Tom Ridge?

Time was, he was every reporter's favorite potential veep pick for George W. Bush. Bronze star in Vietnam. Popular governor of a swing state. Too bad he happened to be pro-choice - or, reading between the lines, too bad the Taliban wing of the GOP won't let Bush make the right choice for VP.

Then we had the chance to watch Tom Ridge on the national stage, in a role that could have made his career - the first head of Homeland Security, the man responsible for keeping us safe in our beds, the first line of defense against terrorists. And it quickly became clear that Ridge was vastly better as a journalistic fantasy-league pick than as an actual national politician. Obviously, he was dealt a difficult hand in many ways, and presumably he didn't come up with the easily-mockable "orange alert" system that became his calling card. But nothing about his record at DHS, or his current profile on the national scene, suggests that he would make a solid VP choice for John McCain.

Comments

A few different claims going on in this post though, right? I think these are separate questions: whether A) Tom Ridge was prevented from being Bush's VP pick because of his stance on abortion; whether B) Ridge would have been a very poor VP. Surely both can be true. I don't exactly see in the party that elected George Bush a great premium placed on competence.

Posted by Freddie | February 27, 2008 8:29 AM

Would he really have been worse than Cheney? Would anyone not named Ashcroft have been worse than Cheney?

Posted by Reality Man | February 27, 2008 8:53 AM

Judging from his tenure as Attorney-General, when he appears to have had at least a minimal respect for the rule of law, Ashcroft would have been a better VP than Cheney.

Posted by John | February 27, 2008 9:04 AM

"Better than Chaney" isn't much of a campaign slogan. Republicans will have have the same problems finding a viable VP candidate that they have had with finding a viable P candidate. "A movement conservative who appeals to a broad constituency"-- sorry, no such animal.

Posted by MattF | February 27, 2008 9:10 AM

I dunno, Ross. He did a not-so-great job, but the position itself was pretty impossible. I don't think he did anything so bad as to close off any future in national politics.

That said, he should still be considered an, um, underdog as far as the VP slot goes.

Posted by Elvis Elvisberg | February 27, 2008 9:16 AM

I know this is a political bog, but I'm missing the point on VP choices.

How can an adult not be qualified to be VP? There aren't any qualification, you are just making this stuff up.

Is just marketing stupid. (In the spirit of its the economy stupid.)

You pick a VP that gets you a few more votes, because its the first major decision of a presidential candidate. It reveals something about the top guy.

Posted by Kim | February 27, 2008 9:21 AM

Tom Ridge is pro-choice?

Posted by Naveen | February 27, 2008 9:46 PM

I ought to say from the outset that he was in my father's graduating class in high school (Cathedral Preparatory School in Erie, PA). But I'll echo Naveen. Pro-Choice? That would be news to the Erie Diocese. As far as I'm aware, he's supported strict limits on abortion, only wanting to allow it in cases of rape or incest. That's about as strict as it gets, for a Catholic.

He was really put into a dead-end position by Bush. He was head of a department that didn't exist yet, a staff of nobody, a budget of nothing, no regulatory powers, and no ability to force the heads of the various departments to actually work together to accomplish what needed to be done. He could have been the reincarnation of Macchiavelli and still not been able to accomplish much. A lot of Pennsylvanians, and particularly a lot of people from Erie (myself included), were very much disappointed at the waste of his considerable talents.

Still, he's been out of the limelight for way too long. Advising the government of Albania is the last I heard he was doing. Though he might deliver some votes in Pennsylvania, PA is really not close enough to being a swing state for it to matter. McCain needs to play defense elsewhere, and I'm not so sure the Albanian vote is going to benefit him all that much.

Posted by Tel | February 29, 2008 1:06 PM

i prefer romney.

Posted by john marzan | March 1, 2008 3:40 AM