Jindal Says No to No. 2 Slot

Louisiana's young Indian-American Republican governor, Bobby Jindal, took himself out of the running for the running mate spot on John McCain's ticket today.

"I’ve got the job that I want," Jindal said, insisting that he will do everything he can to promote McCain to Louisiana's voters.

Jindal, reportedly, has been on McCain's "short list" for the vice presidency, but it's probably best that he won't be running. McCain has often criticized his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, for being too young and inexperienced — but Obama is a decade older than Jindal, who was elected governor last fall.

Having Jindal on the ticket, even with his conservative credentials, could have undercut McCain's argument about Obama's youth and inexperience.

If Jindal had been nominated for — and then won — the vice presidency, he wouldn't have been our youngest vice president ever.

Close — but not quite.

Most inexperienced? Well, who's to say? I guess it would be fair to say that Jindal would have one of the thinnest résumés of an incoming vice president — although Obama doesn't exactly bring an extensive political résumé to the fall campaign, either.

Who are McCain's top prospects now?

Well, Dana Bash of CNN says "a Republican source ... tells CNN that [McCain] dropped a serious hint about Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty."

I'll say this much — with the Republican convention being held in Minnesota, naming the state's governor as running mate would produce a dramatic story.

And Mitt Romney continues to get talked about. Hillary Chabot writes, in the Boston Herald, that Romney is "near the top of a very short list."

At least, that's what one of Romney's confidantes apparently has told Chabot.

And Romney has made no secret of the fact that he'd like to be on the ticket.

But, as I've mentioned before — and, as just about everyone already seems to know — Romney and McCain don't like each other.

Dick Morris writes, in The Hill, that choosing Romney as his running mate would be a bad idea for McCain.

"Would he help McCain win fiscal conservatives?" Morris asks. "If Obama’s tax plans don’t accomplish that, one has to wonder about their sanity."

Morris apparently likes four other prospects — Condi Rice and Colin Powell ... "Or McCain could send a statement to Democrats and independents and become the first candidate since Abraham Lincoln to cross party lines and put a person from the opposite party on his ticket by selecting Joe Lieberman. ...

"Any of these three choices would make a 'wow' statement that would make voters see McCain in a new light."

Morris also likes former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as a "a slightly less radical" option.

"With almost nothing but his innate skill as a speaker and his warm, friendly personality, Huckabee was able to energize the evangelical base as nobody has since Pat Robertson," writes Morris.

"But, in the process, he challenged it to move on to new issues and embrace causes like global hunger as ardently as the right to life."

Poll Supports Rice for Veep

It seemed I had barely announced that I thought picking Condoleezza Rice as John McCain's running mate was a bad idea. What should appear? An item in CNN's Political Ticker blog saying that a McCain-Rice ticket could be successful.

According to CNN, a poll of New Yorkers by Marist College/WNBC says McCain-Rice would win New York, "defeating a Clinton-Obama ticket by 3 points (49-46%) and an Obama-Clinton ticket by 5 points (49-44%)."

CNN reminds its readers that George W. Bush lost New York by significant margins in 2000 and 2004.

Well, those numbers are compelling, but it is only April. There's an entire campaign to be run in the fall. Will McCain's lead hold up in New York -- or elsewhere?

Picking a running mate is always important, but it's going to be especially so -- for both sides -- this year.

For all I know, Rice may be the best choice for McCain. There certainly are a lot of prominent Republicans who are saying so.

And she seems to be getting plenty of support from the rank-and-file Republicans.

But I'm not convinced. Not yet.

Rice For Running Mate Is Not A Good Idea

Today is the birthday of one of my oldest friends.

We've known each other since we were kids. We graduated from high school together. For a time, we were college students together. We lost touch for awhile, but we re-connected last year.

I'm really glad we did, because he's a good friend. Everyone should be fortunate enough to make a few friendships that last a lifetime, and I can honestly say that, if I haven't succeeded at everything I've tried to do, that is one thing I've been lucky enough to do.

Unfortunately, my friend and I grew apart in some of our political views. There was a time when we saw eye to eye on just about everything. There are some things on which we still agree, and in some ways we've evolved in the same direction.

But I'm going to take the occasion of my friend's birthday to say (briefly) why I disagree with him on the subject of John McCain's running mate.

Like many columnists I've been reading lately, my friend believes that McCain should pick Condoleezza Rice as his running mate. Mary Ann Akers reports, in the Washington Post, that none other than Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, thinks Rice "'would be a great president.' "And, yes, a 'great vice president.'"

But I believe it would be a bad choice.

I think it would be a mistake for McCain to select anyone who is connected to the Bush administration, whether it's Rice or Colin Powell or anyone else. Bush's approval ratings have been hovering around 30% for a couple of years, and, unless Bush can deliver Osama bin Laden in chains to an international tribunal (or produce the weapons of mass destruction that no one has been able to find after 5 years of occupying Iraq), I see no reason to expect those numbers to go up between now and November.

McCain's strength in the primaries was his distance from the incumbent administration. It's an image he actively promoted since Bush beat him for the 2000 nomination and went on to win the disputed general election. It has paid off with the apparent GOP nomination in 2008, but McCain could undo all that he's accomplished by putting someone from Bush's team on the ticket.

In state after state, exit polls showed that the Republicans who didn't approve of Bush gave their support to McCain more frequently than to any other candidate. With Bush's disapproval ratings so high, McCain doesn't need someone on the ticket who detracts from his appeal to any voter -- Democrat, Republican or independent -- who disapproves of the incumbent.

Also, I don't see much of a plus in those areas where McCain needs a boost. It's true, Rice adds a more youthful touch to McCain's elderly countenance. And she might attract some female votes and some black votes if the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama battle isn't resolved amicably.

But, on issues, Rice only seems to reinforce McCain's support for the Iraq War.

McCain needs help on the domestic front. He admits to his weakness on economic issues, and that's at a time when the economy is bordering on recession, if it hasn't toppled over into that territory already. The running mate needs to be someone with experience in economics.

But, as far as I can see, Rice brings nothing on domestic issues to McCain's ticket. Even her foreign policy credentials could work against her. "Condi is too busy floating trial balloons about being John McCain’s running mate to bother about the fact that she was instrumental in two historic blunders: 9/11 and Iraq," says Maureen Dowd in today's New York Times.

And Dowd further points out, in her column about Tuesday's Senate hearings on Iraq, that "we’re spending $3 trillion as our own economy goes off a cliff so that Iran can have a dysfunctional little friend."

The times simply aren't favorable for supporters of Bush's foreign policy.

Rice might very well have a future on a Republican ticket. But I think she needs the benefit of some time and distance. Give history a chance to render its verdict on her tenure at the State Department.

The final verdict won't be delivered for a few decades. But the initial assessment wouldn't hold up well in a political campaign.

The Iraq experience is too fresh in the memory and it hasn't been satisfactorily resolved.