I'm surprised everyone isn't dancing with joy out of the possibility of Lieberman joining McCain on the GOP ticket. There are several reasons we hope for this.
- The Republicans will be divided as a party.
The right-wing nutcases are unhappy with McCain as it is, and Lieberman is about as far away from the social conservative VP as McCain can get. Rush Limbaugh is already upset. The marginal gain in independents will not make up for the lack of enthusiasm the ticket will generate with the right. With all of its Joe-mentum, the ticket will still fall well short of Obama/whoever.
- An old and bitter ticket.
Short of Fred Thompson miraculously emerging as the pick, could you imagine an older, grumpier, more bitter duo? The American people are going to take a long, hard look at them and decide to turn the page.
- We will finally get our chance to stick it to Lieberman
As excited as I am by the possibility of beating McCain, it's just not the same as kicking Bush out of the White House would have been. In Lieberman, we get a despised figure to take Bush's place for this purpose. I've been thinking that, just as with Bush in 2004, we had missed our last opportunity beat Lieberman in 2006. But having Lieberman on the GOP ticket will give us another shot at settling the score.