The ideal candidate for vice president

By Lee Bandy
SouthCarolina Insider

(2/18/08) Now that Sen. John McCain is the likely Republican Party nominee for president, the big question is who will be his running mate in 2008?

Well, it won’t be S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, or U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of Greenville, or U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham

The Club for Growth, an influential group of wealthy conservative businessmen, has been pushing Sanford and DeMint. Other groups have been singing the praises of Graham.

“If there is a governor anywhere in America who has demonstrated a commitment to economic conservatism, it is Mr. Sanford,” club president Pat Toomey wrote recently in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal.

And DeMint?

“When it comes to fighting government spending in Washington, Mr. DeMint can be found on the frontlines,” Toomey said.

Sanford says he’s flattered by all the speculation but he said he hasn’t been in touch with anyone.

Ditto, says DeMint.

McCain says it’s too early to be talking about a running mate.

Much of the speculation has been focused on former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, McCain’s last remaining Republican opponent, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who helped put McCain over the top in that state’s primary, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who endorsed McCain on Thursday.

Some Republican leaders have suggested that if McCain is going to pick a South Carolinian for his running mate, it’s likely to be the guy who has constantly been at his side throughout the campaign – Lindsey Graham.

People here in the Palmetto State chuckle when any of the three are mentioned as potential choices for vice president.

It isn’t going to happen folks.

“Do you think the McCain crowd is going to pick up a guy who is rated by Time magazine as the worst governor in the country?” remarked Francis Marion University political scientist Neal Thigpen.

He added, “The Club for Growth ought to get back on its medicine.”

GOP legislators view Sanford as a disaster. He has accomplished nothing in his six years as governor, they say, and he has come close to wrecking the state GOP.

The ideal candidate for vice president would be a popular, fairly conservative Southerner.

DeMint is getting rave reviews in the conservative Weekly Standard. It calls DeMint a “rising GOP star.”

But his chances of being selected are slim to none. Nobody knows him.

Beth Padgett, editorial page editor for the Greenville News, said DeMint has moved o the forefront of the conservative movement. “And this certainly gives him a boost,” she said.

Charles Dunn, an analyst with Regent University in Virginia Beach, said there are a number of reasons why a South Carolinian won’t be picked for vice president.

They bring nothing to the ticket, he said. “Zero.”

South Carolina will vote Republican in the fall, regardless, Dunn said.

Sanford cares about one thing, critics say. Sanford.

“I wouldn’t pick Sanford to be my butler,” said a voter.