I know this has been discussed to death, but I haven't heard this argument and I wanted to get it out there.
Bush has done may, many things that were absolutely terrible, but the one thing that he did that I feel betrayed me personally, is his partisanship after 9/11. After 9/11, I was one of the 90% of Americans who said that Bush had my support to do what needed to be done in order to deal with Al Qaeda. I expected, as I imagine many of you did, that he would take this trust and put it to good use in fighting the spread of Islamists. Instead, he betrayed my trust and used it to advance his narrow, pre-existing right wing agenda.
What does this have to do with Kerry and McCain? If Kerry were to choose McCain as his VP, it would show that he understands this betrayal and would never take advantage of the good will of Republicans like Bush did with Democrats. McCain is much too conservative for me to ever vote for, but he's not running. He is, however, an honorable man and I feel comfortable that he would not betray our trust should something happen to Kerry. If Kerry were to choose him for VP, it would show that he is honorable in that way as well. It would show that in a time of crisis, we are Americans first and Democrats second.