The National Unity Ticket

Here's how crazy rumors get started, with simple deductive reasoning from a conveniently chosen set of facts. In no special order:

1. Abu Ghraib and circumventing the Geneva Conventions will become a major scandal for the administration. As Fred Kaplan says, "The knives are out all over Washington—lots of knives, unsheathed and sharpened in many different backroom parlors, for many motives and many throats. In short, this story is not going away."
   
2. Kerry's campaign has, thus far, not capitalized well on Bush's seemingly endless string of bad news. A lot of people think Kerry needs to make a dynamic vice-presidential choice to jump-start his campaign.
   
3. The dynamic names most frequently floated, John McCain and Hillary Clinton, are both almost certainly not real possibilities. McCain is too much the maverick, and realistically far too conservative. And Clinton, although her image has softened in recent years, remains a divisive figure who would do little to help the democrats reach out to the center. Not to mention that she has her own plans for the presidency.
   
4. At 75% approval, Colin Powell remains one of the most respected men in America. He's a moderate Republican, a rags-to-riches war hero, and our first black secretary of state.
   
5. Powell is not going to let his sterling reputation, his place in history, get dragged through the mud with an administration which has so ill-treated him for 3.5 years. His criticisms of the White House have become sharper, more common, and are no longer issued through proxies.

And you can see where this is going right? A Kerry-Powell ticket of national unity. Sure it's unlikely, but it makes a lot more sense than a Kerry-McCain ticket, with Powell, the archetypical "good soldier" far more suited to the second slot than maverick McCain. And if Powell wants to cement his place in history (and distance himself from Bush's disastrous stewardship of the country ) there would be no better way than becoming the first black Vice President (and wouldn't knifing all those neocons in the back feel great?)

How about it John? Make the call!

Comments

[acdsee 6.0 crack]

Mooie site, ziet er professioneel uit, mijn complimenten!
Groetjes Han en een poot(je) van Bikkel.