Who does McCain pick?

[Cali Coug]

He is in a tough spot with his VP choice. McCain has two routes he can follow:

1. Go with his heart (which leads to a pick like Lieberman, Ridge or Giuliani, none of which make any sense politically); or
2. Go with what the political advisors tell him (which leads to a pick like Romney, Hutchinson, or Huckabee).

What will McCain do? Historically, he seems to go with his heart in these kind of situations, but the new McCain is a pansy who appears willing to sell his soul to get the nomination.

Romney makes a lot of sense. He could help with Michigan, maybe gives McCain a bit of a boost in Colorado, helps in Nevada, and shores up Arizona (which should go McCain anyways, but a bigger margin would look nice). On the downside, McCain's not so smart decision to run ads showing Biden's comments about Obama will really come back to bite him if he picks Romney. McCain basically said that Romney was retarded and in no way qualified to be president of the US (which should matter, given McCain's advanced age and the intense pressures of the job). Also, Romney presumably understands economics, which is a plus, but he was a venture capitalist, and VCs make money in large part by tearing companies apart and selling them piece by piece, including to foreign interests- anything to make a profit. That could hurt.

Hutchinson (imo) would be a strong pick, but I think many Republicans would have a hard time voting for a ticket with a woman on it, and people don't know her very well. I don't think McCain picks her.

Ridge gets McCain nothing, other than they are good friends, and loses him the base. It would be a truly disastrous pick.

Lieberman would be amusing to watch. He agrees with McCain on the war, but what happens when he sits down to debate Biden and agrees with almost everything else Biden says? Can McCain really work with that? Are Republicans ok with setting up Lieberman to be the next presumptive president of the US? Do two old guys who have been in DC for a long time send the message or the image that America is looking for right now? The base would revolt, and, in an ironic twist of fate, the pro-lifers would kill someone over it.

Giulian has the same problems as Lieberman and Ridge. Disastrous pick, and showed he can't run much of a campaign at this level. But, he is very close with McCain.

Wildcard: Petraeus and Powell. These two picks would, by far, be the strongest picks McCain could go with, but I don't think either are interested at all, and Powell is reportedly backing Obama. Petraeus is well-known and well-respected by both sides as a military mind, but nobody knows anything about his politics. He could turn out to be awful as a candidate, ala Wesley Clark, and he has cozied up to Bush far more than people might like (he kind of had to, given his position).

I think another part of the problem out there is that many people think McCain is pro-choice (including the female voter McCain trotted out for his press conference who previously voted for Hillary but is now a McCain supporter. Only problem was that she thought McCain was pro-choice, and even noted that he would select only pro-choice justices to the Court. She was corrected by the media and seemed a lot less enthusiastic in her support! Hilarious). McCain has quietly been assuring the evangelicals that he is staunchly pro-life (he is) while trying not to make it a high profile issue (knowing that it would hurt him with many independents he is courting). A pick of someone like Lieberman, Ridge or Giuliani makes abortion once again a front and center issue and forces McCain to discuss it head on, alienating at least some of his support group. He is better off if that issue is kept more quiet, as it would be if he went with the traditional conservative pick for VP.

What are your guesses?