Comments on But, I am a Liberal!: "The Argument for Lieberman"?

That would be nice to think of McCain as crossing ...

2008-08-20T21:21:00.000-05:00

That would be nice to think of McCain as crossing partisan boundaries, but that was what the McCain of several years ago did. The current McCain is a solid Republican and he needs another to back him up as VP- preferably one who's not as new to being fully conservative.

McCain and Obama need to just announce their picks...

2008-08-20T16:49:00.000-05:00

McCain and Obama need to just announce their picks already, so folks like me can stop speculating. The suspense is starting to get to me.
I agree NC, Lieberman simply doesn’t give him any votes and he so he won’t be the pick. The fact that Lieberman is speaking at the RNC convention, and not on the day the VP would, also puts to rest the idea that he is the pick. As long as it’s an individual I have no opinion of, I would not mind it being a social conservative if it means a McCain victory. Although I would prefer it be someone socially liberal, I know I am not in the mainstream of the Republican Party in this regard.

Neo: I can see Lieberman having a role in McCain’s government, which is a much more likely position. As for whom I think the VP will be, I really don’t know at this point; I’ll just have to wait a week to see who picks.

I like Lieberman, and I think it would be both a b...

2008-08-18T14:10:00.000-05:00

I like Lieberman, and I think it would be both a bold, refreshing move as well as a foolish, suicidal one to add him to the ticket.

I see Lieberman filling a Cabinet role, however.

Who do you think the VP's will be? We should know any minute!

We've had this conversation before.This is exactly...

2008-08-18T11:49:00.000-05:00

We've had this conversation before.

This is exactly the sort of wishful thinking I engage in from time to time. But you are correct in pointing out that Lieberman will not bring in many votes, at least not in most places that will make a difference. Sure, he'll get some California, NY, NJ and IL Jews to vote Republican but all of those states are solidly Blue.

Where it might make a difference is Florida. Certainly an important state but I have a feeling the number of Jews living in Fl. who will vote for McCain will not dramtically increase if he picked Lieberman. There might be a slight bump but not much.

As we both know, he needs to pick a social conservative Christian as VP if he wants to win. I wish this was not the case but it is. The main elements of the Republican base are:

1) social conservatives
2) defense Hawks (once called anti-communists)
3) fiscal conservatives

you could also add:

4) libertarians
5) nativists

But they are wild-cards this election cycle. Many of the libertarians will likely vote for Barr or Paul and McCain isn't xenophobic enough for the nativists.

Thankfully, McKinney won the Green Party nomination and Nader is the Peace and Freedom candidate so hopefully they will peel some votes away from Obama, especially given his flip-flops on FISA and other issues they care so much about.