Election 2008 thoughts

Call Hillary Clinton the cat with nine lives. For now, her campaign lives on. She has in the past day or so won three primaries (including barely scraping by in Texas) over Barack Obama. She has even hinted that, if she wins the nomination, she would consider having Obama on her ticket.

That’s assuming, of course, that Obama would accept such an offer. Whether he would ask Hillary to be his running mate remains to be seen. Objectively speaking, I still think the Democrats would be better off getting someone from the South on the ticket. Perhaps Florida.

On the Republican side, John McCain has emerged as the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee. A few months ago, my wife Jennifer and I pored over the issues and voted for Mike Huckabee in the Michigan primary. Right now, as it stands, though I can’t speak for Jenn, I will likely vote for McCain in November.

I had considered voting Third Party, but two things have swayed me: one, though McCain is far from what I perceive as a Reagan Republican (granted, Nancy Reagan supports him), I simply can’t stomach another Clinton presidency. Two, Barack Obama comes across as a dreadfully-inexperienced candidate who has little idea just how complicated the office of president would be.

As far as McCain’s war record…years ago, I interviewed a retired Air Force colonel who spent about seven years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Col. B, who lives north of San Antonio, Texas, knew of McCain and had extremely positive things to say about him. I forget the colonel’s exact words, but he said that despite the unspeakable torture McCain endured, the colonel felt that McCain conducted himself well.

Whom will the Arizona senator carry on his ticket? Expect someone from the South or, perhaps, a powerful GOP mover and shaker from a Democratic stronghold like California, New York or Massachusetts.

My guess as to who will be McCain’s running mate: Michigan-born former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.