Veepstakes

McCain's VP Selection: Done Deal or Distraction?

Gary Gore — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:45:07 -0400

On the very day Barack Obama is to deliver his historic acceptance speech in Denver, a great deal of the airtime is being devoted to the other party!

Beginning last night, a lot of speculation started to swirl that John McCain had made his choice for his running mate. Politico was leading with this coverage last night. Then, as Politico reads today, "McCain decided to make things complicated."

In a morning interview McCain told Pittsburgh radio station KDKA that he hasn’t made up his mind, though he will be bringing Mitt Romney and Tom Ridge to his rally in Pennsylvania this weekend.

KDKA: “McCain said in an early morning radio interview that he was bringing along to that event both former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, two of the leading names on his short list. But he cautioned against assuming that meant either one would be the pick.”

Mike Allen says McCain’s playing coy, even though his friends “say he has told his inner circle of his pick, but won’t call the decision official until he has discussed it with his wife, Cindy, who has been in the country of Georgia.

Rollcall.com is reporting this afternoon that Romney's family is getting a security sweep from the Secret Service.

If security sweeps are the giveaway, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney may be on the brink of being selected as Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) vice presidential running mate. According to sources with strong Michigan ties, the Secret Service has conducted a security sweep of the home of Romney’s sister. Romney was raised in Michigan, where his father served as governor.

Rollcall.com also offers this notable observation:

Other sources and some news reports have also suggested that Romney in the last few days might be traveling with a security detail, although exactly who employs this security detail could not be confirmed.

Whatever is going on behind the scenes with McCain and his VP selection, it seems that whomever the final choice ends up being, McCain has definitely stolen a good bit of the limelight away from Obama on such an important occasion.

It's probably best that things continue to go in this direction, without McCain actually showing all his cards and pulling the trigger on the choice. He shouldn't get greedy, but instead take this nice slice of the pie away from the Democrats' night for what they are getting. Then, after a day or so, once the Democrats have left Denver, they're not going to have the means to counter what McCain is able to do. If McCain announces his running mate anytime before tomorrow, he's simply going to just give away much of the limelight from the VP selection to Obama, on the night of his major speech and the news cycle following - when that's really unnecessary. Keep it in that back pocket for a day.

This is beautiful political craftsmanship that we are witnessing here - really good stuff!

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Update: Fox News has now reported at 3:48 PM that John McCain has, indeed, chosen his running mate and will appear with the selection tomorrow for the first time.

Further, Fox News is reporting that Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has cancelled all of appearances and wiped his schedule clean for the next several days. But, with that said, the chosen candidate still does not know who the selection is, at this time.

Govorner Romney has also cancelled several committments that had scheduled over the next several days, as well.

Stay tuned, as they say!

Conservative Outpost Veepstakes Survey Results

Gary Gore — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:54:09 -0400

The Conservative Outpost Republican Veepstakes Survey final numbers are in and have now been tallied. Based on the 1703 respondents who took part in our survey, out of the field of potential VP candidates presented, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney came out well on top.

For the question "Who is your first choice?", Governor Romney garnered 40% of the vote, coming in ahead of his closest challenger, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who took a respectable 28% of the vote on that question.

Romney also came in a close 2nd to former Congressman Newt Gingrich as to the question "Who is your second choice?" Gingrich took 22% to Romney's 19% of the vote on that question.

As for the "Least Favorite" selection, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani came out on top; or is that came out on bottom? Giuliani ended up with the highest negatives in that category - 31% of our conservatives polled selected Giuliani, while 18% selected Governor Mike Huckabee, as "Least Favorite".

For a complete look at the tabulations, see the numbers below:

Candidate	1st Choice		2nd Choice		Least Favorite
Jindal		6%		10%		4%
Crist		1%		5%		5%
Bush		2%		6%		11%
Sanford		1%		3%		4%
Huckabee		28%		17%		18%
Romney		40%		19%		11%
Gingrich		16%		22%		7%
Giuliani		3%		8%		31%
Pawlenty		3%		4%		3%
Tom Ridge		1%		6%		7%

As to the question regarding how important the selection of running mate is to impact your vote, it is apparent that the running mate choice is an important factor of the decision-making process for the conservative respondent. A full 38.75% said that the selection of running mate is "Very Likely" to impact their vote come this November.

On the surface, 38.75% may not seem like a lot when you think in terms of 49.75% of respondents indicated that VP choice is either going to make "No Difference" or "Not Likely" to make a difference on voting impact. But, in reality, with over half (50.25%) of the conservatives indicating running mate selection is either "Very Likely" to impact their vote or that they are "Not Sure" if it will make an impact at this point on their vote, support for the GOP nominee seems to indicate, at least, some degree of precariousness dependant on the selection of running mate added to the ticket.

See the numbers below:

VP Selections Impact on Your Vote
No Difference		29%
Not Likely		20.75%
Not Sure		11.50%
Very Likely		38.75%

The survey also gave us an opportunity to gauge what sort of ideological demographic we encountered with our respondents to the poll. We asked if respondents identified themselves as "Economic Conservatives", "Foreign Policy Conservatives", "Social/Religious Conservatives", "All of the Above", or "None of the Above". The indicated response from those polled is that the vast majority identify themselves as well-rounded conservatives by stating they were "All of the Above" Conservatives at a 64% rate.

Which type of conservative are you?
Economic Conservative	15%
Foreign Policy Conservative	2%
Social/Religious Conservative	17%
All of the above	64%
None of the above	3%

We wish to thank everyone that took the time to respond to our vice presidential survey at Conservative Outpost.

Last chance to take VP survey

Drew McKissick — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:30:37 -0400

We've had over 1,500 people participate in the GOP "Veepstakes Survey" so far and there's only 3 days left to have your say. We'll be totaling up the results and announcing them this coming Monday morning.

So, if you haven't yet, take the survey and let us know your opinion. Who do YOU think McCain should pick as his running mate? Who shouldn't he pick? What issues are most important to you?

Click here to participate!

GOP vice-presidential survey

Drew McKissick — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:51:49 -0400

We've got a new survey up. This time it's on the latest, most popular guessing game - who will John McCain choose as his running mate.

Click here to participate!

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Other sites talking Veep: The Fix - The WaPo - more Fix - Polipundit - Powerline