It’s still way early but why not join in the fun of speculation about who John McCain will pick for VP.
A new name on the list is Senator John Thune. John who? Well for starters, he’s reportedly a good friend of John McCain’s
John Thune is the junior Senator from South Dakota. As far as Republican politics though, he’s no junior.
June was elected as a Representative in 1996 and was reelected twice. In 1998 and 2000 he received over 70% of the vote. This fact is more impressive when you understand that Thune represented the “At large District” of South Dakota which means that it’s basically a state wide elected office.
In 2002, he ran against Tim Johnson for the Senate. Johnson, who is the Senior Senator, beat Thune by 524 votes.
Thune is probably best known for his 2004 campaign where he beat Tom Daschle who was the Senate Minority Leader at the time.
Thune has a lifetime conservative voting record of 87 which isn’t bad when you consider John McCain is running around claiming conservatism with a lifetime rating of 82. The better news is, whereas McCain’s rating dropped to 80 in 2005 and 65 in 2006 (A big reason why we question his conservative credentials), Thune’s rating was 92 in 2005 and a perfect 100 in 2006 which included votes on Stem cell research, immigration and the same sex marriage ammendment.
The points for Thune as VP are easily offset with counter arguments. While he’s young, good looking and a capable campaigner he doesn’t have much national cache’. He’s got a solid conservative voting record but will McCain view him as enough of an “equal” that he can influence policy? Finally, in a year where McCain needs to make sure and lock down all Red States and hope to put a few blues in play, I don’t see how Thune impacts any of that.
In the end I guess Thune is as viable as any other name I’ve heard as I don’t have an impression that McCain thinks he “needs” anything to win this election (note his lack of reaching to conservatives even though he has said he will), so a strong personal relationship, someone McCain believes he can trust, may be all he is looking for.
At this point, Thune’s name is just another hat in the ring. With the Democratic convention a week before the Republican’s I don’t think it’s likely to hear a VP pick until we know who the Dems have line up. That said, it’s still fun to ponder the possibilities.
Well, Thune is better looking than McFeingold. :) I think it would be great to get someone like J.C. Watts, but I doubt it’ll happen.
Maybe he should just ask John F’ing Kerry. I mean after all, fair is fair, right?
Shoebox,
I don’t think McNuggets will pick Thune. I see him asking Liberman (the Loserman from the Sore Loserman ticket).
Although she indicated she would not run for President, I think Condoleezza Rice would represent a wonderful VP selection. While HC and BO argue about who has executive experience, I think they pale to both JM and CR on many, many fronts. Then the question is who would JM choose for Secretary of State, and it sounds like Cox or Sanford could be candidates.