Searching for McCain's VP
By George Will
Real Clear Politics
WASHINGTON -- "Do you think he'd do it?" That was the first question Ronald Reagan asked when, 24 days before the 1976 Republican convention, his campaign manager suggested that Reagan immediately name Pennsylvania's Sen. Richard Schweiker as his running mate. Reagan was narrowly behind in the delegate count as he attempted to wrest the nomination from President Gerald Ford. Three days later Schweiker joined the ticket.
This was designed to pry loose some Ford delegates, particularly among the 103 of Pennsylvania's delegation (Schweiker was one of them), and prevent Ford from clinching the nomination before the Kansas City convention.
A callow young columnist without a lick of sense (George F. Will) criticized the tactic as "slapstick," but it worked: Walter Cronkite pulled back what would have been that night's CBS lead story saying Ford's nomination was assured, and the battle raged until the convention.
Real Clear Politics
WASHINGTON -- "Do you think he'd do it?" That was the first question Ronald Reagan asked when, 24 days before the 1976 Republican convention, his campaign manager suggested that Reagan immediately name Pennsylvania's Sen. Richard Schweiker as his running mate. Reagan was narrowly behind in the delegate count as he attempted to wrest the nomination from President Gerald Ford. Three days later Schweiker joined the ticket.
This was designed to pry loose some Ford delegates, particularly among the 103 of Pennsylvania's delegation (Schweiker was one of them), and prevent Ford from clinching the nomination before the Kansas City convention.
A callow young columnist without a lick of sense (George F. Will) criticized the tactic as "slapstick," but it worked: Walter Cronkite pulled back what would have been that night's CBS lead story saying Ford's nomination was assured, and the battle raged until the convention.
posted by Andy W. Rogers | 8:36 PM
1 Comments:
George Will opines: "South Carolina's Gov. Mark Sanford, 47, is more of a maverick than McCain, and Sanford faults his state party for being insufficiently conservative. His frugality has had him at daggers drawn with the state Legislature, which Republicans control. His populism is an acquired taste -- he should not have lugged those two live pigs into the Legislature to express his disapproval of pork -- but he favors expanding school choice, eliminating the state income tax and, at the national level, reforming entitlement."
Sanford sounds like a guy who should have run for president this year.
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