Romney Frontrunner For McCain's VP Spot

Posted by Ashish on 06.30.2008

And apparently it's all about money...

Politico reports that Mitt Romney is now the frontrunner to land John McCain's VP slot and the main reason is because of his ability to raise money.

One of the chief reasons the Massachusetts governor is looking so attractive is his ability to raise huge amounts of money quickly through his former business partners and from fellow members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons.

McCain sources tell Politico that they believe Romney could raise $50 million in 60 days. One close Romney adviser said it could even be $60 million.

Of course, if McCain does opt into public financing as expected, whatever money Romney raises could only be spent up until the GOP convention in early September. But the bigger question -- is Romney's money worth bringing on in exchange for further demoralizing the Republican Evangelicals that basically won the election for Bush in 2004? They are not going to be happy about having a Mormon on the ticket, especially when they weren't all that excited about McCain in the first place. And having a Mormon on the ticket also opens it up to the same type of viral smear tactics that Obama has been victim to. A huge chunk of the country still says openly in polls that they won't vote for a Mormon. Romney also brings with him some other real problems, the main one being that he has yet to show an ability to connect with ANYONE. He had every financial and organizational advantage in the primaries, and HUGE leads in Iowa and New Hampshire a few weeks out from voting day, and managed to blow it all. He comes off as a very fake, pandering politician. His good qualities? He has "the look," and he is also a former Governor who can make the claim that he is going to Washington to change it. Of course, he had all of that in the primaries and still didn't come close to winning.

On the flip side, what if McCain picked someone like Mike Huckabee? Huckabee wouldn't bring any money with him but he would energize Evangelicals probably more than anyone else can.

Some think McCain should make a very surprising pick, perhaps a woman or some other "out of the box" pick like Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. The line of thought there is that McCain is having a hard time getting attention in this race because Obama sucks up all the media focus and is already falling behind. If he were to pick a woman, it would add a lot of buzz to the ticket and be somewhat of a hail mary that might turn things around. It's probably way too early to think like that though.

UPDATE: People in the comments section have pointed out a few positives that Romney brings to a ticket which I failed to mention above. First, he was born in Michigan and has ties to the state. Michigan is one of the few blue states McCain currently has a shot at flipping. Second, Nevada, a key swing state, has a lot of Mormons, so he could help drive that group out to vote. Third, Romney is obviously an economic expert and has had tremendous success in the business world. My main point, though, was that McCain was never able to get people to buy his strong success in the economy during the primaries. Yes, the general election and primaries are different, but the ability to connect with voters doesn't change. You either can or you can't. Romney wasn't able to. He could very well be the smartest guy who ran for President this year, and has a very impressive track record in business, but if you can't connect with voters, it doesn't matter. I also think that not having Evangelicals turn out strong for McCain could not only lose him Virginia, but could play a major role in tightening Southern states like Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina, where Obama is already within single digits. And putting a Mormon on the ticket when the main candidate is already not energizing that group could be dangerous. And another point worth noting is that in a year where the Republican strategy against Obama centers largely on painting him as an out of touch elitist, putting a guy like Mitt Romney in the spotlight will take away from that message. Romney is a filthy rich millionaire who looks more like, and comes off more as, an elitist than anyone else who ran this year.