...start tossing out possible Cabinet names with more regularity.
1) Even after recovering later in this past week from his earlier fumbling around as the recent financial sector festivities began to unfold in earnest, neither McCain nor his campaign is a reliable, paragon of comfort when talking about such issues.
He should throw out a few names for Treasury. He should mention people that he wants on his economic team, even if he doesn't yet have a defined role for them. Mitt Romney might fit the bill (and Phil "whiners" Gramm most definitely does not!). The aura of stability and competence such appropriate name-dropping would provide should not be discounted.
2) It's not uncommon for Presidential candidates to at some point publicly muse about options for the "Big Four" Cabinet posts of State, Defense, Treasury, and Attorney General. Discussing good possibilities for State and Defense (and National Security Adviser too) would do much to quell some of the volume of the nattering nabobs worried about Sarah Palin's presence on the ticket...since apparently it's now kosher to assume McCain is going to kick the bucket any minute.
Sure, such critics won't shut up about the matter. But it would be much more difficult for such chatter to achieve critical mass if McCain looks to have solid ideas for a well-rounded foreign policy team to compliment the ticket itself.
Even more so than the inexperienced Obama, McCain would seem to benefit by starting to get such names out pronto. Additionally, McCain will invariably go mavericky and toss out some Democrats as options (as he has already done a bit).
That will challenge Obama to show similar range, which doesn't fit the doctrinaire, indecisive liberal that has been on the trail since the Democratic convention. Pressure on the other guy is always a good thing.
Posted by Eric Earling at September 21, 2008 09:50 PM | Email ThisEven within the traditional Republican conservatives and the middle of the road types .. Bloomberg, Luger, Volcker ... none of these people is going want to serve in a government where there is a 50% chance a dominionist will be the next President.
Romney??? With all due respect I doubt you could find any high level economics types who would find him reassuring. Romney's own money was made in exactly the kind of venture that just went wrong. His administrative successes .. though impressive reflect management of stakeholders not money.
Who else is there in the McC/radical right camp? Meg W. may be the best but even she is not exactly the sort of business person he needs.
Frankly, IF McC does come to power something drmaatic will have to happen to create a functional government. A putsch by the moderate repricans (Scofield, Gates, Lugar, Daddy B???) is possible but even that will oly work if the Dems will work with it. One thing is for sure, the radical repricans are not going to work with McCain.
Posted by: SeattleJew on September 21, 2008 10:00 PMPaul is a turncoat fruit loop. I don't even want him in my government.
Posted by: Hinton on September 21, 2008 11:21 PMI am honored by yoiur comments:
pustulent untermensch Pharisee WOW that must make me a PUP!
like the demonic perverts Al Franken and Sandra Bernhard.
Sarah??? I dunno abut that. She and I diagree ion most things. Franken was a classmate of mine. I do think his humor is only B-.
Their opinions are always antiAmerican, and are always antiChristian. I will admit to findng a lot of what Christians do abhorrent .... slavery, book bunrng are hard to like. On the hand, you folks produced Cesar Cahvez, Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Jhn XX111, Nelson Mandela, so maybe there is hope for you.
Ignore them all to keep yourselves clean. NOW I take offense. I took my annual bath just three weeks ago!
...........the enemy.
Aside from the ridiculous slam of referring to Governor Palin as a dominionist, it also shows a total lack of Actuarial knowledge if you really think there is a 50% chance that McCain will not survive his 4 year term. That's not even CLOSE to reality. Heck there is more than a 70% chance McCain would survive TWO terms, let alone one.
So, unless you have it in your mind that McCain will serve 14 years in office (his current life expectancy is about 14 years), then no, a 50% chance is not even CLOSE to being the probability of him dying in office.
By the way, the probability of him surviving 4 years is on the order of 88%, so the odds of Governor Palin taking over as POTUS in the next four years is only about 1 in 8...
Posted by: Bill H on September 22, 2008 12:51 PMOne of the things I like about Paul is he works well as a indicator of a persons overall stance on government. That you would call him a fruitcake quickly tells me you very little desire to reduce the size of government.
Charlie:
THat you think McCain is strong on the economy would normally be funny. Given the results of his policies (as well as Obamas) that are appearing in the last two weeks it is scary!
Posted by: Lysander on September 22, 2008 11:15 PMI checked out what Glen Beck was referring to and Paul literally has called this economic crisis years ago. I think its time we put our prejudices away and listen with an open mind.
Here was Ron Paul on the front page of CNN this morning:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/23/paul.bailout/index.html
Posted by: Southsounder on September 23, 2008 11:58 AMRomney is not an economist, although he does have an Harvard MBA. Good business credentials, but thats not enough for Treasury.
Phill Gramm does have an economics background, but thinks we're all "whining".
Of course, he could pick someone like Warren Buffet. That might actually get him my vote, especially if he ditched Palin, and got someone competent.