Strategic planning process needed in picking GOP vice president
DAN MEYER Political Columnist
Political junkies from both sides of the aisle who are closely following the Clinton versus Obama race for the Democratic presidential nomination will likely be spending some time in the near future pondering who will serve as the vice presidential candidates for both parties.

While it's unknown whether Hillary or Barack will be the Democratic hopeful for the highest office in the land, Republican strategists are listing the qualifications they want in who will be running on the GOP ticket with John McCain.

Chatter in many Republican circles is carrying the theory that the people calling the shots for the GOP want someone who can be groomed as Mc- Cain's successor as part of a long-range plan to keep control of the White House if McCain is successful in November. Someone who is significantly younger and has more conservative viewpoints is probably the best bet to run alongside McCain.

The name-dropping has already begun. Among the more notable potential VP candidates being mentioned are Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney, two of McCain's former primary rivals. Other names include Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.

Personally, the first three names mentioned in the previous paragraph just don't make sense to me. Thompson ran a pretty uninspired campaign, and I just think McCain and Romney's well-documented spats would not be forgotten, no matter how hard both men could try to mend a rocky personal relationship.

Rice would provide great balance for McCain in terms of her race and gender, but she has continuously said she doesn't want to run, and her still-fuzzy stance on such key issues as abortion rights would hurt the GOP ticket when it gets to crunch time in the weeks leading up to the election.

Hutchison appears to have a similar approach to service as an elected official, but the fact that she will turn 65 this summer probably forces her name to be crossed off the list since there's no age balance with McCain.

Sanford and Barbour, relatively unknown to the general voting public outside their home states, provide a certain appeal for those who believe one of McCain's downfalls is the hostility he has conveyed to religious conservatives.

The one sticking point I can see with Sanford is his decision last year to turn down the requests of a contingent of conservatives to run for president, causing some party leaders to frown upon his outright "no thank you" response to their initial inquiries.

Barbour's biggest problem is his previous work as a lobbyist and chairman of the Republican National Committee, two positions that provided him experience that would likely be viewed by many as a sort of undermining of McCain's plans to challenge the status quo in Washington.

Here are a couple of more names to scribble down in the margins of your notebook as possible VP material: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Crist has sky-high approval ratings in the Sunshine State, while Pawlenty provides the desirable "fresh face" who is relatively young at age 47. Offering that type of balance to McCain for both age and experience could be major factors that would play in the party's favor when talking about campaigning for electoral votes in swing states such as Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Who is Palin? She's my dark horse for the race, although certain media outlets are starting to tout her as the quiet frontrunner to serve as McCain's running mate.

The first female governor of Alaska, the mother of four is a National Rifle Association member and an active outdoorswoman. A marathon runner, she once served as the chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Substantially younger than McCain, she is pro-life, against gay marriage, favors capital punishment and supports the right to bear arms. Her stance on family values could sway conservative voters, which might be just what McCain is looking for.

(Daniel Meyer is a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York. Comments on this column can be sent via e-mail to: meyersmusings@gmail.com. Opinions expressed here are those of the author.)