McCain Wanted Lieberman, Advisors Say

The New York Times:

WASHINGTON -- In the end, the choice of his running mate said more about Senator John McCain and his image of himself than it did about Sarah Palin, the little-known governor of Alaska whose selection has shaken up the presidential race.

For weeks, advisers close to the campaign said, Mr. McCain had wanted to name as his running mate his good friend Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democrat turned independent. But by the end of last weekend, the outrage from Christian conservatives over the possibility that Mr. McCain would fill out the Republican ticket with Mr. Lieberman, a supporter of abortion rights, had become too intense to be ignored.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

Comments

[brwnizofmine]

08:06 PM on 09/06/2008

I wish they would have taken him off our shoulders, he dead weight!

[MrFiskar]

04:55 PM on 09/04/2008

McCain always plays the tough guy. But in reality,I think the man is nothing but a wimp. Its quite obvious he can't stand up for himself,and run his own campaign.

[Bitsko]

08:14 PM on 09/02/2008

Why are "advisers close to the campaign" saying McCain wanted to select Lieberman? I'm flummoxed by that part of the NY Times story you link.

[loyldem]

09:43 AM on 09/01/2008

I think McCain was bullied into making this choice. If you had followed McCain for the past 20 years, this choice does not feel it was his choice.

[arvay]

08:34 AM on 09/01/2008

Everyone should be frightened by this quote:

"At the very least, the process reflects Mr. McCain’s history of making fast, instinctive and sometimes risky decisions. “I make them as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can,” Mr. McCain wrote, with his top adviser Mark Salter, in his 2002 book, “Worth the Fighting For.” “Often my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint.”

Wow. George Bush is also living quite nicely with the consequences of his Iraq mistake, but thousands of American soldiers and their families and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis aren't adjusting too well. And there are all those "collateral" casualties in Afghanistan.

So, McCain is pleased to present himself as an impulsive, trigger-happy Top Gun type who may present our nation with more "oops!" disasters. Now, he's got a vp running mate with almost no executive experience, a Pentecostal fanatic who is likely to believe that all of this mess wil hasten Jesus' return.

The Republicans are backing two candidates uniquely unqualified to run a powerful, nuclear-armed nation.

[usmc1775]

02:13 PM on 09/03/2008

And you think Obama is qualified to lead a powerful, nuclear-armed nation?

[XME]

02:02 AM on 09/01/2008

His choice of Palin proves he's a right-wing puppet, not a maverick...and don't get me started on what is says about his judgement...

[steffi]

11:34 PM on 08/31/2008

Somebody ask Palin what would she do if her child was raped.

Would she allow it come to term under those circumstances?

[XME]

02:24 AM on 09/01/2008

Yes!

[usmc1775]

02:13 PM on 09/03/2008

YES!!!

[Agentlady007]

10:14 PM on 08/31/2008

Well, someone will lead us, and it won't be Al Gore this time. If McCain wins, he will run the show. You can tell this by the way he keeps his wife out of the picture now. It tells us the US government is fixed. It is all a set up.
The big guys walking behind George Bush are already quietly talking with eachother. They are saying they already know who is ready for the next change of guard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wIeDQp-62Q

[Mort]

12:07 AM on 09/01/2008

et tu brute revisited, only with a modern Claudius.

[mybostonjack]

10:07 PM on 08/31/2008

Ironically, picking LIEberman would have helped with McSame's "maverick" image. Picking Palin just shows that he's pandering and caved into the lunatic fringe.

[OBXartist]

08:23 PM on 08/31/2008

From the New York Times: "But neither (Pawlenty nor Romney) was the transformative, attention-grabbing choice Mr. McCain felt he needed, top campaign advisers said, to help him pivot from his image as the custodian of the status quo to a change agent like his Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama....Mr. McCain was betting, the adviser said, that she would help him reclaim the mantle of maverick that he had lost this year."

From Senator McCain, himself: “I make [decisions] as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can,” Mr. McCain wrote, with his top adviser Mark Salter, in his 2002 book, “Worth the Fighting For.” “Often my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint.”

Gee, that's comforting Sen. McCain. Apparently, you never considered whether we could live with your mistakes. Or if your mistakes might, in fact, cause the deaths of some number of the American you're supposed to be SERVING.

And exactly how does selecting an arch-conservative running mate who is anti-choice, anti-environment, anti-science, etc., work to transform McCain into a change agent? Aren't Republicans against those things already? McCain's delusion that he's a maverick is getting frightening.

[BillN]

07:32 PM on 08/31/2008

Poor Joe... not invited to the big dance.

Next: Ejection from the Democratic Caucus.

(So, now Joe has that going for him).

[wanked]

07:52 AM on 09/03/2008

I guess we're stuck with him here in CT. I wish mcsame had taken him....

[usmc1775]

02:15 PM on 09/03/2008

If he is so unwanted in CT then why was he relected to the Senate?

[anotherplayaguy]

07:17 PM on 08/31/2008

Well, the crazy wing of the religious right is in position to take over the White House without having the fuss of a real election.

McCain wins (Bush did it twice) by whatever means.
'McCain becomes disabled or dies (by whatever means).
The "We're here to bring you Armeggedon" babe steps in to bring Jesus back to us all.

These folks play for keeps. Be very worried.

[CindyKay]

05:15 PM on 08/31/2008

Mr. McCain had wanted to name as his running mate his good friend Senator Joseph Lieberman


Instead He Chose a Doobie Smokin Yuppie !

[montemalone]

05:13 PM on 08/31/2008

Well, at least eventually the European press will get the real story about this hilarity and we fact starved Americans may find out what skeletons lie in those cold, Alaskan closets.

[Gary47]

05:05 PM on 08/31/2008

If this is the way he makes decision that's great for his life - more power to him. But no ones a President making decisions that way. Yikes. The idea of him as President is frankly terrifying. Funny how the repubs love to manipulate people with fear and now the most fearful thing on the horizon is the idea of John as President.