, 2008 2:40 AM