Colin Powell, VP?

I did not mention Colin Powell in my list of potential VP choices for John McCain (see Saturday's entry), although he shares the virtue of being MUCH better than Joe Biden with several of those I did name.  Actually ALL of those I named are better than Biden, and add more to the ticket, with the exception of Boomberg and Giuliani. None of them, whoever, would probably add as much to McCain's ticket as Hillary Clinton would have added to Barack "World" Obama.  That is why I said McCain dodged a bullet.

But would Colin Powell add Clinton like stature and appeal to the Republican ticket?  Maybe, although I doubt it.  Powell would certainlly add risk, as Clinton would have added risk.  With Clinton, the risk was that she is disliked intensely by a big segment of the country, just like she is popular with a big segment of the country, and it is always possible that here negatives--and Bill's--would have ADDED to Obama's negatives in the end, despite the initial bounce.  In my view, the initial bounce would have been so big that McCain would not have recovered, unless something happened that was so big Obama was never going to win anyway. 

The risk with Colin Powell is not just that he is only nominally a Republican (something which could often be said of McCain himself).  Colin Powell has NEVER run a political race.  He shares that problem with Condi Rice.  Sure, you have to be a politician to get to his position in the military.  And he was Secretary of State.  Still, there are real doubts about how effective a campaigner he would be for McCain, and he might well overshadow McCain (a problem with Obama choosing Clinton).  Who knows how Powell would stand up under a high pressure political campaign?  I would find it too risky, if I were McCain, but it is a possibility.  I was aware it was a possibility, but left Powell off my list because he has been so negative previously on a political career, and because the "experts" were ignoring him.  I still think Powell is a longshot, despite the great reservoir of goodwill he has built up.

Nope.  I will not vote for a McCain-Powell ticket.  As I respect McCain in military matters and service, I respect Powell.  He might have pushed harder to take out Saddam in the first Gulf War, but that is mainly the fault of Bush 41 and his wimpy foreign policy advisors. 

 

I will not votefor McCain-Powell mainly because I don't want to vote for McCain.  A few Vice Presidential possibilities might change my mind on that.  Powell is not one o fthem.  He is pro-abortion, and generally "moderate" (leftist).  It would be much worse, for conservatives, for a McCain-Powell ticket to win than it would be for that ticket to lose. Lest you think I am racist on this, I would feel the same way about a McCain-Schearzenegger ticket, rom which we are saved only becuase Scharzenegger is ineligible to be Vice President (or President).  I also feel the same way about a McCain-Ridge, McCain Lieberman, or McCain-Crist ticket.