Recomendados del Club for Growth

Pat Toomey, presidente del Club for Growth, gran referente del sector económico del movimiento conservador, que ha tenido numerosos encontronazos con John McCain en los últimos tiempos, se permite hacerle hoy al Senador cinco recomendaciones para completar el ticket republicano con el candidato a la Vicepresidencia. El primero de la lista, una vez más, vuelve a ser el Gobernador Mark Sanford, de Carolina del Sur. Los otros nombres incluídos son los del Senador Jim DeMint, de Carolina del Sur; el Congresista Mike Pence, de Indiana; el ex Senador Phil Gramm, de Texas; y el multimillonario Steve Forbes. Esta última opción no muy realista. Por descontado, vetan a Huckabee.

McCain's Veep Options

(...) While congratulations are still premature, with Mitt Romney dropping out of the race yesterday it is now very likely that the Republican Party will nominate Sen. John McCain for president. If that happens, the GOP will, for the first time since 1976, select a candidate at odds with a large portion of its conservative members to be the standard bearer. At the same time, the party is more estranged from independent swing voters than it has been for decades.

This will pose a twin challenge for Mr. McCain. To meet it, he will have to become the champion of the brand of economic conservatism that has won national elections for Republicans since 1980.

The Republican Party spent decades building its brand as the party of small government, free enterprise and fiscal discipline. That brand put Ronald Reagan in the White House in 1980 and gave Republicans control of Congress in 1994. When it became clear two years ago that Republicans had abandoned those principles, voters swept them from power.

The path back requires re-establishing the GOP as a party of limited government and economic freedom. This is essential to Mr. McCain's political future, the fortune of his party, and the economic well-being of the nation. And the first big indication that he intends to bring back the party of Reagan will be who Mr. McCain taps as his running mate. (...)