Perdue for Veep?
February 17th, 2008 at 06:01am Mark Noonan
Speculation grows:
One name that’s begun to surface on various media lists making the rounds is Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue. He’s received at least two mentions in the Washington Post and several plugs from the army of pundits that populate the cable news channels.
Could the governor who made fishing tourism the centerpiece of his legislative agenda last year really be a vice presidential contender? Some political experts say it’s not out of the question.
McCain will need to bolster his support among social and religious conservatives, especially in the Bible Belt. As a senator, McCain might want to turn to someone with executive experience, like a governor. And the proven ability to raise large sums of money would be a plus.
On paper, Perdue fits the profile almost perfectly. A Southern governor who led a prayer service for rain on the steps of the state Capitol, Perdue was also at the helm of the Republican Governors’ Association last year as it shattered its previous fundraising record.
His national star rose among Republicans when he coasted to re-election and solidified the GOP hold on Georgia in 2006, a year dominated by Democratic victories elsewhere.
Perdue’s also got a friend who has McCain’s ear. Former Georgia Republican Party Chairman Alec Poitevint is Southern co-chairman of McCain’s campaign.
Seems to have a lot going for him, and he would probably help McCain lock down the South without much effort, thus allowing McCain to try a bit of poaching in the light blue States (Minnesota, Wisconsin, eg). As for me, I have to admit that Perdue has been off my radar - I just don’t know much about him at present to form a solid judgement. But this is not the first mention I’ve heard about Perdue for Veep.
What do you think?
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Republicans
17 Comments
1. plainjane | February 17th, 2008 at 8:24 am
He is a great choice from our perspective. He basically won the governor’s race on one issue; defending the Confederate flag represented in the old Georgia flag. But in one area I am not so sure, he has been raising a lot of taxes, particularly on the Republican’s number one source of lobby income; tobacco.
2. donttasemebro | February 17th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Great choice. He, like Pacman Jones, have the ability to “make it rain.”
3. McLame2008!!! | February 17th, 2008 at 9:40 am
He basically won the governor’s race on one issue; defending the Confederate flag represented in the old Georgia flag.
Yet another lie from our resident bovinian creature.
He, like Pacman Jones, have the ability to “make it rain.”
Should be “has the ability,” unless you’re a product of inner-city schooling. Of course, maybe the taser was set too high…
4. Darva Conger | February 17th, 2008 at 10:19 am
I am sure Dan Quayle is doing nothing right now, how about him running with McCain.
5. plainjane | February 17th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Darva Conger | February 17th, 2008 at 10:19 am
You would think a former “conservative VP” would get more respect from a party that wears their conservatism on their sleeves. Maybe the party is not that conservative after all. Their conservatism could be as Faux as the Faux News they watch.
Rick “Dog Man” Santorum would be a good choice. He isn’t doing anything either.
6. phnx | February 17th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Maybe with sonny they can go with:
“A chicken in every pot”
Ohh that’s already been tried…nevermind
7. McLame2008!!! | February 17th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
phnx, you beat me to the “chicken in every pot” stance.
Darva, I thought you were dead. Just your brain, I see…
8. donttasemebro | February 17th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
McLame2008!!!
I can’t believe I missed that. Don’t blame me. Blame the people who felt the need to tase me whenever I spoke my mind. Moving on, McCain should pick a young, up-and-coming conservative to balance out the ticket. Adding another old guy is just plain stupid. Unfortunately, the general election is mostly about image, not issues. Remember Dukakis and the tank? How about Kerry windsurfing or Bob Dole falling? Two old Republicans have no shot against “CHANGE.”
9. McLame2008!!! | February 17th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Two old Republicans have no shot against “CHANGE.”
I agree; however, what kind of “change” do Hillbama offer? Once they raise our taxes with all this “change,” we won’t have any spare change left. Is that what the kook lemming trolls want?
Probably, since most of them probably don’t have jobs anyway…
10. NeoClown | February 17th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
One hundred more years in Iraq, and
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.
A crazy old coot, and a chicken plucker.
The dream team.
11. Mark Noonan | February 17th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
plain,
Do you know anything? I mean, seriously, do you actually go and look up information or do you just accept whatever leftwing propaganda is spoon fed to you?
Amount of money donated by tobacco interests to the GOP in the 2008 cycle: $1,040,188.
Amount of money donated by legal interests to the Democratic party in the 2008 cycle: $63,484,240.00.
Tobacco is chump chage, plain…and now that I’ve exposed a large chunk of rank ignorance on your part, the logical thing for you to do is to start asking yourself, “hey, perhaps Mark knows even more things I don’t know; maybe I should listen to him and then do some research and then make decisions?”.
12. plainjane | February 17th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
11. Mark Noonan | February 17th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I was just making the point Perdue was raising revenue for the good state of Georgia by increasing taxes on tobacco. I thought Republicans raised revenue by cutting taxes. Not sure what your post was about.
13. StopJohnLiberalMcCain | February 17th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
He is going to pick Maria Shiver from CA. He gets a white woman, a Dem, a Kennedy and Arnuld all in one fell swoop.
14. majoriot | February 18th, 2008 at 11:25 am
“A Southern governor who led a prayer service for rain on the steps of the state Capitol”
Now that’s old school.
Was he selling elixers and tonics out of a covered wagon too?
15. Rana Quijotesca | February 18th, 2008 at 11:52 am
As a resident of Georgia under Purdue… I can honestly say that the man is pretty much useless… Hell having a prayer for rain instead of actually formulating sound policy when it comes to water supply, especially when Church/State separation is written explicitly into the Georgia Constitution, is just the hallmark of a moron… Then again, it might be good for Dems if he were on the ticket…
16. Christopher Estep | February 19th, 2008 at 9:04 am
As another resident of Georgia under Perdue, I have to disagree with Rana completely.
Perdue having a prayer for rain is certainly no violation of the separation of C&S because he wasn’t mandating a prayer, and he wasn’t posing that as “the solution”. Can you possibly sound more liberal? An executive of government is certainly allowed to have AND EXPRESS his faith (he’s a member of Woodstock First Baptist which is near Marietta). The C&S argument is called the ESTABLISHMENT clause, and Perdue did nothing that affected the establishment of religion or established a state religion. I think it showed great leadership for him to do that, the same way I think it would have shown leadership for Gov. Carter to do that had he been in the same position when he ran Georgia.
Rana also apparently doesn’t really follow the news much either because Governor Perdue has been trying to get something done about the water situation for a long time, but what Rana doesn’t understand apparently is that it is a FEDERAL ISSUE since by federal law, all “navigable waters” fall under the jurisdiction of the Army Corps of Engineers. What does this mean to Georgia? It means that Perdue has been fighting (in court and directly) with the governors of AL and FL over water from Lake Lanier, upon which all 3 states depend.
As for Veep, Perdue came first to my mind and I think he would make an excellent choice. He’s conservative and he’s more qualified to be President than Jimmy Carter was (he was a single term governor). Perdue could definitely make the McCain campaign relax a little about the South because I think that’s where Obama will be strongest outside of his base.
Perdue is tough but friendly, speaks with a southern accent (which actually helps down here as a subconscious “one of us” comfort thing) and has no skeletons in his closet.
Perdue has a couple of other positives. Since this isn’t a gubernatorial election year in Georgia, accepting a Veep candidacy isn’t a career decision. If he loses, he’s still governor in 2009 and 2010 anyway. But the other positive is that if he wins, he can feel safe vacating his state office because there is a popular Lt. Governor who is also a conservative republican to take his place named Casey Cagle, another southern rising star and probably GA’s next governor anyway.
They could do a lot worse than nominating Sonny Perdue.
17. Rana Quijotesca | February 19th, 2008 at 9:49 am
2 links and my comment is caught in moderation limbo??
I’ll restate is so my comment isn’t lost in cyberspace…
Article I, Section II, Paragraph VII of the Georgia State constitution states that: No money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect, cult, or religious denomination or of any sectarian institution.
Governor Purdue had a minister give a sermon on the capital steps, with the taxpayers paying for the sound tech, management, security, and promotion of the event. That constitutes an indirect monetary contribution from the public treasury to a church (Northside United Methodist, by having their preacher deliver a sermon), sect (Christian, Methodist), religious denomination (Christian, Methodist), and sectarian institution (Christianity, Northside United Methodist) and was therefore a violation of Article I, Section II, Paragraph VII of the Georgia State Constitution.
Then I wrote this:
Also, there has been a long line of failures in water management in Georgia State Government. Geologists have been saying since the early ’90s that there was going to be a problem, and none of the sitting Governors did anything. Purdue had since he assumed office in 2003, and he failed to do anything remotely meaningful in the way of water conservation… Did he pressure municipal water authorities to raise prices and reduce consumption? No. Did he issue any meaningful mandates? No. Did he do much at all to address the issue before it got out of hand? No. There is lots that the Governor of Georgia can do promote water management, and Sonny failed miserably.
So… who failed the people of Georgia? Sonny Did… (funny story… I actually know the guy who came up with the campaign slogan I just spoofed)
… I neverbefore met a blog that actually punished people for linking their sources…