July 25, 2008
McCain May Act Soon On VP Pick
Washington Post: Aides Predict Announcement Before Olympics, Which Are Two Weeks Away
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Play CBS Video
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GOP 'Veepstakes'
Rumors that Sen. John McCain will soon announce his choice for VP spur a review of likely candidates. Harry Smith talks to Mike Crowley, senior editor of The New Republic magazine.
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McCain Irked By Obama Hype
John McCain has struggled to be heard during Barack Obama's widely covered overseas tour of the Mideast and Europe. McCain pokes fun at what he calls the media's love affair with Obama in a new ad. Charlie D'Agata reports.
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Eye To Eye: McCain On Mideast
John McCain talks about his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan and sharply criticizes Barack Obama's understanding of the war on the terror. McCain also addresses criticism of favoritism in the media.
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Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., reacts to the audience's applause as he makes a campaign stop at the LIVESTRONG Summit at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, Thursday, July 24, 2008. (AP)
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In-Depth
VP Hot Sheet: McCain
CBSNews.com ranks the top contenders to be McCain's running mate.
From Our Partner:
Anxious to counter the blanket media coverage that has followed Sen. Barack Obama on his overseas journey, Sen. John McCain is weighing whether to announce his running mate in the coming weeks before the spotlight shifts to China and the opening of the Olympic Games next month.
"He's in a position to make [the decision] on short notice if he wanted to," said Charles R. Black Jr., one of McCain's top political advisers.
Two top aides to the presumptive Republican nominee said the decision is likely to be announced after Obama returns from Europe on Sunday and before the Beijing Olympics begin Aug. 8. They said the campaign fears that unanticipated events coming out of China -- whether in the form of athletic accomplishments or human rights protests -- could deflect attention from the announcement if it were made during the Games.
The Olympics conclude the day before the Democratic nominating convention opens in Denver, and the GOP convention begins in Minneapolis-St. Paul just four days after the Democratic gathering ends.
Aides to the most likely candidates to join McCain on the ticket, meanwhile, offered terse "no comment" replies when asked whether they have been asked to provide documents that the campaign can use to vet backgrounds.
The list of likely contenders includes former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former U.S. budget director Rob Portman and former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge.
Asked several questions about the selection process, Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom repeatedly declined to comment. Representatives for Portman, Jindal and Pawlenty also would not say whether they have provided documents to McCain aides.VP Hot Sheet: McCain
CBSNews.com tracks the veepstakes buzz and ranks the top contenders. See who's number 1!
Ridge, a close friend of McCain's, said in an interview that he has had no conversations with the senator or his staff about being a running mate.
"I have not. I can only be interested if John is," Ridge said Tuesday. "I'm not lobbying for it. I'm not seeking it."
Ridge, who was first elected to Congress in 1982, at the same time McCain came to Washington, bonded with the Arizona Republican as a fellow Vietnam War veteran. He has been considered as a potential running mate before, providing vetting documents during the 2000 campaign to Richard B. Cheney, who was handling the selection process for then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
In the end, it was Cheney who was chosen.
This year, McCain has tapped Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., chairman of the Washington law firm O'Melveny & Meyers and a counsel to President Ronald Reagan, to oversee the selection of a running mate. Culvahouse has declined requests to comment, and McCain has been circumspect on the topic.
"I can't comment on it," McCain told reporters as he traveled through Wisconsin last week. He promised to describe his search process after it is over, declining to elaborate befor then. "I don't think it's fair to the people we are considering," he said.
Asked this week about Pawlenty, McCain again declined to comment on the governor's standing in the search but quickly ticked off a list of attributes that would argue for his selection.
"He's a great, fine person," McCain said. "Reelected in one of the toughest reelection years in the history of the Republican Party. His father, I am pretty sure, drove a truck. He has been pretty successfully . . . able to work across the aisle in Minnesota with the Democrats."
Pawlenty was in Washington this week, conducting media interviews on behalf of McCain and attending what the campaign described as "meetings" at McCain's national headquarters in Arlington. Portman accompanied McCain to a fundraiser in Columbus, Ohio, yesterday.
Jindal appeared on Fox News this week to tamp down expectations, telling "Fox & Friends" that he intends to remain governor of Louisiana, a job he has held only since January.
"Let me be clear: I have said in every private and public conversation, I've got the job that I want," Jindal said. "And I'll say again on air: I'm not going to be the vice presidential nominee or vice president. I'm going to help Senator McCain get elected, as governor of Louisiana."
Aides said Romney is vacationing this week with his family on the Canadian side of Lake Huron and is scheduled to be at his home in Wolfeboro, N.H., next week.
"What I can say is that there is a lot of guessing and speculation going on," Fehrnstrom said. "Governor Romney expects to be campaigning for Senator McCain as a supporter of the ticket, not a member of the ticket."
The timing of McCain's announcement has been hotly debated within the Republican Party as he and Obama eye a calendar that is tightly packed with major national and international events.
This week, syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak wrote that McCain was poised to make an announcement before week's end, but Novak later complained that he may have been used by aides to the McCain campaign to gin up attention for their candidate. If it was a ploy, it worked, as speculation about McCain's vice presidential choice provided a rare news breakthrough for the senator during Obama's overseas trip.
Many Republicans say the traditional time frame for an announcement -- the days leading up to the GOP convention -- is not practical this year, because the Democratic convention ends so soon before the Republican gathering. It's unlikely, they said, that McCain would announce his pick the day after Obama gives his convention speech.
And several McCain aides said they oppose the idea of making a vice presidential announcement during the Olympics.
"It's not that it wouldn't get covered. But if you are looking for a calm sea and no waves . . . you don't do it during the Olympics," said one senior Republican adviser.
"We don't know when some breakthrough performance will happen," the adviser said. "All sorts of news can come. . . . What if there's some sort of human rights protest?"
washingtonpost.com staff writer Chris Cillizza contributed to this report.
By Michael D. Shear and Robert Barnes
© 2008 The Washington Post Company
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See all 99 CommentsBut how many days in a row do you really think should be headlined with McCain my pick a VP soon?
It will be news when he actually does it!
I know McCain thinks he should be front and center in the news every day, regardless of whether he has actually done anything that is newsworthy.
But how many days in a row do you really think should be headlined with MCCAIN MAY PICK VP SOON?
It will be news when he actually does it!
rigor mortis is just around the corner..
Who could better represent the George Bush inspired, John McCain policies of continued failures, than the "inspiration" himself?
He''''s desperate for some news...that is all this is
Posted by jh6379 at 08:50 AM : Jul 25, 2008
John McCain campaign speech in Wilkes-Barre, PA - 900 attendees.
Barack Obama campaign speech in Berlin, Germany - 200,000 attendees.
And then, (I think as a joke), they complain that the media unfairly shows Obama "too much attention".
You have to admit, it is pretty funny!
But McCain has a real problem in picking a VP. If he picks someone who he can overshadow, which is a really short list, then the ticket is two losers instead of one.
On the other hand, if he picks someone who would lend some credibility to the ticket, also a short list if you only consider Republicans, people will wonder why McCain is on top of the ticket.
A real catch 22.
McCain would get more votes if he ran with Natalie Portman.
McCain''s campaign knows they get the media attention each time they hint they might announce their VP candidate.
Remember, Iran and Iraq have been enemies for decades. When we invaded Iraq, we allowed Iran to become much stronger. Now, we are paying the price for that. Unfortunately, the media never mentioned this story to Americans because they were too happy to go along with the Republicans, instead of looking at the facts.
Since this news was "leaked" by Novak (who loves to "leak" things), speculation has run high among those journalists left in Washington who are not covering Barack Obama, who could be McCain''s choice.
Some of the choices are:
1. Bobby Jindal - McCain needs someone younger on the ticket, younger even then Obama, so the younger the better!
2. Paula Abdul - meant to appeal to the neocon male voters, definitely in the running as McCain needs someone dumber than he is so he can look smart!
3. Miley Cyrus (alias Hannah Montana) - meant to bring the young voters into the fold, Cyrus would insure thousands of people showing up at fundraisers, BUT not necessarily to see McCain!
Then, there is the strongest candidate of all: GEORGE W. BUSH!!!!! Knowing that McCain is an "idiot", and thinking that if VP Darth Vader Cheney can pull Bush''s strings for 8 years, Bush can do the same to McCain and stay in power.
SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!!
sig heil, ABSOLUTELY MORE OF THE SAME, McCain!!!!
"He''s a great, fine person," McCain said. "Reelected in one of the toughest reelection years in the history of the Republican Party. His father, I am pretty sure, drove a truck. He has been pretty successfully . . . able to work across the aisle in Minnesota with the Democrats."
Ya...did a grand job with the bridges and other infrastructure in Minnesota...give him the nod!
Rumor has it that Barack Hussein Obama is going to ask Eva Braun to be his VP..
what happened walt1944.. Had to change your handle from MCvet, because they found out you never were in the MC.. SIG HEIL Obama Female dog..
Also, ALL American voters in the general election should elect the eventual vice president ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS, regardless of political affiliation
The Vice president of the United States is, for all practical purposes, the next president and should NEVER be chosen by one individual, not even the president himself.
One glaring example of the logic of this is the fact that Bush, most likely, would have been impeached long ago except that his handpicked vice president (Cheney) would have automatically replaced him.
IMO, because Pelosi took impeachment consideration off the table, She should be replaced in November by California voters, or at the very least, she should be replaced as speaker of the House of Representatives.
What exactly did he do as a community organizer? Yes, he is an excellent speaker when the teleprompter is on. Listen to the Senator answer questions....where is the "smoothness" in his replies?
How is he going to give everyone everything he promises?
How is he going to deal with real adversity (terrorists) when he''s afraid to appear on certain so called "conservative" television?
For the wealthy, liberal lemmings, remember, it''s your money he is going to tax!
For those who are against ILLEGAL immigration, remember, he''s the one who will give amnesty and possibly not secure our borders.
Again, research the facts before you vote!
I vote for MCCAIN (/ROMNEY?)
He''s going to totally sell out and pick Mitt.
In the end, it was Cheney who was chosen.
******** And a lot of people felt there wasn''t any warning before the POS Darth was unleashed on this country ..... To JN122736, you should be thanking Pelosi, just imagine if Darth became POTUS for just 1week - we probably wouldn''t even be on these boards right now .... He has no HEART and always shoots first. Cheers!
McCain would have the best chance with selecting Ron Paul - but the GOP, still controlled by that dying alliance of unpopular neo-cons and wingnut evangelical dominionists, despise the man.
WASHINGTON %u2014 The surge in Iraq has been a success by any measure, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said during a news conference June 23.
The policy, announced by President Bush in December 2006, pushed additional brigades in to Iraq to provide a security umbrella so the Iraqi military could build and the country%u2019s government could grow.
The surge has allowed Iraq to make improvements from security, political and economic standpoints, Morrell said. The last of the five surge brigade combat teams recently left Iraq.
%u201CBy every metric that we measure violence in Iraq, there has been a dramatic improvement from where things were before the surge,%u201D Morrell said. %u201CI''ll just point to one, and that is [that] in July of last year, we had 79 U.S. [servicemembers killed in action] in Iraq. We have four thus far this month.%u201D
The dramatic security gains have provided room for political and economic successes. %u201CYou name it, it is happening in Iraq,%u201D Morrell said. %u201CDo you want to talk about political gains? We''ve had basically all the major benchmark legislation passed.%u201D
Take that, liberals!
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Posted by OneAmerican_ at 10:56 AM
Interesting. Just yesterday I saw a report that showed that street justice in Iraq is the name of the day. A young man of 16 years was kidnapped and raped repeatedly over a period of time and the parents couldn''t do a thing about it. The law doesn''t work over their, even yet. People are going out and seeking vengeance or imposing their rules of morality on others and the general people are helpless. And still, the sanitary conditions are the worse. Yep, you don''t see much of this information on CBS. But hey, the surge is working! Right?
So you don''t think we have heard endlessly about the surge in the media, U must have your head stuck up your a. Just how much time, lives and money do we have to spend on these people who hate us, and rightly so.
Idiot.
McCain came out this week with a list of 20 possible running mates. He would not reveal the names of all of them, but he said they all share certain traits, like knowing CPR. He said he wants someone who is ready take over on day two.
lol!
If McCain wins dinner is going to suck at the white house everything is going to be over cooked and spungie and Cream Corn and Corn Bread and Over Cooked Carrots will be on the dinner menue every night.
Along with a shot of KAO-Pectate for after dinner snack.
McBush and his pals like McSame have purposefully and willfully broken the laws in the Constitution. Again and again in arrogant fashion. The public needs to find out all about it through impeachment hearings.
Posted by OneAmerican_ at 10:56 AM : Jul 25, 2008
You are very good at harping on one detail at a time, OneAmerican. Too bad the world doesn''t run that way.
While we are subduing Iraq''s internal insurrencies for them, Afganistan is heating up again, and the global network of terrorists has now moved into Pakistan...just like the liberals have warned.
So what do we do now, "democratize" Pakistan next? How about Syria? Or is there less reason to save these countries from terrorists, since they haven''t the vast wealth of oil Iraq does?
And even if the US had the manpower to go into Pakistan and Syria, where then does a global network of terrorists go? Answer: anywhere that gives them a safe haven until occupation forces clear out. Because a terrorist network with cells all over the planet is not going to let themselves get killed in the two countries US troops are in. They have gone elsewhere.
Take the blinders off for once, OneAmerican, and take a glimpse of the state of the world outside your little conservative point of view. In the Bush War on Terror, Iraq is one crumb, but in the Bush War for Oil, Iraq is pure gold, pure black gold.
Once the boomers get too old to function, which luckily is just around the corner, we can get this country back on track to progress and forward thinking.
McCain, do us all a favor, retire.
On an aside: Why is Lance Armstrong endorsing McSame? I have totally lost any respect that I might have had for the guy and think Sheryl Crow did the right thing. I mean, you gotta have SOME self-respect.
Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morning in a Los Angeles hotel by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.
The married ex-senator from North Carolina - whose wife Elizabeth continues to battle cancer -- met with his mistress, blonde divorcie Rielle Hunter, at the Beverly Hilton on Monday night, July 21 - and the NATIONAL ENQUIRER was there! He didn''''t leave until early the next morning.
Rielle had driven to Los Angeles from Santa Barbara with a male friend for the rendezvous with Edwards. The former senator attended a press event Monday afternoon with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the topic of how to combat homelessness.
But a months-long NATIONAL ENQUIRER investigation had yielded information that Rielle and Edwards, 54, had arranged to secretly meet afterward and for the ex-senator to spend some time with both his mistress and the love child who he refuses to publicly acknowledge as his own.
.............Now how sad is that?
Friday, July 25
Race Poll Results Spread
New Mexico Rasmussen Obama 49, McCain 43 Obama +6.0
Pennsylvania Rasmussen Obama 51, McCain 45 Obama 6.0
New Hampshire Rasmussen Obama 49, McCain 45 Obama 4.0
National Gallup Tracking Obama 47, McCain 41 Obama 6.0
National Rasmussen Tracking Obama 49, McCain 44 Obama 5.0
posted by perceptions5
******************************************************** I was wondering where the ignoramouses got their news from. When you see these rags at the grocery store you always wonder if anybody actually believes that garbage. Now we find somebody who actually does.
hahahhahahahahhahahahhahahhaha
On an aside: Why is Lance Armstrong endorsing McSame? I have totally lost any respect that I might have had for the guy and think Sheryl Crow did the right thing. I mean, you gotta have SOME self-respect.
Posted by RandyNason at 01:21 PM : Jul 25, 2008
********************************************************** Armstrong did not endorse McCain, he is trying to further his agenda for cancer funding. Hopefully somebody asked Mccain why he voted against cancer funding.
CLEANUP IN AISLE 4
Then he would''nt look so old. Nothing against old people, because I''m getting there myself. In reality, he should be in Florida. He could team up with Ted Kennedy, Ted Stevens and Pete Domenici and have a show called "The Golden Boys".
Vps nowadays are underground governments. People nobody picked, and most certainly nobody elected. Who cause noth''n but trouble..
It seems that John Edwards was spotted in the Beverly Hills Hilton having a late-night get-together with his mistress, who recently gave birth to their love child.
It''''s interesting that CBS and the rest of the liberal press has been so over-protective of Obama they are unlikely to release this news.
Regardless of how this plays out, it is almost assured that Obama will still pick John Edwards for his Attourney General.
Is this what Obama refers to as "picking the right people for his administration?"
One has to wonder at such deep character flaws.
John McCain sings "bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys "Barbara Ann" to the PRESS and people think he is a viable **presidential** candidate.
Meanwhile, over 6 years of the Iraq War have driven us into recession, debt, a severely weakened dollar and a collapsing economy, while we finance Iraq''s reconstruction with Chinese loans. Nobody voted for this. It was all the idea of Bush/Cheney and the neocons. We went into Iraq because we were told they had WMDs. Of course, they did not. But that somehow does not matter anymore? And the mastermind of 9/11 - Bin Laden - still walks free. It makes me very seriously doubt the mental health of every republican.
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