McCain Grilling For A Running Mate?

Republican Presumptive Nominee's Friends Downplay VIP Barbeque, But VP Speculation Abounds

(CBS)  John McCain opened up his Arizona home Sunday to a select list of Republican VIPs, igniting speculation about who he'll choose to join him on the GOP presidential ticket, reports CBS News correspondent Priya David.

Despite the overt gesture, those close to the presumptive nominee downplayed the gathering.

"This was purely social," Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and close friend of McCain who attended the barbeque told Face The Nation host Bob Schieffer. "If you know anything about John McCain, he is like a kid at Christmas when it comes to showing off his ranch up here."

Also among the guests: McCain's one-time rival for the Republican nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney; the popular governor of swing-state Florida, Charlie Crist; and Louisiana's new governor, Bobby Jindal.

All are younger than McCain, with Jindal, at 36, the youngest of the three.

"He wants to start looking at people, vetting some of his prospects," Politico.com's Jonathan Martin told CBS News. "There's no more important decision for these candidates in the next few months than picking somebody for their ticket who's not gonna be a problem."

Just as important for McCain is choosing a running mate who can offset what's being seen as one of his problems - his age.

McCain will celebrate his 72nd birthday this August, making him, if elected, the oldest person ever to win the Oval Office.

During a Fox News debate in New Hampshire, the veteran of both the Vietnam War and the U.S. Senate made no attempt to sugar-coat his seniority, proclaiming: "I am older than dirt and got more scars than Frankenstein."

McCain's not the first candidate to try to diffuse the issue with humor, reports David.

In 1984, 73-year-old Ronald Reagan, running for re-election, spun age in his favor. "I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience," he said. Reagan won. But, in 1996, Bob Dole had a harder time at 73, losing to Bill Clinton.

Polls show age remains a significant hurdle for McCain.

"We find about one-in-four saying that John McCain is too old, and then when we tell people how old he actually is, that number goes to almost a third of voters," Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center tells CBS News.

A cancer survivor and former prisoner of war, McCain released his medical records Friday, showing no significant health problems.

"His doctors have given him a clean bill of health," Democratic rival Barack Obama said. "I don't think it should be an issue in the campaign."

David reports that Obama, a 46-year-old senator from Illinois who gave up smoking just last year, has not released his medical records, and his campaign says he won't - until he's named the Democratic nominee.

[terrorislami]

never pay fascist nazi terrorislam tribute,,, never,,,

Kipling poem %u201CDane-Geld%u201D

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbor and to say:%u2014
%u201CWe invaded you last night%u2014we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away.%u201D

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you%u2019ve only to pay %u2019em the Dane-geld
And then you%u2019ll get rid of the Dane!
Kipling runs briskly through the stages of humiliation undergone by any power that falls for this appeasement, and concludes:

It is wrong to put temptation in the pathof any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say:%u2014

%u201CWe never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost!%u201D

It may be fortunate that the United States had to pass this test, and imbibe this lesson, so early in its life as a nation.

[terrorislami]

the defeat of fascist nazoi terrorislam,,,

%u201CIt is a settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute. The United States, while they wish for war with no nation, will buy peace with none.%u201D President James Madison

[terrorislami]

america stands up to fascist nazi terrorislam,,,

But one cannot get around what Jefferson heard when he went with John Adams to wait upon Tripoli%u2019s ambassador to London in March 1785. When they inquired by what right the Barbary states preyed upon American shipping, enslaving both crews and passengers, America%u2019s two foremost envoys were informed that %u201Cit was written in the Koran, that all Nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon whoever they could find and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.%u201D (It is worth noting that the United States played no part in the Crusades, or in the Catholic reconquista of Andalusia.)

Ambassador Abd Al-Rahman did not fail to mention the size of his own commission, if America chose to pay the protection money demanded as an alternative to piracy. So here was an early instance of the %u201Cheads I win, tails you lose%u201D dilemma, in which the United States is faced with corrupt regimes, on the one hand, and Islamic militants, on the other%u2014or indeed a collusion between them.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_2_urbanities-thomas_jefferson.html

[terrorislami]

fascist nazi terrorislam

In a way, I am glad that I did not have the initial benefit of all this research. My quest sent me to some less obvious secondary sources, in particular to Linda Colley%u2019s excellent book Captives, which shows the reaction of the English and American publics to a slave trade of which they were victims rather than perpetrators. How many know that perhaps 1.5 million Europeans and Americans were enslaved in Islamic North Africa between 1530 and 1780? We dimly recall that Miguel de Cervantes was briefly in the galleys. But what of the people of the town of Baltimore in Ireland, all carried off by %u201Ccorsair%u201D raiders in a single night?
http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_2_urbanities-thomas_jefferson.html

[terrorislami]

Posted by realpatriot1 at 05:12 AM : May 27, 2008

hahaha

demonic-rats are communist/socialist,,,

they destroy the economy by taxing the poor working man and giving it to the deadbeat and illegals,,,

stop stealing the working mans wages,,, yah bums,,,

get a job,,,

self reliance, personal responsibility,,,,

"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1961

The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight. Theodore Roosevelt

[realpatriot1]

terrorislami,

Capitalism works better under Democratic leadership than under Republican leadership. The Republicans continually destroy the economy and threaten capitalism in the process.

It was the Democrats in the 1930s who saved America from communism at a time when Prescott Bush was doing business with the Nazis and Republicans were cutting and running from involvement in confronting Nazis or communists.

[sgtrds-e4]

in your weak brain it is,,,

but it is not,,,

Posted by terrorislami at 01:33 AM : May 27, 2008

Classic anti-war film, like Red Badge of Courage and All Quiet on the Western Front or Paths of Glory! Not surprised that that went over your head though.

[terrorislami]

Posted by SgtRDS-E4 at 01:30 AM : May 27, 2008

in your weak brain it is,,,

but it is not,,,

[sgtrds-e4]

here is a must see movie for all you i hate america types,,,

all you defeatest,,, and entitlement types,,,

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036
868/

Posted by terrorislami at 12:45 AM : May 27, 2008

Great anti-war film!

[terrorislami]

Posted by noloyalisti at 12:53 AM : May 27, 2008

give it up commie,,,

capitalism is the only system that works,,,

even the commie chinese have admitted that,,,

time for you too,,, LOL

hahaha

[noloyalisti]

Terrorislami must be talking about the Republicans when he (or she or both) talks about the defeatists (who want us to lose not only in Iraq but in Afghanistan and Israel) and entitlement types (those that support the current corporate welfare system and tax breaks for the rich as entitlements).

My main point was that I wonder what kind of low life could McSame select. Maybe someone who has already resigned in disgrace like Powell, Libby, Gonzales. Another mindless GOP puppet.

[terrorislami]

here is a must see movie for all you i hate america types,,,

all you defeatest,,, and entitlement types,,,

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036868/

[terrorislami]

Posted by ainttaken at 12:34 AM : May 27, 2008

like you can find a spot where miserable alcoholic murderous commie fat pig baby teddy has not puked first,,,

[terrorislami]

Ted Kennedy as a "Fat Pig"?
Posted by SHURCH4TRUTH at 10:10 PM : May 26, 2008

he is not a fat pig,,,

he is a miserable alcoholic murderous commie fat pig,,,

ask the Mary Jo Kopechne family,,,

who says you cannot get away with murder,,,

kennedys can,,, and have,,,

FBI file links Kennedy to Monroe''s death
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/kennedy-link-to-death/2007/03/16/1173722744304.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=mary+jo kopechne&spell=1

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Chappaquiddick&btnG=Search

[veteran72]

I''''m betting it''''ll be McCain/Cheney.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by SgtRDS-E4 at 11:53 PM : May 26, 2008
+ report abuse

Imagine if they both vapor-locked at the same time....
They''d have to bring out the second string....LMMFAO..

[sgtrds-e4]

Not sure why but I get the feeling that leach Lieberman will somehow wind up on the VP ticket, If not with McCain then with Obnama.
Javier

Posted by summarex at 04:34 AM : May 26, 2008

I''m betting it''ll be McCain/Cheney.

[j-whitman]

Bagdadshere1,,,, Thanks.... But, you are wrong on who can be beaten... Hillary''s got way too much baggage, but either is better than another Bush.

[ioweign]

McCain Grilling For A Running Mate?


No doubt serving lots of BBQ crow...

[j-whitman]

McBush Flag Waving again today complaining about the conditions at Walter Reed --- How many times in his Senate career did he visit it or drive by the hospital ??

He did NOTHING for Walter Reed but ignore the problems -- Just like his lobbyists,, he does nothing but continue the problems untill it''s in front of the public eye.

[j-whitman]

fenner,,,, Come on man, Obama''s got a far better record than Bush could ever dream of.... McBush''s record is the same old government & politics that is the source of our problems.