Been chewing on this one this morning—would I vote for McCain if he picked Fred as his running mate? Although this would clearly be a sop to the Republican base, I’m not sure that’s good enough for me. I can’t see McCain outsourcing a significant portion of his presidency to Thompson the way that Bush has with Cheney, and even if McCain were to die in office and be succeeded by Thompson, that really is quite a long shot. First, I wouldn’t want to premise getting something I’d want, i.e., a President Thompson, on the demise of a President McCain. Second, there’s no reason to think that Thompson at 65 is in that much better condition than McCain at 71. Although Thompson’s lymphoma is in remission, there’s always the possibility that it might come back, so there’s no comparative advantage regarding health.

What are your thoughts?

Michael L. Murdock