Here's A Thought About the GOP Ticket

I've been on the subject of running mates this evening, and I've just had a notion.

I've heard some people suggest that John McCain should pick Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- in part because of the belief that she could negate the race factor against Barack Obama.

My argument (as some of you who have read my earlier posts already know) has been that McCain shouldn't pick someone who is closely linked to an unpopular president and his policies.

McCain's running mate can be a supporter of many of George W. Bush's policies. Most of Bush's policies were and are broadly supported by other Republicans. But his campaign won't be helped by the presence of someone who has been -- and continues to be -- an intimate part of the incumbent administration.

Not in this season of change.

It seems I'm not the only one saying that. Roger Simon writes, in the Politico, that McCain needs to maintain his distance from Bush.

Although he never mentions the running mate directly, Simon lends support to my position with this compelling quote.

“'John McCain unfortunately is burdened by a not very good economy, by an ongoing war in Iraq and by Bush’s poll numbers in the high 20s,' Ken Duberstein, Ronald Reagan’s former chief of staff, who is very well-connected in Republican circles, told me Monday," Simon writes. “'McCain can’t be in a position of defending the last eight years.'”

But it's possible for Republicans to accomplish part of what the desired effect of a Rice nomination would be -- even if Rice isn't the nominee.

My notion is that McCain should pick J.C. Watts, a former congressman from Oklahoma. Watts is black, a former University of Oklahoma football star, religious, a devoted family man.

I was living in his congressional district when Watts was elected to the House in 1994. He pledged to serve only two terms, although he fudged a little on that one. He served four terms, then chose to step down in 2002 because he wanted to spend more time with his family.

There is no doubt in my mind that Watts could have won a fifth term -- and as many as he wanted beyond that. Watts' district is less than 7% black, but his share of the vote continued to grow in each successive election. In 2000, the last time he was on the ballot, he received the support of nearly two-thirds of the voters.

He modeled his congressional career on something he told the delegates to the 1996 Republican Convention: "Character is doing what's right when nobody is looking."

Compared to McCain, he's young (50). He's eloquent, he's a supporter of the Iraq War, and his nomination for vice president would be a strong counter to his own criticism of the Republican Party.

"Republicans want to say we reach out," Watts said. "But what we do instead is, 60 days before an election, we'll spend some money on black radio and TV or buy an ad in Ebony and Jet, and that's our outreach. People read through that."