John McCain's Vice President Should Be ...

Let's not skirt the issue, unless something drastic happens the general election for the Presidency will pit moderate Republican Senator John McCain against uber-liberal Democrat Senator Barack Obama.

I have little faith in John McCain as the Republican nominee. He has not been very energetic in his delivery and his campaign has been helped enormously by the battle to split the conservative base votes by Mit Romney and Mike Huckabee. Would McCain be the nominee if Romney or Huckabee had not been in the race? Possibly. Certainly the race would have been much closer, ala Clinton and Obama.

There is really no doubt in anyone's' mind McCain will get the nomination at this point, and in Wisconsin accepted the nomination even though Mike Huckabee will not suspend his campaign. I say good for him. Let's keep a conservative voice in the national theatre as long as possible. Throughout these primaries there have been rumblings from the conservative base. The ground swell quickly gained momentum when Ronald Reagan rolled over in his grave after McCain called himself a 'foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution.' McCain is no Ronald Reagan. In fact the best description of McCain I've heard so far is that he is 'Liberal Light.' For he surely is not a conservative.

I like many other conservatives will not vote for McCain. Not only will grass roots conservatives not vote for him but he has received sharp criticism and serious backlash from conservative political leaders. Ron Paul has already publicly stated that he will not endorse McCain, as has former Pennsylvanian Senator Rick Santorum. Unfortunately, much of the party is falling in lock-step behind McCain, which shows me how little they care about policy and how much they care about power. Romney, Thompson, Juliani, and Bush 41 and Bush 43 have all endorsed McCain. Even Independent Senator Joe Libermann has joined the McCain train.

The problem facing the Republican Party and John McCain is that McCain will not win the presidency if he tries to court the conservative base. He's already lost them, they don't trust him. His 'Straight Talk Express' is nothing but fluff to them. The conservative block voted in droves for Mit Romney and Mike Huckabee. McCain was in fourth place in many polls of those that call themselves conservatives.

So what's McCain to do? How will he be able to beat Barack?

To beat Obama in the General election McCain must court the moderate and liberal Republicans, the Independents and the Moderate 'Reagan' Democrats. He needs to focus on these groups and not the conservatives. Obama will be looking to court the same groups. But there is a significant difference between McCain's support and Obama's, and that is the core party base is not with McCain, while Obama's is 100 percent behind him.

In order to win John McCain needs to select John Edwards as his running mate for Vice President. In recent days Obama and Clinton have both visited the former Democrat Presidential candidate trying to gain his endorsement. Neither of them walked away with it. Edwards had harsh criticisms of Clinton during the campaign and he's stated he doesn't feel as though Obama has the experience needed. So his endorsement is still up for grabs. McCain prides himself on reaching across the aisle to accomplish things in a bipartisan way. What more bipartisan than offering the VP nod to Edwards, who brings a strong base of socio-economic voters to the table. He will be able to pull the 'Reagan' Democrats and Independents that McCain could not.

I hate to say it but this is McCain's only chance of winning.