Wolf Rides to Ridge's Defense

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Wolf Blitzer for one apparently doesn't think Tom Ridge's pro-choice position should disqualify him as John McCain's VP pick.  The former Pennsylvania congressman and governor was a guest on this afternoon's Situation Room, and Blitzer began by playing a clip of Rush Limbaugh urging McCain not to pick a pro-choice running mate, saying it would "obliterate all the progress that he experienced" at the Saddleback forum.

Ridge surmised that "Rush and everybody else hopefully can see that there's a clear choice regardless of the vice-presidential candidate. A choice that says that John McCain is needed now as president of the United States in this perilous time."

That's when Wolf made a more muscular case on Ridge's behalf.

WOLF BLITZER: And if he did pick you, he, the president, he'd be calling the shots.  You'd be the vice-president.  You'd be doing whatever the president asks you to do.

Ridge was only too happy to agree.

View video here.

WOLF BLITZER: And if he did pick you, he, the president, he'd be calling the shots.  You'd be the vice-president.  You'd be doing whatever the president asks you to do.

Ridge was only too happy to agree.

TOM RIDGE: Well, you know, it's an interesting situation. Everybody would be proud to serve as vice-president, but at the end of the day, you're only a private, independent voice giving your opinion and counsel to the president in a private way.  But at the end of the day, publicly, you echo the president's position, and I think every vice-president understands that, and appreciates that's the rule.

Ridge is right: that is the normal rule.  But this might not be a normal situation. Given the prospect that McCain might well serve only one term, his choice of veep takes on unusual importance.  It could be a pro-choice President Ridge "calling the shots."