Halperin: McCain Pro-Choice VP Pick Would Be 'Disaster'

Photo of Mark Finkelstein.
By Mark Finkelstein (Bio | Archive)
August 20, 2008 - 06:45 ET

Don't want to take Rush's word for it?  How about Mark Halperin's? The editor of Time's "The Page" thinks the choice by John McCain of a pro-choice running mate would be nothing short of a "disaster." Halperin expressed his view during an appearance today on CNN's American Morning.

KIRAN CHETRY: What about some potential running mates for John McCain?  Because there's been a lot of talk all over talk radio.  A lot of people are saying if he tries to go with somebody who's pro-choice like a Lieberman, that that would be it for the base: a big deflation for the convention.

MARK HALPERIN: Look, so many of the people who go to the convention in St. Paul are going to be pro-life, and very strongly pro-life.  I think it would be a disaster for him to pick someone who was not in agreement with the party platform on abortion. 

View video here.

Added Halperin . . .

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HALPERIN: I don't think he will in the end. In fact I think a lot of this may well be, some of my sources say, just a feint in order to set up the pick of someone like a Mitt Romney who is pro-life but has not had a long history of being pro-life, and that this focus on perhaps Joe Lieberman, perhaps someone else who's pro-choice is a way to make people who are pro-life happy with the eventual choice and to send a message that he's considering people from all parts of the party.

BONUS COVERAGE: Obama's Ego Trip?

Check out the video at the end of the linked clip [it actually aired before Halperin's appearance but I've moved it back given the focus of this item].  Obama is ostensibly explaining to a crowd what he is looking for in a vice-president [Dick Cheney need not apply.]  But tell me if you don't get the feeling that it was at least as much about Obama on an ego trip, fantasizing about occupying the Oval Office, right down to his imagining the veep addressing him as "Mr. President."

Note also Obama mentioning that he wants "somebody who in their gut knows where they came from."  The kind of person who wouldn't need to write two autobiographies to figure that out, maybe?

And—sorry Hillary—as Kiran Chetry pointed out, Obama repeatedly refers to his fantasy veep as "he."

Note also Obama's down-home pronunciation of "country."  Was it in Hawaii or at Harvard that he picked that up?  Couldn't be an affectation, could it?

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.


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Mark...bad link.

August 20, 2008 - 07:06 ET by motherbelt

Mark...bad link for the video.

I don't know how many people have to say it, but I certainly hope McCain is getting the message! I hope it's not a case of his thinking he knows better than everyone else!

 

Hi mb: thanks for bringing

August 20, 2008 - 07:10 ET by Mark Finkelstein

Hi mb: thanks for bringing bad link to my attention.  It's working now. Please check out Obama portion at end and give me your reaction. Is this guy on an ego trip or what?  Perhaps today's Zogby results will make him a bit more humble.

ego trip?

August 20, 2008 - 07:23 ET by Agnostic

How could Senator Obama be on an ego trip?  Afterall, Speaker Pelosi recently said Barack is "a leader that God has blessed us with at this time".  With an endorsement like that and the way the media prostrate themselves at his feet I am starting to think he is doing well to check his ego and remain a mere messiah.

I agree, Mark; the man's

August 20, 2008 - 07:25 ET by motherbelt

I agree, Mark; the man's ego is staggering.

I did have to laugh though. He talks about someone in politics for the right reasons and capable of being President, and is seriously considering Joe Biden?

ROFL!

 

I think this is just another

August 20, 2008 - 07:36 ET by Bruzilla

I think this is just another great example of why our political process is so screwed up.  No one with the Obama campaign that I know of has ever mentioned that Biden is a serious contender for VP.  Have you ever heard someone from the campaign say that?  All of the speculation on Biden has come from reporters and pundits, and they don't know squat.  We have a bunch of people who are on the outside of everything making groundless speculations, and people like you are trying to impugn Obama's judgement based on judgements he hasn't made!  At this point, the only folks seriously considering Biden are CNN, FNC, NBC, etc., not Obama.

No one from any campaign

August 20, 2008 - 08:07 ET by motherbelt

No one from any campaign ever says anything about who is being considered for VP. Journalists get their ideas from "sources" and from talking to people and what they hear in different places. And people talk about it.

It's hilarious that you say:

and people like you are trying to impugn Obama's judgement based on judgements he hasn't made!

and then follow it with

At this point, the only folks seriously considering Biden are CNN, FNC, NBC, etc., not Obama. (emphasis added)

So I, and people like me, know nothing about who he's considering, but you know for a fact that he's not considering Biden?????

 

 

yes motherbelt

August 20, 2008 - 08:20 ET by Cool Arrow

Or maybe Obama's just biden his time.

I ♣ my seal

I don't know for a fact

August 20, 2008 - 09:14 ET by Bruzilla

I don't know for a fact that he is or isn't considering Biden... neither do you, nor does anyone outside the campaign, which is my point.  We keep hearing all these media predictions, and at some point they become "the story" even though they are baseless.  Then when the candidate picks someone, where's the accountability for all the wrong predictions?  There isn't any!  You have nothing but a lot of manufactured news that's quickly stuffed under the carpet once it was all shown to be wrong, and yet there are people who take it for valid information when it is being spewed out.

If Obama says he's considering Biden, then it's fair game to criticize him for it.  If some talking head on CNN or FNC says it, then it's not fair to criticize.  That should be pretty simple to figure out.

I had a question mark after

August 20, 2008 - 10:00 ET by motherbelt

I had a question mark after "considering Biden." As in "how does that compute?" I was basing my reaction on what I have heard and read, and questioning the logic.

You are the one who, not knowing, stated for a fact that he is NOT.

I just read what you wrote:

At this point, the only folks seriously considering Biden are CNN, FNC, NBC, etc., not Obama.

That IS pretty simple to figure out, to quote you.

Then you admit
I don't know for a fact that he is or isn't considering Biden... proving my point.


If Obama says he's considering Biden, then it's fair game to criticize him for it.-Bruzilla

You know as well as I that no candidate ever says on the record who he is or isn't considering; that's why all the speculation occurs.

And you might want to be careful with phrases such as "people like you." There's no need to make it personal, and you don't know anything about me.

 


Tim Pawlenty would be just as bad

August 20, 2008 - 07:30 ET by PopularTech

"The era of small government is over ... government has to be more proactive, more aggressive." - Tim Pawlenty

"It looks like we should have listened to President Carter" - Tim Pawlenty

"Climate change is real. Human behavior is ... responsible. Those who don't think so are simply not right. We should not spend time on voices that say it's not real." - Tim Pawlenty

How Not to Run for Vice President (The Washington Post)
Pawlenty's Record (The Wall Street Journal)
A Big-Government Running Mate for McCain? (Cato Institute)

The Anti 'Man-Made' Global Warming Resource

Bigger Government

August 20, 2008 - 08:15 ET by allanf

Tim seems like someone who believes the government knows how to spend your money better than you do. 

McCain revels in the receipt

August 20, 2008 - 07:27 ET by Bruzilla

McCain revels in the receipt of monikers like "maverick" and "independent thinker", but a review of his life history and voting record shows that he is nothing more than a rebellious guy.  He grew up in a highly regimented household and felt forced into the Navy, and he's been desperate to prove he's his own man ever since.  This is why when you look at his voting record, you see that he's never a "maverick" or "independent thinker" on small, unimportant issues... i.e., the ones no one cares about.  He only develops his maverick personna for big issues where there are the highest demands for party unity, i.e., he doesn't like being told what to do.  Based on past performance, the more people tell him he can't pick Lieberman or Ridge, the more he will feel compelled to do it.