Once Again Comes Huckabee

The possibility of a Huckabee pick for VP has been floated in the media in the last few days. Rick Lowry at Nationl Review Online makes the case well even though he’s not supporting the idea:

1) McCain might have a “wealth problem,” and certainly Democrats are going to try to hit his wealth for all its worth in their play for working-class voters; Huckabee doesn’t have a problem on this front, and has lots of working-class cred. 2) The pro-choice trial balloon hasn’t been well received, and it’s clear that a pro-choice nominee would create a major disruption; Huckabee is pro-life. 3) Obama picked Biden who is going to a vivid presence (for better or worse) on the stump and could be formidable in debate; Huckabee is a great campaigner and might be just the guy to puncture Biden in a debate. 4) (This is a less important point.) The McCain folks have made a huge deal about differences between Obama and Biden during the primaries; McCain and Huckabee didn’t have much in the way of differences and went out of their way to praise each other. The other upsides are the press likes Huckabee (for now), he’s a different kind of Republican, and his selection would be such a shock, it might even be considered bold. The downsides are—as I’ve noted many times before—he doesn’t have much in the way of national security credentials and has a big seriousness gap, obviously not trifling matters. But if McCain can’t do Lieberman, and isn’t thrilled by Pawlenty or Romney, Huckabee might be worth a last-minute second look.

At the end of the day, a Lieberman choice is radioactive in the GOP-and not just among social conservtives. Governor Tom Ridge (R-PA) is little bitter. McCain is asking for the mother of all floor fights, particularly with Lieberman.

As for Mitt Romney placing the wealthy Romney on the ticket would make it, “Rich and Richer.” After the houses thing, this would be bad form and open more attacks from Obama. In addition, Romney went afterMcCain hard in the primary and the attacks between the two men in Obama ads would undermine McCain’s recent ads. It also takes the Flip Flopper card away from Camp McCain. Add to the fact that many people just don’t trust Romney and it would probably present the campaign more challenges than it was worth.

That leaves Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), who neither inspires great additional support nor ticks a ton of people off.  He is Mr. Safety and probably the smart money is on him. He doesn’t offend anyone, bother anyone. Really, other than creating a possibility of winning Minnesota, he adds or subtracts little from the ticket, except for the fact that Obama could copy McCain’s ad and ask why a man who got millions of votes (Mitt Romney) wasn’t put on the ticket and run ads of Romney criticizing McCain.

Huckabee, in addition to Lowry’s points would blunt that attack as he and Romney essentially tied for 2nd. He would give the campaign an experienced campaigner. No, Huckabee doesn’t have a ton of foreign policy experience, but you don’t need that at both ends of the ticket. But he does add presence as a debater and as a campigner. At this point, I don’t think he’ll get it. He’s concluded he’s not being considered and I think that’s why in recent weeks, he’s really expressed himself publicly on the VP choice and particularly why choosing Romney would be a bad idea. Having criticized other potential Veeps as a matter of analysis may bother some people, but I think it’s less problematic than the issues posed by a Romney choice.

At this point, I think the safe choice is Pawlenty and that’s where McCain’s probably going to go.