So says Steven Rosenbaum on HuffPo yesterday..
This topic was diaried or alluded to in two terrific diaries yesterday:
Will the GOP dump John McCain? (JedReport) and
John McCain, Mitt Romney and the Looming Republican Meltdown (The Bagof Health and Politics)
But both diaries were published late last night and the topic deserves another look.
Both diaries discuss why McCain might not be the nominee. Rosenbaum's article lays out a plan as to how that might happen:
At some point in mid August, John McCain will announce that he has decided that he can not accept his party's nomination for president. The reason will be health-related, and that may turn out to be the truth. Anyone who's seen him on stage these days knows he looks like he's about to keel over. And anyone who's been on a presidential campaign knows the physical demands are grueling and can be a challenge for a young man.
But excuses or facts hardly matters. He won't be accepting his party's nomination.
Because, he says, McCain can't win, he'll step down in August and the Republicans will suddenly dominate the news with a "shiny new" candidate who won't really have time to be vetted fully but who will inject some needed energy into the race.
But they don't have anyone, we say. McCain was chosen because he was the last man standing, and the other, "better" candidates were rejected.
There are a whole list of Republicans who in many ways are more likely to energize the Republican base. One thing is certain -- there are candidates that will play to the core issues in ways that McCain simply can't.
Here's a list of names. Some you know, some you don't. But each of them knows their name is in play. Among them --
Condoleezza Rice (Secretary of State)
Colin Powell (fmr Sec. of State)
Marilyn Musgrave (Colorado Congresswoman)
Mitt Romney (fmr Massachusetts Governor)
Mike Huckabee (fmr Governor of Arkansas)
Charlie Crist (Florida Governor)
Tim Pawlenty (Minnesota Governor)
Bobby Jindal (Louisiana Governor)
Mark Sanford: (Governor of South Carolina)
John Thune (Senator from South Dakota)
Dick Lugar (Senator from Indiana)
Chuck Hagel (Senator from Nebraska)
MIchael Bloomberg (NYC Mayor)
(I bolded the section in the quote above. Each of them knows their name is in play? A secret shared by 13 people is no longer a secret. I don't know Rosenbaum, but he writes as if there is a not-so-secret committee that is planning this and actively vetting candidates.)
On this list, Bloomberg being selected would worry me the most as being a threat to Obama, although I don't think he'll energize the far right anymore than McCain does. Powell I doubt would take it, but what an interesting race that would be. I doubt they'd run Jindal, when he is younger than Obama, since they've been attacking Obama's experience. Romney would jump at the chance, but he's been rejected by voters once already.
I don't see Jeb Bush on the list...guess that would make "Bush's third term" even more realistic an attack. Interestingly, some of the comments do suggest Jeb as an alternative.
One of the comments also suggests as a "wild-ass fantasy" Lieberman, with Hagel or Rice as the VP, stating
present it as a bi-partisan "National Unity" ticket that will "save" the country from the incredible risks of the left-leaning, inexperienced BHO.
The comments are pretty funny too, tossing out Hillary's name, shredding the article and these choices, and insisting that McCain's been waiting for this his whole life and isn't going anywhere.
McCain is certainly an uninspired choice, but would switching candidates so close to the election mobilize Republicans, or drive even more people away because a) they didn't vote for the new nominee and b) it makes the Republicans look desperate and people don't want to be associated with that.