From Kos, Cheney was Bush's second choice

[cjbuchanan]

From: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/7/7/135359/0216


Much as the Republicans are chortling about Edwards being Kerry's "second choice", suggesting that McCain was their first, the same can be said about the current vice president.

From the March 18th edition of CBS' The Early Show:
Look, I don't want to be Vice President of the United States, I do not want to leave the Republican party, I would not be Vice President of the United States on either ticket. I told President Bush when he asked me in 2000 if, when he asked me if I was interested, I said I was not interested.


McCain said much of the same thing on NBC's Today show as well that very same day (3/18), but I can't find a link to the transcript.


I'm not running for vice president. President Bush in 2000 asked me if I was interested in being vice president. I said no then. I'm not interested in being vice president now.

So there you have it. Cheney was Bush's "second choice".

---

So I guess their new commercial is all about Bush and Cheney.

[boobooday]

1. Does that mean he was his own second choice?

And can you believe they thought McCain would sign up after what they did to him in the primaries?

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[Bombtrack]

2. look for an old novak article

"Bush's LBJ" it was called I believe

[teach1st]

3. This it?

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn000612.shtml

June 12, 2000

GEORGE W'S LBJ

WASHINGTON -- At a private breakfast with prominent House Republicans May 17, John McCain was asked whether he might reconsider his refusal to even entertain becoming George W. Bush's running mate. His answer would have made front-page news across the nation had this been a public gathering. Sen. McCain began by reiterating his complete lack of interest in the vice presidency. The assembled lawmakers settled back to hear a familiar plaint, but soon were brought up sharply by what was actually said. "However," said McCain, "if the demographics show that in order to win the election and keep control of Congress, I would need to be on the ticket, then I would do it."

That puts the ball in Gov. Bush's court. He can take at face value McCain's unequivocal "no" delivered at their Pittsburgh summit meeting May 9 and never raise the vice-presidential issue again. Or, he could approach the senator, tell him he is needed and wanted, and ask him to go on the ticket. Bush can emulate Gerald Ford's course in 1976 when he made no effort to convince Ronald Reagan to be his vice president -- and lost the election. Or, he could copy John F. Kennedy's daring decision in 1960 when he reached out to Lyndon B. Johnson -- and won the election.

The JFK-LBJ analogy was raised by the congressman who asked the question about the vice presidency on May 17. Rep. Steve Horn, the former president of Long Beach (Calif.) State University, is serving only his fourth term in Congress but is an old political hand whose experience dates back to service in the Eisenhower administration. He noted that Kennedy in '60 made an excellent decision in asking Johnson, who in turn made an excellent decision in accepting his offer.

It is significant that Horn is a Californian. Since the Republican debacle there in the 1998 elections, the state's congressional delegation has been staring into the political abyss. Democratic victory this year could cost not only the presidency but control of the House for the next decade. Nowhere is sentiment for a Bush-McCain ticket stronger than in California, where Republican politicians see McCain as their savior.

More

[Bombtrack]

8. Yeah

[Arbustosux]

4. I was thinking Gordon Gecko was his first choice

but he was unavailable, so he went with Mr. Pottymouth

[TexasSissy]

5. Someone needs to e-mail this to Kerry camp, so they can find the

video and maybe use it, if they want.

[Poiuyt]

6. Don't forget:

Bush was America's second choice for president

[TexasSissy]

7. So he was asked by Bush. But was NOT asked by Kerry?

Very interesting. Kerry's camp has said they discussed having McCain on the ticket because of Kerry's passion to be a uniter, maybe to have a united ticket. But no one ever asked McCain about it. The idea was tabled.

But McCain says in your quote that Bush actually asked him? That's cool.