I was chatting with a good friend and astute political observer about the 2008 Democratic and Republican ticket possiblities. After running through a bunch of scenarios, many of which involved Hillary Clinton, we both concluded that a Clark/Warner or Warner/Clark ticket would probably be the strongest on the Democratic side. Of course, one should never estimate the Clintons, and there's also Al Gore hanging around out there (Clinton/Gore again, anyone?), but in the end, we both felt that the Dems would be better going with some new faces. My strong preference would be for candidates: a) from the South or Midwest; b) who have strong national security "cred;" c) who are either a governor or a non-politician, definitely not a Congressman; and d) someone who can tell it like it is, a la Paul Hackett. Hey, can we get HIM on the ticket somehow?As far as the Republicans are concerned, my friend and I were going over all the possibilities -- Frist, Allen, Pataki, Giuliani, McCain, Santorum, Rice, Romney, etc. - and then it hit us. John McCain/Jeb Bush - that's the ticket! This would be an extremely strong ticket, but I pointed out that McCain probably couldn't get the Republican nomination, and Jeb Bush has said he isn't running. HOWEVER, what if McCain and George W. Bush cut a deal in 2004, whereby McCain backed Bush (see photo above) in exchange for a promise that Bush would endorse him for President in 2008? And, as part of the deal, what if Bush insisted that McCain pick Brother Jeb as his running mate? Then, the whole Republican Party is happy, all is well in the world, and the GOP has itself a very strong, probably winning ticket. So what's wrong with this picture? It can't be that simple, can it?
Oh, and by the way, speaking of "what's wrong with this picture," what's with McCain's hand position and facial expression when he's hugging Bush? Weird. Is this a Republican "man crush" or something?
PS Turns out my friend and I can't claim credit for coming up with this McCain-Bush scenario. Credit for that goes to EJ Dionne, who wrote on June 14, 2005 that "George W. Bush and John McCain may prefer not to need each other. But by 2008, they could well become codependent. American politics has produced stranger alliances." Smart guy, that EJ Dionne! :)