Politics

Not The Best Of Friends

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 28, 2000 / 9:00 AM EDT / CBS

If George W. Bush and John McCain have trouble agreeing to a simple meeting, how on earth can they ever be running mates? Pairing these two on the Republican ticket would be a triumph of political opportunism over personal antipathy.

So gnarled were the plans for the May 9 Bush-McCain summit in Pittsburgh that a Friday meeting between their subordinates took on new urgency. John Weaver, McCain's political director, and Bush's campaign manager Joe Allbaugh met in Washington to resolve the issues surrounding the meeting, and observers waited to see whether black or white smoke would emerge.

It was white. The meeting was "cordial and productive," said Todd Harris, a McCain spokesman. "Sen. McCain looks forward to a substantive meeting with Gov. Bush."

How did this tempest in a teapot start brewing?

In an article Thursday, columnist Robert Novak said that the Bush crowd had come to regard the meeting with McCain as unpleasant medicine. He also said that McCain's opposition to accepting a vice presidential slot had crumbled a bit. That supposedly nettled McCain, as did Bush's remark last week that he'd likely ask his former rival to consider being his running mate. According to a report in the online magazine Salon, McCain called the whole meeting off.

But the Bush campaign insisted the meeting was still on, and said stoutly, "the governor looks forward to a productive session." A spokesman for McCain then said the meeting wasn't cancelled, but was "tenuous."

Why? Because McCain apparently wants the meeting wrapped in an odor of sanctity. Weaver said the meeting, and its preliminaries, should be private. Harris said there had to be a "substantive agenda in advance" - which apparently translates to "no VP chatter." Instead, the senator insisted on a discussion of Social Security, reforming the military, education and health care.

Very high-minded. But why does the McCain crowd treat VP whispers as a vampire's kiss? They've been more than eager to tell the general public that the senator would never, ever consider running for the vice presidency. So why would it be so hard to say that to Bush himself? Wouldn't a polite, firm, "no" end the persistent speculation about McCain's future? Or is an actual, spoken offer considered anathema because it's just too tempting?

Sulkiness is the least statesmanlike of attributes. McCain doesn't have to decide right now if he wants to run with Bush. But he has to drop the "Miami relatives" act and agree to a session with the governor. Part of the penalty for losing the primary race is that you don't get to set meeting agendas unilaterally. McCain can hardly promote his reforms successfully if he proves himself a man unable to sit down with his party's nominee.

The Bush campaign sunnily insisted all along the meeting was a go, and why not? Bush gets credit for looking magnanimous, whether he invites McCain to run with hi or not. By the way, not would be the better option.

McCain's value as a running mate is considerably diminished by his own independence and the risk he would overshadow Bush, or disagree with him on key issues. After all, Bush himself has always said his running mate would have to be "somebody who likes me," and McCain doesn't seem to fit that bill.

And the transparent ambition that would prompt McCain to accept the post would turn off at least some of the new, independent voters he attracted during the primaries.

Nevertheless, Bush needs to give McCain some respect. While he needn't accept McCain's agenda, he should listen to it; if he's such a master of bipartisanship, as he's been proclaiming all week, then accepting some of McCain's ideas shouldn't be too hard.

For both men, the meeting is a test of grace. It would be just as bad for Bush to look like a poor winner as for McCain to look like a poor loser.