Is a Kerry-McCain ticket an option?

[HEFFA]

I guess what I'm asking is coming from at least two levels....okay, three.

One: Has McCain's recent defense of Kerry against criticism about being "soft on defense" served as a possible sign that he's canoodling the Dems for consideration?

Two: Would this be a bad thing for Kerry, the Dems, or the rest of us?

Three: Would the Democratic faithful line up for this kind of a ticket?

[frogbison]

1. I heard McCain on television tonight...

defending Bush's response to 9/11. I think he will always be a Republican.

[david_vincent]

2. McCain has been asked that question

and has answered no.

[LividLiberal]

3. McCain has flatly denied this as a possibility

But ..

I think it would fly with Dems, but it seems to me McCain would have to change his party affiliation to Indep for this to work out, at least.

[leyton]

4. I think it's doubtful, but I will always be thankful

that there are guys like McCain who are willing to criticize Bush from the Republican side of the aisle. Or at least defend Kerry, as Hagel also has done.

[REP]

5. Not For Me

Talk about the ultimate pander!

[scarletwoman]

6. Sorry, this has already been hashed over ad nauseum.

It's NOT going to happen, it's an absolutely TERRIBLE idea, and THIS democrat will NEVER vote for a Republican!

I fervently hope that no more bandwidth will be wasted on this nonsense.

sw

[HEFFA]

11. Sorry, I'm a newbie. I naughty.....

I'm not thinking that I'm the first to bring it up. It just caught my attention recently, with McCain and Hagel's comments. I didn't mean to beat a dead horse.

I'd much rather :kick: a tired elephant.

[scarletwoman]

18. Hi newbie!

:hi:

Yeah, I figured you must have missed all the earlier threads on this. I'm betting if you start clicking over to the older pages here, you'll come across a McCain discussion or two. This place was rife with them about a week or so ago...

Anyway, welcome to DU!

sw

[Lars39]

7. McCain is a republican. Why should his name even come up?

[Yemp4734]

12. Some people think he is a moderate/liberal

there was a silent media campaign years ago to that effect. It almost had me taken in. Then I read one of his books and realized what BS it was.

Read McCains writings if you are thinking about ever casting a vote for him - it will turn you off fast enough.

[dweller]

8. Just this past week on morning news programs

when posed this question responded he supports the *moron's re-selection.

okay, i paraphrased the re-selection bit....but he said he supported the chumps re-election. Same thing.
dp

[Adelante]

9. An anti-choice candidate

on a Democratic slate would not be acceptable.

[angryinoville]

10. He's defending Kerry...

to basically tell Bush, this isn't the right guy to make this claim against and to back off. However, it's highly unlikely it would ever happen. It would be good to bring both parties together, but what's next? When Kerry's term ends and McCain runs, do you think he'll pick a dem for VP? Doubt it. Wes is just as strong on defense with some good domestic plans as well.

[Langis]

13. A Kerry-McCain ticket would win AZ in a landslide

[slinkerwink]

15. NO! McCain is a RETHUGLICAN! VOTE DEM ALWAYS!

No fucking Republicans on the Democratic ticket!

[Zorra]

17. what slinkerwink said. n/t

[Donna Zen]

51. So it comes down to ???

Arizona or a woman's right to chose? Or a social safety net? Or support for public schools? I'd rather win Arizona with our policies because they are the ones that the country needs.

[onehandle]

14. NO!

The party would Never put a Republican on the ticket.

The base would revolt. McCain is a right-wing prick.

Everyone stop wasting our time with this.

[Bill Wade]

16. Blah.

McCain is no better than the rest of them. He's working for a man he knows is scandalous and evil, but doesn't seem to care.

I guess I don't understand why people even care about McCain.

[scubadude]

19. A republican as second in line for the Presidency?

I'd be mighty worried if I were Kerry....

[robbedvoter]

20. Considering Wes Clark was not Dem enough for you guys and McCain

has no intention to leave the GOP/be VP - this is highly offensive to me p- BEFORE I even get to the part that McCain was one of the 2 senators who voted AGAINST 9.11 relief for NYC. :puke:
Good thinking - Kerry gets sick - we have a GOp administration again! Warmongers & everything. Why not skip McCain, and settle for Bushco?:puke:

[carpe diem]

23. EXACTLY....

what I was thinking!!!!!

[newyawker99]

37. Hi jg82567!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[chookie]

21. McCain is a faithful Republican

The misministration of His Chimperial Highness does not reflect the values of traditional Republicans and conservatives. Bush is an extremist, and sane Republicans realize this.

Sane Republicans are fighting Bush, and doing so from within their own Party.

McCain will remain a Republican. What he needs to do is not run as a "Dem VP", which is quite laughable, but work to restore his party to what it used to be, and take it back from the wackos who have hijacked it.

[Toby109]

22. Let's all try to remember

This is a country we are trying to save, not just a political party.

Flame away.

[mitchum]

24. No, but I think I understand what you mean

This election is in a way not as much left vs right or even dem vs rep, but America vs The Bushes. They are dangerous people.

However, McCain is still unacceptable.

[Crunchy Frog]

25. I don't understand why people here

are so fixated by this idea. I respect McCain and I think it's great that he and Kerry are friends. It looks as if privately McCain may be hoping for a Kerry win, and he may be subtly acting to endorse Kerry and undercut Bush.

However, putting a conservative and partisan Republican on a Democratic ticket is an absolutely ridiculous notion. The message it would send is that the Democrats are so lost that they don't even think they can win without running as Republicans. It might very well put the Democratic party out of it's misery once and for all.

I think that it would produce massive alienation among Democrats, although it would obviously not be a problem for all of them, as various posts on this board demonstrate.

As far as myself, I would vote for the ticket but do absolutely nothing else, and I would immediately drop my Democratic party affiliation.

I'm sorry, this is not just about winning at all costs. If we aren't even willing to stand up for basic Democratic principles then there doesn't seem much point in winning.

Fortunately, it's not going to happen. I just get kind of sick of seeing the same thing posted every single day, and wonder why people have such a need to do it.

[IndianaGreen]

26. McCain is anti-choice

I doubt that he would fit in a Kerry Administration.

[Alenne]

27. McCain is a Republican. Kerry is a Democrat

Kerry should pick a democrat as his VP. There are plenty who can do the job.

[Desertrose]

28. NO NO...a thousand times NO!

McCain is repug...and my senator...eeeww

REPUG= ain't gonna happen....

"not in a million billion years, no I don't think so...."
SNL sketch from ages ago but was a funny song....


Peace
DR

[Leilani]

29. No! For the 100th time, No!

Kerry is a Dem

McCain is a Repub

Kerry & McCain are friends

This does not equate to a political ticket.

[in_cog_ni_to]

30. I don't vote for republicans.

Never have, never will. McCain should not be the VP....and will not be VP. I get suspicious when republicans start defending Democrats. First McCain, then Hagel (Electronic Voting machine Hagel)....I don't trust them. I think they have been sent out to minimize Kerry's need for someone experienced in Foreign Policy/Defense and once he chooses a VP who isn't experienced in Foreign Policy/Defense.....KKKRove will make SURE it's an issue for November, even more than it is NOW. Reverse Psychology....I use it on my son all the time. ;)

Trust me, McCain and Hagel are defending Kerry for SINISTER reasons......NOT out of the kindness of their hearts. :( NEVER trust republicans. EVER.

[LandOLincoln]

35. Sorry, this is way too paranoid for me. Maybe that's

because I'm old enough to remember when it was possible to respect some Republicans as principled, honest people, even though one emphatically disagreed with most of their policies. McCain and Hagel are both in this category, IMO.

But what do I know? I did vote for a Republican, once, and given the same situation would do so again in a heartbeat.

The year was 1968, the Republican was Illinios Senator Chuck Percy, and his Dem opponent was a Daley machine crook and scumbag whose name I've totally forgotten. Percy was the more liberal and enlightened of the two by far (so much so that he even made the Nixon "enemies list").

So there! :toast:


On edit: this post should in no way be taken to mean that I support John McCain for VP. I hope it's obvious that I think that Democrat Wes Clark should and will be VP.

[in_cog_ni_to]

36. ES&S.....Hagel is not to be trusted......IMCPO.

Published on Friday, January 31, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
"If You Want To Win An Election, Just Control The Voting Machines"
by Thom Hartmann

Maybe Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel honestly won two US Senate elections. Maybe it's true that the citizens of Georgia simply decided that incumbent Democratic Senator Max Cleland, a wildly popular war veteran who lost three limbs in Vietnam, was, as his successful Republican challenger suggested in his campaign ads, too unpatriotic to remain in the Senate. Maybe George W. Bush, Alabama's new Republican governor Bob Riley, and a small but congressionally decisive handful of other long-shot Republican candidates really did win those states where conventional wisdom and straw polls showed them losing in the last few election cycles.

Perhaps, after a half-century of fine-tuning exit polling to such a science that it's now sometimes used to verify how clean elections are in Third World countries, it really did suddenly become inaccurate in the United States in the past six years and just won't work here anymore. Perhaps it's just a coincidence that the sudden rise of inaccurate exit polls happened around the same time corporate-programmed, computer-controlled, modem-capable voting machines began recording and tabulating ballots.

But if any of this is true, there's not much of a paper trail from the voters' hand to prove it.

You'd think in an open democracy that the government - answerable to all its citizens rather than a handful of corporate officers and stockholders - would program, repair, and control the voting machines. You'd think the computers that handle our cherished ballots would be open and their software and programming available for public scrutiny. You'd think there would be a paper trail of the vote, which could be followed and audited if a there was evidence of voting fraud or if exit polls disagreed with computerized vote counts.

You'd be wrong.


http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0131-01.htm by Thom Hartmann

I will admit that I don't trust McCain JUST BECAUSE HE'S A REPUBLICAN. I admit it...I'm paranoid and EXTREMELY cynical when it comes to those lying crooks. They have given me a lot of reasons to be cynical.


I was only 13 in 1968, but I remember Senator Percy, I think. Wasn't it his daughter, Vicki, who was stabbed to death and they never found out who did it? Their home was broken into and she was stabbed 18-20 times, I think? That was a LOOOONG time ago, but I remember it because it scared the shit out of me at the time.

[GemMom]

41. You may be thinking of Dirksen

who ran and won against William Clark, Daley machine candidate, in 1968. Percy ran in 1966.

[LandOLincoln]

43. Well, I definitely didn't vote for Dirksen, nor would I have done so if

you'd held a gun to my head. What a toad ol' Ev was to be sure!

However, the Dem Percy ran against may not have been a Daley machine pol, and it was clearly '66 instead of '68, but that doesn't change the fact that the guy was definitely well to the right of Percy, nor does it change the fact that, given the same set of circumstances, I'd vote for the liberal Republican against the conservative Democrat in a hot minute.

BTW, the only other time(s) I've not voted straight Dem I voted for Greens--but only locally.

[Padraig18]

44. Percy defeated Paul Douglas.

I gather you guys were searching for his name. :)

[LandOLincoln]

49. Can't imagine I'd have voted against Paul Douglas. That leaves

three possibilities:

1. I only thought about voting for Percy, but wound up voting for Douglas anyway;

2. There was a particular issue that was important to me (and now long forgotten, but probably not Vietnam) upon which I liked Percy's position better than Douglas's; or

3. I've lost my mind completely.

...or maybe it was not '66 but a later election I'm thinking of?

[tobius]

31. do you know bill w. ? nt

[HFishbine]

32. McCain as VP nominee would be enough for me to

vote for Bush as a protest against the democratic party. I'm not kidding. I'd rather have four more years of Bush than the complete collapse and capitulation of the democratic party.

[Padraig18]

33. Not just 'no', but "HELL NO!"

Why is this insanity even being brought up? We have TONS of attractive, qualified DEMOCRATS to choose from for VP.

:wtf:

[LandOLincoln]

34. No, no but he's not, and no.

And welcome to the DU, HEFFA.

[fujiyama]

38. No...

It will NOT happen. McCain's a republican and will stay that way.

I appreciate his defense of Kerry, but he's not a dem. I'm tired of this question.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

39. If the Democrats are so insecure

and scared that they actually believe all the Republicanite propaganda about them, then they're too pathetic to vote for.

Putting McCain in the VP slot would turn me Green once and for all.

[WI_DEM]

40. No

McCain is a right wing Republican. If McCain succeeded Kerry we would have a Republican president. The Democratic party hopefully has enough talent in it that we don't have to recruit Republicans.

[maxanne]

42. if the Democrats

put a Republican on the ticket, we deserve to get our asses handed to us - and indeed we would.

It is interesting that this keeps coming up as a topic, and that so many who profess to be Democrats are in favor of a anti-choice, misogynist Republican as a candidate for VP.

[HEFFA]

45. I just asked the question; I didn't condone the action itself.

Sheesh....sorry I brought it up.

[maxanne]

47. I didn't accuse you

of condoning the action, or anything else. I'm commenting on the fact that there's at least 1 of these threads a day, and wondering why in the world that would be the case, on a board calling itself, "Democratic Underground."

[dogman]

46. In HELL!

[Hippo_Tron]

48. He is a REPUBLICAN

For those of you who don't know what that means, we'll consult the dictionary.

Republican n - a member of the Republican political party, a United States political party full of fascist ass-holes who claim that they want smaller government but really just want to screw over everybody who makes under $200,000 a year. (Insert Picture of Tom DeLay here)

[mzmolly]

50. Not as far as I'm concerned...

Baaaaad idea!

[Cuban_Liberal]

52. In God's name, WHY?

It's not like our party is short on VP talent...

:wtf:

[TomSeaverr]

53. Stop this crap

We don't need that repuke on our ticket. If we want person like him on the ticket ir would be Breaux. At least he is a democrat

[jsw_81]

54. A unity ticket is an interesting possibility...

But McCain would look like one hell of a hypocrite after issuing denial after denial with regards to the vice presidency (not to mention the fact that he has been campaigning for Bush in Arizona, New Hampshire and elsewhere). And I don't think I'd feel comfortable with an anti-choice veep; take away the Vietnam war-hero stuff and McCain is barely distinguishable from Trent Lott on social issues.