I’m in full agreement with Ezra—-McCain is going to go with Lieberman as the VP pick. I largely agree with his reasoning—-McCain’s only chance at winning is distinguishing himself from the crazy wingnuts (of which he’s a member of good standing) that have dominated the Bush administration, and for the low information voter, especially, the fact that he picked a former Democrat will show he’s such a moderate guy. To quote Ezra:
More importantly, he amplifies McCain’s most broadly popular qualities, and gives McCain the best chance to muscle into the downscale independents and elderly Democrats who aren’t sold on Obama but mistrust the Republican right. He lets McCain telegraph an ideological ambiguity and shift towards a policy agenda that’s about process, about “reaching across party lines and getting things done,” rather than about sops to the conservative base.
In sum, McCain can only win by hoodwinking the public, as Bush did, and dressing up the crazy wingnut wolf in compassionate/moderate sheep clothing. Lieberman can help.
Of course, the concern for McCain is that a Lieberman pick will alienate the base. I strongly disagree. The first rule of the conservative base is that they are born sheeple, which is why they are conservatives. They’ll vote how their authority figures, from talk show radio hosts to ministers, tell them to vote. Of course, the fear in American elections is always voter apathy—-a lot of people “support” a candidate and don’t bother to vote, especially if they have doubts. So getting the base to the polls is an issue for the McCain campaign. But I suspect they’ll be fired up about the Lieberman pick.