While I think that Ross Douthat has made most of the necessary points in opposition to the preposterous notion that John McCain ought to select Joe Lieberman as his running-mate (though a Gore-Lieberman veep debate would be lots of fun …), let me add one more, namely that if there is any wing of the GOP that does not need shoring up in the event of an Obama-McCain presidential contest, it is the hawkish one. The Republicans are, much for worse than for better, the War Party, and John McCain the War Candidate. Given McCain’s militarism foreign policy experience and Obama’s lack thereof, those who identify with the cause of bombing the hell out of the rest of the world protecting our homeland are going to vote Republican come hell or high water: it’s the rest of the ever-dwindling Republican coalition – the pro-gun, pro-life, anti-tax, anti-immigration folks – that’s threatening to jump ship, and turning to a militaristic “moderate” Democrat whose only claim to “conservatism” is his support for a war that a majority of Americans now favor ending is not, as they say, the thing to do. Then again, I could think of worse things than seeing a supposed centrism defined by nothing more than a commitment to atrocious foreign policy go down in a Mondale-like ball of flames, so perhaps you shouldn’t listen to me.
[...] as his running mate would be McCain’s best shot for victory, I can only quote my snarky past self: … if there is any wing of the GOP that does not need shoring up in the event of an [...]