Urbanagora Vets, Part 5: Joe Lieberman
Part 5, Independent Senator and former Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Joe Lieberman.
First, I’d like to point out that my good pal Billy Joe Mills has been talking about McCain-Lieberman for years. Here is his post on the “McCain-Lieberman Party.”
This would give McCain the opportunity to have his own “first” moment and capture a wave of news coverage. It would reinforce a message that he is better at working in a bipartisan way than Obama. Lieberman joining McCain would further Obama’s problems with Jewish voters.
McCain considered running with Kerry in 2004, and probably thinks that if Kerry would have asked him, they would have beat Bush. As we’ve seen over the course of this cycle, unlike the John McCain of 2000, the John McCain of 2008 is willing to do almost anything to win. I wouldn’t completely rule out him making a radical maverick play and asking his close friend Joe Lieberman to go beyond joining him on the trial, and join him on the ticket.
Comment by Brian on 11 July 2008 at 7:54 am:
Lieberman is who I would recommend he pick. Obviously it’s an enormously risky choice, but it seems to me that McCain has the option of running a safe, cautious campaign and facing certain defeat, OR an unconventional, bold campaign and risking a crushing defeat but also opening up the possibility of a victory.
Comment by John Bambenek on 11 July 2008 at 10:00 am:
As much as people talked up the McCain VP thing in 04, he wasn’t going to do it in the end. It would be political suicide.
In this case, however, Lieberman has already been spurned by his party, is nearing the end of his career, and therefore has little to lose. But Lierberman will still say no, so that’s that.
Comment by Jon O. on 12 July 2008 at 1:57 pm:
I think Lieberman would probably help McCain with Independents. However, Independents aren’t what McCain needs help with. He’s facing a clear problem appealing to his base. As Nate Silver notes, McCain has problems consolidating his support. As it is, this election looks to be almost as bad for Republican voter enthusiasm as 2006. Remember, McCain didn’t win his primary - he just didn’t lose, by virtue of being less unappealing than Romney. Through the end of the primary season, McCain was still only getting 75% of the ballot (with the rest diverting to Huckabee and Paul - each man himself representative of one pillar of the conservative coalition.) No Dem in the world is going to vote for McCain for putting Lieberman on the ticket - he’s absolutely persona non grata with us at this point. All Lieberman will do will further buttress McCain’s share of the independent vote. When you’re looking at growing Dem party ID, and the Republican candidate has with a three-month head start failed to define his opponent, Obama doesn’t need independents to win nearly as much as Kerry or Gore did. Meanwhile, keep in mind that Bush won twice based on having a strong base turnout. McCain simply is not going to win unless he can sufficiently motivate his base. Lieberman won’t help.
Comment by Joshua on 12 July 2008 at 5:38 pm:
Welcome Jon O
I switch between agreeing with you and agreeing with Brian. I think BJP is off in his belief that Obama’s going to win huge, unless McCain does something really radical. But I don’t think the GOP base is what it was in 2000 and 2004. Independents are a huge chunk of the electorate, and its a group where at least for now McCain has a disadvantage - maybe Lieberman could turn it around. He’s really only hated by people who are probably going to vote for Obama anyway.
Jon, I also like your take that McCain merely avoided losing the primary.