ERIE, Pa. - Sen. John McCain said Monday the first thing he’d do if elected president is “call Tom Ridge to Washington from whatever vacation he’s taking and get him to work.”
Ridge, a former Homeland Security czar, is a potential vice presidential running mate, but if McCain was going to ask him to join the Republican ticket, he wouldn’t wait until after the election to do it.
Maybe it was a coded way of saying a McCain-Ridge White House bid isn’t in the cards, but that’s not likely to cool speculation the former Pennsylvania governor might be tapped as vice president.
McCain was speaking off the cuff, and his words about Ridge as they campaigned in this battleground state were unmistakably warm.
“So many of the Greatest Generation came from the heartland of America. … That is why I am honored to know a person like Gov. Tom Ridge, who had every opportunity after he graduated from Harvard not to go to Vietnam,” McCain told a town hall meeting of workers at a General Electric plant.
“He could have found a doctor who’d give him a certificate that he had a bad knee. Instead he went and decided to serve his country in the Vietnam war,” said McCain, who dined with Ridge and his wife, Michele, and daughter, Lesley, Sunday evening in an Erie waterfront restaurant.
With the Republican convention in the first week of September looming, McCain is running out of time to name his vice presidential pick.
Other potential McCain running mates include former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Democratic rival Barack Obama is expected to announce his vice presidential running mate ahead of the Democratic Party’s nominating convention later this month.
His campaign has said it plans to announce the decision in e-mail and text messages to supporters.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (Ridge, right, with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, center, at a campaign event for McCain, left, in December)
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Once a cheater, always a Cheater
Adultery cast a shadow on a person’s ethics. However, it does not necessarily mean that the offending person would be a bad president unless; the said affair affects tax payers, credibility of the person, the office he/she occupies or the one being aspired for.
John McCain had a well-documented affair on his first wife, with his current wife. He has admitted this in books he has written about his life that he ran around with several different women while still married to his first wife. And don’t forget that he left her for a younger, richer woman who is now Cindy McCain. He then later went on to cheat on Cindy with lobbyist Vicki Iseman.
Vicki Iseman represented telecommunication companies on the Senate Commerce Committee that John chaired. They contributed tens of thousands of dollars to McCain’s campaigns. In return, McCain championed de-regulation for them. He pressured the FCC to uphold marketing agreements allowing a television company to control two stations in the same city. He introduced a bill to create tax incentives program for them. Two times, he tried to advance legislation that would permit a company to control television stations in overlapping markets (an important issue for Vicki’s largest client). If John Edwards’ political career is over, why isn’t John McCain’s? Is John credible enough to be trusted to serve as our next President?
- Posted by jesseWhy does Rueters keep deleting my posts?
- Posted by NealI have a real problem with McCain’s affairs, too. That is why adding Romney to the ticket is about the only way he will get me to vote.
If McCain can’t abide by family values, he’d better outsource it to the VP. Mitt Romney will bring economic talent to the ticket, but on a core level, I am most likely to vote for the ticket because Mitt is faithful to his wife and children. That gives me confidence that he will be faithful to me as a voter and to his country.
McCain can’t change his past, but he can choose someone with solid values to represent the future, and more than anyone seriously in the running, Mitt Romney embodies those positive values.
- Posted by Jed MerrillI voted for Huckabee, and I plan to vote for McCain. Whatever he does with his pick, I think it’s important to remember why they call him:
The Maverick
- Posted by BruceDr BLT
words and music by Dr BLT copyright 2008
http://www.drblt.net/music/MaverickDemo2 .mp3