When a candidate's former foe becomes a running mate

August 25, 2008

Senator John McCain's campaign has had fun for the last two days taunting Barack Obama with advertisements that show Democrats criticizing Obama. On Saturday, within hours of Obama's announcement that Senator Joe Biden would be his running mate, the McCain campaign aired a commercial that showed Biden questioning Obama's experience.

Yesterday, McCain's campaign released an ad saying that Obama had passed over Hillary Clinton as a running mate because she had criticized him during the primaries. "She won millions of votes," a narrator says in the ad. "But isn't on the ticket. Why? For speaking the truth."

Thus, the McCain campaign has raised the question: Would McCain want to pick a vice presidential candidate who was perhaps his toughest critic in the primaries, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney?

Romney ran tough ads against McCain that questioned whether the Arizona is "the right Republican" to be in the White House and noted that he voted against President Bush's tax cuts. McCain responded with ads touting newspaper editorials that supported his candidacy. When asked about the Romney ad, McCain joked: "Never get into a wrestling match with a pig. You both get dirty - and the pig likes it."

If McCain picks Romney, the Democrats doubtless would remind voters of the McCain-Romney feud.

Romney appears to be the only former primary foe being considered as a vice presidential pick. Other top contenders who have been mentioned include former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, and Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.

MICHAEL KRANISH

John McCain found himself the center of attention at his church in Phoenix yesterday, watching himself on a giant-screen television talking about his "greatest moral failure," which he said was the collapse of his first marriage.

"I have been a very imperfect person," McCain said, in an interview with the Rev. Rick Warren shown at his church. "It's my greatest moral failure."

McCain sat next to his second wife, Cindy, as he watched the interview during the services at North Phoenix Baptist Church, where the Rev. Dan Yeary described the exchange as a "seminal moment" in the presidential campaign. For balance, he showed Barack Obama's interview with Warren, in which the Democrat confessed he had been too self-centered. "I couldn't focus on other people," Obama said.

McCain, the hometown favorite, got solid applause from the congregation after his confession.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Democratic delegates from Florida and Michigan will get full voting rights despite defying party rules and holding their primaries early, the national convention's credentials committee ruled yesterday.

Adhering to the wishes of Senator Barack Obama, the full 2008 Democratic National Convention is expected to ratify the committee decision by acclamation today.

The Democratic Party had initially refused to seat any of the delegates from the two states as punishment for holding their primaries before Feb. 5.

Senator Hillary Clinton of New York won both primaries.

However, neither Obama nor Clinton campaigned in the states and Obama's name was not on the Michigan ballot.

In May, the rules committee decided to seat the delegates but give them only half a vote.

The rulings outraged some Clinton supporters who said Democrats who voted in good faith in the primaries had been disenfranchised.

At Obama's behest, the credentials committee voted unanimously to restore the full voting rights.

Alexis Herman, cochairwoman of the credentials committee, said approving the panel's report - which includes giving full votes to the 211 Florida delegates and 157 Michigan delegates - "will be the first order of business" when the convention opens today.

COX NEWS SERVICE

Barack Obama's speech announcing his running mate, Joe Biden, singled out the Delaware senator's son who is headed for Iraq.

Obama didn't mention the profession of Biden's other son, who lobbied for two drug companies and five universities.

Hunter Biden, 38, lobbied for clients that paid his firm at least $380,000 in the first six months of this year, federal records show.

BLOOMBERG