I’ve watched Republicans concern troll Democrats for years, pretending to give "honest" advice which was, in fact, dismissive criticism.
I’m nicer. I’m going to give John McCain an idea that can actually make this election close.
It has to do with his Vice Presidential choice.
All the current names on the list — Mittens, Droopy Dawg, Whodat — do nothing. Romney hates McCain’s guts (and vice versa), Lieberman will alienate the base, and Pawlenty is an empty suit.
The candidate himself has said he wants someone who can help him fix the economy, so that implies someone who has been successful in business.
No, not her. Carly Fiorina would be an absolute disaster, for the party, for the country, for the world. She is vainglorious and incompetent, a Britney Spears among American CEOs.
Meg Whitman.
Unlike Carly Fiorina, Meg Whitman has been a success at business. While Fiorina was nearly destroying Hewlett-Packard, one of America’s truly great companies, Whitman was the "adult" brought in by Pierre Omidyar to turn eBay from an Internet start-up into a commercial giant.
She succeeded. Despite the criticism (some of it mine). The eBay marketplace is now one of the world’s largest, in terms of volume and breadth of product available. Paypal has made eBay a presence in the banking business — it’s an unregulated money machine.
And guess what she’s doing now? She’s running McCain’s campaign. (Fiorina has been running the fund-raising with her usual talent for failure.)
Meg Whitman would put California back in play, she would draw off the women who flocked to Hillary (some of them), and she might be able to do to Joe Biden what Cheney did to Lieberman — devour him with graciousness.
So what if she’s rich — $1.4 billion by last count. She earned it. It’s also interesting that she was, for eight years, with Bain & Co. — the VC outfit run by Mitt Romney. That would stick a dagger in Mitt’s heart.
Do I think it would work? Could McCain-Whitman actually win? Probably not.
But Whitman would make a better President than Dick Cheney. And she is well-equipped to give the Republican Party the reform it needs to become competitive and electable again. (The Vice Presidential loser is traditionally the new leader of the party once it leaves power.)
Which is the best legacy John McCain can now offer.
