Pawlenty for Vice President

Sir:

In 2004 President Bush received 284 electoral votes, fourteen more than needed to secure the Presidency. Bush won Ohio by less than 119 thousand votes, so a swing of less than 80 thousand votes would have meant a Kerry presidency. Meanwhile, in the last three years, Ohio’s economy has floundered, protectionist ideals are on the rise, and the state appears to be increasingly difficult for the Republicans to hold onto. Assuming John McCain loses Ohio, he needs to pick up six electoral votes that Bush lost. McCain’s best shot to pick up these votes may be Minnesota. This is why John McCain should choose Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty as his Vice Presidential nominee.

Bush lost Minnesota (10 electoral votes) by less than 99,000 votes in 2004. Minnesota has been trending Republican over the past few years, as exemplified by Senator Norm Coleman beating Walter Mondale for the US Senate in 2002. Furthermore, the NRC is holding the Republican National Convention is St. Paul this year. With the boost from the convention plus the Governor of Minnesota as the VP nominee, I think the John McCain has a great shot of winning Minnesota, and thus the presidency. Not only does Governor Pawlenty help John McCain at the polls, but he would also bring economic expertise to the administration. Senator McCain is great on foreign policy and terrorism, but he freely admits that he has a lot of learning to do on economic policy. Pawlenty entered the Governors Mansion in 2002 with a $4.5 billion deficit in Minnesota, and he balanced the budget by 2005 without raising taxes. Pawlenty firmly believes that government spending tends to be wasteful and he supports reducing the size of government. While not a right-wing ideologue, Pawlenty will be able to garner support from the Republican base that is still wary of McCain.

President Bush was taking a big risk when he chose a resident of Wyoming as his Vice President who did not help at the polls. With so much at stake in the election, Senator McCain must take electability into account when choosing his running mate. Fortunately, he has the opportunity to do this without sacrificing picking someone who would make a great Vice President. For these reasons, Pawlenty is the most obvious choice.

Sincerely,