Tim Pawlenty as Vice President

The above statement, as recounted in a Boston Globe article show exactly why Tim Pawlenty will be the Vice-Presidential nominee for John McCain. While this was during the 2006 election cycle and McCain has a lot to consider when looking at a Vice-Presidential candidate, there are several reasons why Tim Pawlenty should be his nominee. These include: his conservative credentials, he's worked with McCain, he's from a potential swing state, he has executive experience from being a governor and he's young. So, let's look at each of these issues.

Conservative Credentials

According to the Boston Globe article, the Vice-Presidential nominee needs to have some conservative credentials. We all have heard too many times how McCain is an independent and has had trouble getting the conservative voters excited. McCain is in a tough position here because of his appeal to independents. If he picks someone too conservative - say Mike Huckabee - he has the potential to alienate those voters who have supported him thus far. So he needs someone who is conservative, yet not so conservative as to put people off.

Tim Pawlenty fits this description perfectly. The Boston Globe article points out that he is the perfect choice when it comes to someone who has the conservative credentials to get some of those voters excited, yet has the appeal to independents that he won't push those voters away. Minnesota is hardly a conservative state, so he has had to appeal to independent voters. Looking at immigration for example, a lot of conservatives have been upset with McCain's immigration policy, but would be happy with Pawlenty's. According to a Fox News interview with Pawlenty, Alan Colmes points out that he has had a much stronger policy against immigration than McCain has. While this might cause some friction, in the overall picture this can be used as a means to appease the conservative voters into believing that Pawlenty could have some influence on McCain on issues such as this one.

Pawlenty's Work With McCain

When looking at the Fox News interview, we see that Pawlenty has been a big supporter of the McCain campaign since the beginning. Pawlenty has been backing McCain for some time, appeared at various campaign stops with him and traveled with him to numerous locations. Pawlenty has stated "I support Senator McCain because he's a great leader." This is big for a Vice-Presidential candidate. If there is someone who supported say Romney or Huckabee for a long time and campaigned against McCain, the press would have a blast pointing that out. The press love stories like that and would badger the campaign about why he selected someone who was supporting someone else. That problem doesn't have to happen if he picks Pawlenty. In fact, the Boston Globe article even points out that the nominee should be someone McCain considers to be a true friend and ally, which Pawlenty is.

Minnesota is a possible swing state

While Minnesota has voted for a Democrat for President for as long as I can remember (being the only state to vote for Mondale in 1984 and one of a few who voted for Dukakis in 1988) it is starting to lean more conservative. According to an ABC News article many Republicans don't think they can win Minnesota unless Pawlenty is on the ticket. In fact, according to the Fox News article, Pawlenty even stated that Minnesota is becoming a "Purple state" (instead of a blue state) and there is a chance that the GOP can pick up Minnesota in the general election. If they can do that, that could be enough swing votes to get a victory for McCain over the Democratic nominee.

Executive Experience

Voters have preferred to vote for a Governor for President over Senators. In fact, the last Senator to win the Presidential vote was John F. Kennedy in 1960 However, this year voters will have a choice of Senator McCain vs. Senator Obama or Senator Clinton. What this means is that neither candidate for President has any executive experience and so a Vice-Presidential nominee having that experience can help sway some voters. There are a lot of Republican Governors that fit this description, so it neither helps nor hurts Pawlenty against other governors. However, this is another reason that Pawlenty should be chosen.

Youth

McCain would be the oldest person to be elected as President if he was elected in November. This creates an issue of concern for some people and for the McCain ticket. They don't want to pick someone who is old otherwise they will be painted as to old farts who will die in office. There needs to be balance on the ticket. Look at George W. Bush for example. He was considered young and inexperienced, so he picked an older candidate with a lot of experience in Dick Cheney to balance things out. McCain can do the same thing. He is viewed as an experienced candidate who is older and so he needs someone who is youthful and energetic who can balance the ticket. This is again where Pawlenty is a perfect fit.

Final Results

Todd Domke, a Republican analyst make a checklists for McCain to try to pick the best VP candidate. He listed a variety of requirements and ranked various candidates on a scale of 1-5 on each one and he published his results in the Boston Globe article. In the end, his best candidate is Tim Pawlenty. I agree with Mr. Domke: Pawlenty has the ability to swing Minnesota to the Republicans, he's young and has executive experience plus he's conservative. All of those put together means he should be picked. Being a Democrat, I hope McCain isn't smart enough to make this decision because it will only make the Democrats task of winning back the White House that much more difficult.

Todd Domke; "Who rates as a running mate?"; The Boston Globe

Hannity & Colmes; "Gov. Tim Pawlenty on McCain's VP Choice"; Fox News

John Cochran; "Vice Presidential Stakes High for McCain"; ABC News