GOP Nominee
Former Candidates
Although Sec/state Condoleezza Rice may be campaigning for vice president, I sense no — and I mean no — interest on the McCain side in putting her on a short list… at least not yet.
One wonders whether Marc’s “sense” is from his own intuition or from talking to people within the McCain campaign itself.
In other news, Ambinder also notes that McCain has raised $15 million in March.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Not to distract from the other thread, but really, Rice brings nothing to the table.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
It would be nice if he told us who he “sense”s they are putting on a short list?
April 7th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
No question mark.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
The real news (which I have been waiting to hear) is the fundraising. McCain had the entire month to himself and was fundraising a good deal of time and he still only managed 3/8’s of Obama’s total and less than Clinton. (Hillary was hoping McCain would come in over $25 million to blunt the argument that Obama’s fundraising was further reason to choose him). Obviously, no one can buy the presidency and McCain did quite well even though he had a shoe-string budget. But that was a primary and the battlefield was limited. In a general election against Obama, McCain will have to fight in several states at once including states that might otherwise not require an investment.
Not good news for the GOP.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
In the end Mr. McCain will probably do what he will and who ever he picks won’t be as bad as Dems in most of our opinions. We can further debate about who brings what to the table. Today ACT has put aside some of my uneasyness with Mr. Romney. While I like certain things about Dr. Rice, I remain quite uneasy about the idea of her being on the ticket. I also still think, it will be difficult to sell her to the American Heartland.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
PabloZed,
In all likelihood, McCain will agree to take public funding for the general election (September 3rd - November4th). It’s evident that he is not even going to be at close parity of Obama. Indeed, the internal McCain budget only projects raising $57 million through the September convention (which is less than Obama raised in February alone). If McCain accepts public funds, he’ll actually get about $85 million from the Treasury.
This is yet another reason to hope that the Democratic race goes until the convention. Obama’s spending about $2 million a day against Hillary.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
That’s just AWFUL fundraising. My goodness. Right now I’d give the GOP even odds of holding onto the White House, perhaps better, so you’d think McCain would be getting “hedge your bet” money, at the least. You’d expect investors to say “maybe I don’t like McCain, but I don’t want to be on the outs if he wins, so I’ll toss a few bucks his way”. So it’s beyond belief that he isn’t doing better then this. In other news, I can’t understand why Condi would be campaigning for VP. She’s no interest whatsoever in either job in the past, though she almost certainly would have made some progress had she run for President. What’s changed? Unless she’s expecting to nail down a genuine Israeli/Palenstinian peace solution by the end (which I’ve heard rumblings of), and therefore she’s expecting herself to be a real asset to the ticket…other then that, I can’t see why she either way the job, or why we’d want her in the job.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
LJ,
I suspected McCain would eventually accept public funds for the general, but the dangerous period is before the convention. The dems are not going to allow it to go past June, which would mean about 3 months before the GOP convention. McCain won’t be able to fight in 30 states for 90 days without improving his fundraising.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Highly doubt Rice will be the nominee. Personally, I get the feeling that McCain’s running mate will be one of three Ps:
Pawlenty
Portman
Palin
April 7th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
He must not be planning to put Mitt on the ticket, otherwise the fund raising projections would be much, much higher than that.