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james_davis_nicolltSen. John McCain (R-AZ) defended Mitt Romney from Democratic speculation that he passed on him as a 2008 running mate after reviewing his tax returns, saying Sarah Palin was simply the better choice at the time.
james_davis_nicoll
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Date: 2012-07-17 08:49 pm (UTC)(My theory,
which is mine and belongs to me,is that the Republican vice-presidential candidate is usually someone further to the right of or more extreme than the presidential candidate so that if the P-candidate does get elected, it can be said "If anything happens, [VP-candidate] will be in charge" and the collective shudder acts as a kind of warding-off of that possibility. If so, the trick dates back to Eisenhower/Nixon, and can be seen in the Nixon/Agnew election, Bush I/Quayle, Bush II/Cheney. I don't say this is deliberate choice, just how it shakes out.)Also, Romney ran in primaries in 2008 and wasn't all that gracious.
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Date: 2012-07-18 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-18 01:54 pm (UTC)Teddy Roosevelt was dropped into the VP slot because it was seen as a way to neutralize him. VPs don't get to do much so it would not matter if he was filled with reformist fervour.
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Date: 2012-07-17 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-17 08:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-17 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-17 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-17 11:26 pm (UTC)(this is also true of _Demons of the Past_, which I hope gets picked up sometime soon.)
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Date: 2012-07-17 07:28 pm (UTC)Many of Palin's shortcomings only became apparent once she was forced to compete outside of Alaska.
but, yeah, that quote does kind of sting...
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Date: 2012-07-18 12:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-17 07:33 pm (UTC)All it takes is for a Democrat to foozle the punchline, and it'll be American politics in a nutshell.
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Date: 2012-07-18 04:47 pm (UTC)But yeah, I've been maintaining that Romney is simply the least unelectable out of that ... that ... whatever the collective noun for them was, and this seems to show that there are Republicans who are aware of that too.
--Dave, extremely nervous about what Silly Season will bring next month, because the last thing we need is Nehemiah Scudder
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Date: 2012-07-20 02:50 am (UTC)So now they've got a candidate who's Not Obama, and there are folks who will be very happy to vote for Not Obama. Among the potential problems is the fact that while Not Obama is very popular in some circles, Mitt Romney isn't generating much excitement anywhere.
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Date: 2012-07-17 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-17 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-17 08:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-17 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-17 08:09 pm (UTC)And it's not "not born in the USA"; it's a "not a natural born Citizen."
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Date: 2012-07-17 09:37 pm (UTC)But nobody would think of challenging him about it.
After all, he didn't look like a foreigner.
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Date: 2012-07-17 09:51 pm (UTC)The definition as established by the US State Department at the time he ran did not exclude him. The definition as established at the time he was born may have, but it was made retroactive regardless, long before McCain ran for President. That law was in 1937. Since he was less than a year old, he was in fact not eligible to run for President then.
Googling "mccain natural born citizen" shows lots of information about this.
You are probably thinking of a non-binding resolution from the Senate, in 2008.
(Or you're being facetious or something, in which case I apologise for taking you seriously... I obviously don't have a lot of patience for any "birther" nonsense.)
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Date: 2012-07-17 10:04 pm (UTC)Snopes has this topic as "Undetermined".
http://www.snopes.com/politics/mccain/citizen.asp
Most of the classic definitions of "Natural Born" would have him not qualify because the Canal Zone was Panamanian soil and not US soil.
And it would take a supreme court decision to rule on if "Retroactive Citizenship" also conveys "Retroactive Natural Born" status.
The Obama "birther" nonsence is just that. Proven false over and over.
But this is a shades of grey area that someday might matter.
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Date: 2012-07-17 10:13 pm (UTC)Which was basically: he was born to US Citizens, who were abroad as diplomats; case history had made it clear that any children to such parents were in fact citizens, and the 1937 law simply made it clear. In the absence of a clear definition from the Constitution, that is pretty overwhelming, and I don't see any court deciding otherwise.
Of course, the SCOTUS has made it clear that they will in fact intervene in an election and decide in a way that gets the results the majority wants, regardless of precedent.
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Date: 2012-07-19 03:49 pm (UTC)But any test of this argument in court would be likely to be dismissed with something along the lines of "oh, come on". Laws are not computer code executed by an inhuman legal processor. There's this one law professor (in Arizona!), Gabriel Chin, who seriously promoted the theory that McCain is not a natural-born citizen, but not many people seem to agree with him, since the existence of this supposed hole is clearly contrary to the intent of all the applicable laws: not just "original intent" but the intent of any sane application.
And it's unlikely to ever matter again, because it basically only has to do kids born in the Panama Canal Zone prior to 1937 who are serious contenders to become President of the US. I think it's extremely unlikely we'll ever get another one of those.
However, I'll give the argument this: it's far stronger than any birther argument against Obama's eligibility.
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Date: 2012-07-17 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-17 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-18 02:26 am (UTC)