Play Veepstakes!

ProConPundit Picks: Sam Nunn (D-GA,retired), top; Linday Graham (R-NC), bottom.

C’mon. You can’t win if you don’t play! Join the ProConPundit, and 44,847 other friends at MSNBC’s in a Final-Four like contest to choose the best running mate for John McCain and Barack Obama. For now, we’re focusing on the Republican running mate. You enter your selections once a week.
www.veepstakes.msnbc.com

Here are some thoughts on the VP matter:

Commandmant:
McCain and Obama will both need to pick Southerners.




McCain. I believe John McCain’s choice has always been known to him and is not likely to be actually evolving at all. McCain needs to build excitement and is having fun wining and dining the "short list" and the real list. Memo to Louisiana Governor Jindal, Florida Governor Charlie Christ, Huckster and Romney: Can you say third string? The invite for the brats and burgers last weekend is as good as it will get.



The ProConPundit must admit that Romney is looking better all the time...his finance and business background could help McCain. In truth, McCain could name Romney to his cabinet and draw from his expertise. Romney could well play the role of charming hatchet man in the campaign and keep some of the "true" conservatives happy.



I have believed all along that Lindsay Graham will be McCain’s running mate. Graham is his confidant and travel companion, along with Joe Lieberman. If Graham is not selected as running mate, its because a more strategic choice was needed and/or because Lindsay will be his Attorney General or Chief of Staff. Joe Lieberman will not be asked but would serve in his cabinet. McCain’s age, Obama’s star power and the economy may require a more strategic choice than what McCain originally planned.



Obama. Forget about it. If you feared it, fear not. If you really want it, move on. Hillary Clinton was never going to be Obama’s running mate and she has only ratified that instinct time and time again. It will also not be John Edwards. Should Obama be elected, Edwards would have a cabinet position.



There are three certainties about Obama’s running mate: white, male, grey hair. Don’t even get me started. No other factor competes with this one. Needing a woman to appeal to disgruntled Clintonistas. Needing Richardson to reach out to Latinos’s. Forget about it. Obama fills the out-of-the-box requirement. The ticket needs to be balanced with experience and a white guy. I have long figured Chris Dodd or Joe Biden. But as early as August 20, 2007, long before I pushed Dodd or Biden, I called Nunn as the perfect VP choice. In fact, my exact words were, " Imagine if the Democratic party were to nominate someone with pitiful experience such as Barrack Obama or John Edwards–Nunn would be the perfect choice." I never realized eating my words could be so tasty. For my full post and more info. On Sam Nunn,





http://proconpundit.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html.



I have it on good information that Obama has already been in dialogue with Sam Nunn. Drawback to Nunn? He’s been out of the Senate since 1997. Pluses to Nunn? He’s been out of the Senate since 1997. Seriously, he has all the advantages that Dodd or Biden have, and three more:
1. He’s conservative.
2. He’s a Southerner and can do more good among working class voters than Dodd or Biden.
3. We have not elected a U.S. Senator to the Presidency since 1960. I favor Senators over Governors to the Presidency but that’s another matter. The next President will be a Senator. It would be good balance for the Vice-President to be something else. The best choice would be a Governor. A former Senator is not as good as a Governor and not as bad as a current Senator!

Big 89 Rewind Offers Parallels to 2008 Choices:

McCain & Obama= Ford & Carter

WLS 890 AM radio in Chicago is TALK RADIO–all the time. Back in the glory days of the ProConPundit’s wholesome upbringing in America’s largest hometown, WLS was an AM pop music station. This Memorial Day, WLS did a neat/cool thing but sponsoring the "Big 89 Rewind." All day on Memorial Day, they brought back the disc jockeys of the 70's & 80's. I drove a car in a couple of parades on Memorial Day and otherwise spent a fair mount of time in the car. It was great fun to tune into WLS 890, something I seldom do anymore, and hear the great voices of those great DJ’s of the good old days.

If you have any interest, please check out www.wlshistory.com. In 1978, as a junior in high school, I was the proud owner of a 1967 Ford Galaxy 500. It had 2 doors, eight cylinders (about half of which worked), and low miles. It was powder blue and was the first and last time I ever bought a car from anyone I knew. It was 500 bucks and I bought it from a neighbor. I got screwed. It was a clunker.

On the way to school, my friends and I listed to Larry Lujack and Uncle Tommy. On the way home, we listened to Fred Winston. At night, it was John Records Landecker, "Yes my middle name is truly records." My friends and I also spent many hours listening to WLS radio while we waited for my dad to come and give us a jump or waiting for a tow truck. I hated the car but loved the time...and the DJ’s on WLS radio.

This ride down memory lane reminded me of the first presidential election I ever took an interest in. 1976. Ford vs. Carter. In the months ahead, I will say more about how I think our choices this November, 22 years later, are similar. The role of Gerald Ford will be played by John McCain. The role of Barack Obama was played by Jimmy Carter.

The Tits Are Off The Fritz,
Yes We Can–But I Think Not,
and Its McCain’s To Lose--Don't Blow It.

Chicago, IL--May 27, 2008

The ProConPundit is back. Actually, I never went away. Some think I turned bitter over my plight as a working class, heartland American. Some think I turned to guns or religion. Not true. I have been here all along. Truth be it, I haven’t been able to stop laughing long enough to type the last couple of months. This primary season has been rich...and a blast of fun. And I hate to say it, but we have the Clinton’s to thank for it.

This primary election season has been a great opportunity for states large and small, north and south, red and blue, to feel they have had some say about the nomination process. Because of the Clinton pathology and our nation’s need to enable their pathology, she has been able to be portrayed as a viable candidate thus keeping the interest and intrigue alive in the race. It has been a mathematic impossibility for her to overtake Obama since Super Tuesday, hence she had not plan or money to run beyond that date. The fact that she has continued to have lop sided victories in states like West Virginia and Kentucky, given the fact that those voters went to the polls knowing she could not garner the nomination, says more about Obama’s vulnerabilities than her strengths. I mean really. Hillary Clinton as the champion of middle class and working poor in West Virginia and Kentucky. Give me a break.
Her instincts are astute in her belief that Obama cannot win the general election. He may win. Its very possible. But its also very doubtful–and it shouldn’t be. It should be a landslide victory for any Democrat.

Tits Off The Fritz. For the record, Geraldine Ferraro, was correct in her assessment that Obama would not have gotten as far as he has in life–being a serious contender for the presidency–were he not black. That was not a racist remark. Geraldine Ferraro’s character, history, and record as a bona fide, pro-affirmative action, pro-minority liberal are not tarnished–AT ALL. You can disagree with her opinion but she isn’t a racist and she was terribly mistreated and maligned by Obama and the media who adores him.

Wright was whack. The ProConPundit grew up west of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Geographically, it was 3 miles. Psychologically, it was much further. In attaining a graduate degree in Theology, I was exposed to a video of Rev. Wright’s preaching in which a sermon of his, among the sermons of nine others, were posited as one of the best ten preachers in America. I was impressed with his dynamic preaching ability and visited his church once. Although I didn’t experience anything inflammatory on my visit there, I did find him a gifted preacher in the tradition of prophetic preaching.

I was in seminary with a guy who said his preaching style was prophetic. Saying that you are prophetic is like saying you are humble. If you think you are, you’re probably not. In prophetic preaching, the preacher, in pointing toward God, a more godly life or world, God’s truth or God’s call to us, our current experience is critiqued. Its appropriate and authentic for anything in need of improvement to be called out. Is it acceptable to criticize our country in preaching? Yes. Of course it is. The Catholic church does it ALL THE TIME. The difference is in the vitriol of Wright’s remarks, i.e., "God damns America," "Our chickens have come home to roost," as expressed on the Sunday following 9/11. If there was any doubt as to the content or context of Wright’s remarks, and in sensible circles there was not, he clarified that himself in his recent pitiful, narcissistic performance before the National Press Club. Wright’s church has done a lot of good on the south side of Chicago and beyond. The good of his life and ministry are not reduced by his anti-American preaching and recent outbursts. They are, however, eclipsed, by them. His remarks, behavior, and the fact that his church gave a lifetime achievement award to Louis Farakan cast a pall over him clearly, and rightly or wrongly, make Obama a less palatable general election candidate in this country. Well, which is it? Rightly or wrongly? Both.

Wrongly. Barack Obama should not be held any more accountable for the remarks of his pastor than anyone else. In Chicago, if you are an upwardly mobile downtownish Catholic, you go to Old St. Pat’s. If you are a mainline Protestant, you go to Fourth Presbyterian. And if you’re African American, you go to Trinity. I suspect Obama was as much at Trinity as it was the place to be than he was to be in lock step with Wright. Furthermore, the pastor at Fourth Presbyterian routinely preaches against the war to a congregation that I suspect largely supported it. Most Catholics support birth control, the death penalty, civil unions for gays, ordination for women and a married clergy even while their church is openly opposed to all of these.

Rightly. People who deem that Jeremiah Wright’s views are wrong and that Barack Obama shares his views will not vote for him. Frankly, my biggest reason for opposing Obama is that we have suffered from 16 years of dis-eased presidents. Bush has been dis-eased with inexperience and Clinton was dis-eased with a black character and pathological dishonesty. Obama is inexperienced. I don’t care that he is black and care less if he is a militant black. I am sure that Michelle Obama is a militant black...I know this from well placed imbeds on the south side of Chicago. That doesn’t rank high enough to matter given that Bush has had to rely on others to tell him what to do. The next president has to know the terrain.

You will notice in the months ahead the ProConPundit will take the gloves off in a number of areas:
1. This country has been poorly served by George W. Bush. It pains me. I voted for the guy in 2000. He has his virtues but has been in over his head from the get go. Don’t believe me? Read his press secretary’s book, "What Happened?" by Scott McClellan. America has not been in such dire straights since the end stage of the Carter administration. Wow. That sense is so insulting to Bush--and Carter.
2. I will give Barack Obama credit for inspiring a hope in the Democratic Party that died with RFK died on June 6, 1968. Obama has also done a nearly flawless job of fighting the Clinton machine. He deserves a lot of credit and he is a decent guy. He’s not a Muslim and I am tired of hearing about lapel pins. The flat out truth is that he is not up to the job. He will pick a running mate that has the experience he lacks. My people tell me it may well be Sam Nunn. The ProConPundit loves Nunn. But doesn’t he become another Cheney? Its one thing to pick someone who rounds out a short side you have. If you are short on everything but public speaking and inspiration, that aren’t you George W. Bush with Toastmasters?
3. John McCain needs to step up. This is an election the Democrats should win by landslide. McCain is the only Republican (who ran) capable of pulling off a victory. He needs to do these things to make it happen:
a) Stop talking of the rightness of the war but the wrongness of a poor withdrawal. Americans were divided and furious over Vietnam but united in their humiliation at our mishandled departure. No sensible person wants to relive that. Not one of the Democrats, in a primary debate, could say that we would be out of Iraq before 2013. No one will deliver a quick departure. McCain has the where-with-all to get us out of their prudently.
B) He needs to get his hand on the pulse of reality. Gas prices, increasing food and transportation costs and the housing/real estate crisis are the front and center issues in this election. He needs to feel our pain and state a realistic plan.
C) He needs to drop his corrupt friends like Phil Gramm. They don’t help his cause.

Hillary Clinton Doing Very Well

9:10 p.m. Windy City Time

Hillary Clinton has won Rhode Island, Barack Obama has won Texas and Vermont. At present, with 14% of the vote counted in Texas, Obama’s win there appears to be narrow. Ohio is still too close to call but I presume she will win there but a greater than narrow victory. With 35% of the vote counted in Ohio, she has 57% of the vote. She’s in to stay...7 weeks of blood sport Clinton style to Pennsylvania!

"Stand Up America: Fight With Me,
The Contest Begins Tonight"
A Fine Man for Troubling Times
and A Better Tomorrow

9:00 p.m. Heartland Time

John McCain clinched the GOP nomination tonight. In 2000, I thought John McCain and Bill Bradley would have offered the best possible choice. John McCain has forged a comeback that is rare and delayed, and, I pray, not too late.

John McCain will be the rarest of recent presidential candidates in a general election. He is conservative but he is independent. He is not conservative enough for many and way too conservative for many. He is generally considered moderate at a time when the number of Americans who are characterized as moderates or independent is ever growing. Given the unpopularity of the war and President Bush, as well as McCain’s age, Obama’s relative youth and perceived charisma are all daunting challenges to McCain in the fall.

He's the New Ike.

God bless this decent man and our great country.

Huckabee Exits Stage Far Right–With Grace & Class

8:30 p.m. Heartland Standard Time

The Huckster bowed out, gave a classy endorsement of John McCain and an inspirational chat. He is to be credited for accomplishing a lot with very little money and a small staff. He and McCain both disproved the notion that only monied candidacies can succeed.

We’ve not seen the last of Huckabee. If John McCain is elected this fall, he will serve only one term and Huckabee will make another run for president in 2012 at age 56.

The selection of Huck as a running mate by McCain would smooth over a sliver of conservatives who don’t like McCain but wouldn’t do him any good among other groups of Republicans who are aloof to McCain. John McCain, as I have said many times, may need to make a strategic VP pick to win the election but he will only pick someone who he truly believes would be "ready from day one" to step in if need be. The Huckster in an honorable guy but would not make that short list.

I’ve Got You Babe (McCain & Hillary)

My My, This Is Fun (SNL)

7:30 p.m. Buck-eye time/ 6:30 p.m. Lone-Star Time

Election 08 has been billed as the most important presidential election of a generation, a lifetime, etc. In my lifetime, I don’t think its really any more crucial than was 1968 or 1980. Those were crucial times, crossroads, if you will. I submit it is debatable whether this year is more important or significant than others. HOWEVER, I WILL DEBATE ANYONE ANYWHERE WHO SAYS THERE HAS EVER BEEN A MORE FUN ELECTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a grand, great, wild ride its been—AND WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here are some updated thoughts and putting to rest some rumors that have been swirling about the ProConPundit.

On the Republican side...
The ProConPundit has been getting reports today from Republican friends in Ohio and Texas who are voting for Hillary Clinton. One said, "I took an air sickness bag with me," while another, a thoughtful Catholic, voted for Hillary Clinton while muttering, "Father, forgive me for I have sinned." We’ll see if there is any impact by anti-Clinton folks voting for her as the preferred person for McCain to run against in the fall.

Making Peace With the Right. I was in traffic for some time yesterday and one day last week and had a chance to listen to Rush Limbaugh, something I rarely have the opportunity to do. Rumors of his opposition to McCain are over dramatized. He is up front about his disagreements with McCain. He is totally committed to electing him over Clinton or Obama and beating Hillary, whatever the cost. Rush does not embrace the idea that Hillary should be nominated because she would be easier to beat in the fall. Rushbo and the ProConPundit agree that she needs to get beat–the sooner, the better.

I also came to a greater appreciation, if not agreement, with the position of the far right. Limbaugh well articulates that unity is not a goal, purity of the conservative movement and agenda is more important that compromise or unity. I appreciated the cogence of the message and respect those who feel that way. I don’t. I also think more Americans would prefer someone who can bring people together from the center (center-right, but center) than someone on the far-left or far-right.

Huckabee’s Last Stand. I think Huckabee wants to win more delegates than Romney. To date, Romney has 293 and Huckabee has 248. There are 137 Republican delegates at stake in Texas and Texas is a rare state, among Republican primaries, in that it allocates delegates proportionally. Huckabee could pick up enough delegates tonight to eclipse Romney. In Huckabee’s mind, among other places, being the second place runner up to McCain will give Huckabee a little more gravitas in terms of a convention speech, future presidential aspirations, more speeches in the Cayman Islands, etc. I believe Huckabee gets it that he will NEVER be asked to be McCain’s running mate. I embrace the buzz that Huckadoo will have a cable show in six months.

On the Democratic side...
People keep asking me if I think Obama can really be beaten by McCain in the fall. Another way of saying that is whether the ole maverick will thwart the movement, the momentum that is the Obama candidacy. Yes, I do. Our national economic problems and national security vulnerabilities all work to McCain’s advantage. I like Obama and I admire what he has accomplished as a candidate, especially his ability to beat the Clinton’s by fighting in a way they have never been able to get a handle on. His ten year career in the Illinois Senate was without distinction other than voting present 100 times. Remember, he wasn’t absent. He can’t argue that he was busy tending to his constituents. His opponents can’t argue that he wasn’t tending to his duties in Springfield. He was present. He was there. He was aware. He just wouldn’t take a stand–100 times. Even a flip-flopper has to flip once in a while.

The real dilemma and FUN in the fall should Obama face McCain is this: they both won their primaries winning states their party doesn’t normally carry in the general election. McCain won the Republican primary in a lot of states the Republicans won’t win in the fall: New Jersey, Illinois, New York, California. Obama won a lot of states that Democrats won’t win in the fall: South Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Nebraska.

Here’s an opportunity for McCain. John Kerry narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2004 (along with Minnesota and Wisconsin). If Hillary Clinton does not get out of the race and protracts the Democratic primary process another 7 weeks for a blood bath in Pennsylvania, that will surely embitter Obama fans vs. Hillary fans. Don’t forget, the term "Reagan Democrats" came into being in 1980 because of Democrats in places like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh (and Chicago, incidentally) who were disgusted with the Democratic Party. A Democratic primary blood bath in Pennsylvania will help McCain in the fall, as will the very popular former governor and Homeland Security Czar, Tom Ridge.

What about Hillary? She’s done. She was finished in and by Wisconsin. If she wins Ohio, she can make the case to stay in until Pennsylvania. If she wins Pennsylvania, in fact, if she wins Pennsylvania (and Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island tonight), she will still be behind Obama in delegates. Her only chance would be a contentious convention where she tries to do some fuzzy math with Florida and Michigan and tries to hustle the Super Delegates. It won’t happen. Howard Dean or some other hapless fool will play John the Baptist and get their head cut off delivering the bad news to her that its time to go.

That said, Dennis Miller, said today that Hillary Clinton needs to be treated like Glenn Close in the bathtub scene in Fatal Attraction. In that movie, the hero held Glenn Close’s head under water long enough to think she was dead and then breathed a short sigh of relief only to find Glenn Close come surging out of the water with a butcher knife in her hand. Miller’s take: make sure she is really down and dead and drown before we breath a sigh of relief. Mind you, I don’t want the Hillster to be murdered just not the president!

One of the most fun parts of this race has been that the Clinton’s have been doing what they have always done: fought hard, fought down and dirty and have never allowed the truth to get in the way of their agenda and have never hesitated to change the goal post when it has suited them. Here are the two differences this time around: the media bias is no longer with them, it has routinely called them out and is in the tank with Obama. The other huge and humorous shift is the legion of former Clinton supporters (i.e., Bill Daley, David Wilhelm, Robert Reich, etc.) that are with Obama this time. Reich was Clinton’s Labor Secretary, Daley was his Commerce Secretary, Wilhelm was his campaign manager. Its amazing to see this folks with their support against Clinton.

It would be a welcome and unfamiliar turn to the high ground if Hillary gets out of the race Wednesday morning, not withstanding Dennis Miller’s concern that she could still pull out a win, and endorse Obama. On the other hand, the longer it goes on, the more fun it is for me and the more likely McCain will beat the Democratic nominee in the Fall.

Now, for some rumors buzzing about the ProConPundit...

1. Was I really in Texas on business two weeks ago.
Yes, I was, on behalf of my day job.

2. Why have you not had a post since the Wisconsin primary?
I have been busy with my day job, but I must admit I have been involved in a couple of controversial, and possibly illegal activities.

3. Controversial? You?
Yes, after leaving Texas, I went on to meet with Ralph Nader. I convinced him to make the run again this year for president. Ralph helped me out in 2000 by running and the votes he garnered in Florida deprived Al Gore of the presidency. I was hoping he might go to the dance again this year and take a few lefties away from Obama.

4. Illegal? Really?
Well, yes, I went to Cuba and met with Fidel Castro without State Department approval. Obama has reached out to Castro to be his running mate and Fidel so interested in moving to the Naval Observatory in DC that he stepped down as Dictator of Cuba. He figured if Obama doesn’t have to pledge allegiance to the American flag, Castro would be safe. He was having second thoughts because he heard that Obama was a Muslim. I went to Cuba to assuage Castro’s concerns. I told him that I don’t believe Obama is a Muslim. I was a little surprised that the far left would be concerned about that. At the same time, Castro was disappointed when I told him that I also didn’t believe that Obama refuses to pledge allegiance to the flag. He’s a cooky guy.