mbruno wrote:
>
> It may be a stretch, but how many posters here think the upcoming
> Obama x McCain race for the White House resembles the fictional Santos
> x Vinick match-up in the series "The West Wing" ?
>
> The similarities: McCain, like Vinick, is a moderate elder statesman
> and veteran senator with great expertise in foreign policy and broad
> appeal to independents, who wins the nomination despite opposition
> from the conservative wing of the Republican party. Obama, like
> Santos, is a young and charismatic minority candidate with little
> foreign policy experience and little previous national exposure who
> starts the primary season as an underdog and ultimately beats the
> early favorites (Russel and Hoynes in TWW; Hillary in the real world)
> to become the Democratic nominee.
Well, I think the major problem with your theory is that as near as I
can tell, Obama hasn't won yet. But you make a pretty fair point. And
both McCain and Obama have reasonably good reputations for personal
integrity, although of course it would be difficult for them to measure
up to the idealized fictional characters.
> What's next: Will McCain pick up a conservative running mate (Huckabee
> perhaps ?) to boost his support among evangelicals as Vinick tried to
> do by offering the VP slot to Don Butler and then to Ray Sullivan ?
I think it's a virtual certainty. Huckabee seems like the likely
choice--he's popular with conservatives but shows signs of crossover
appeal, and his youth and vitality would help offset the perception of
McCain as old. But if it isn't Huckabee, it will be another
conservative.
As long as we're making predictions, I'm going to guess Evan Bayh for
the #2 spot on the Democratic side if Hillary is the nominee, and Joseph
Biden if it's Obama (for similar reasons to why Santos picked Leo). Bill
Richardson might have a chance with either.
> Will the Democrats be unable to nominate a candidate before the
> convention with Hillary and Obama splitting the delegates the way
> Russel and Santos did in TWW ?
What happened to Obama's victory? B^) I don't see it happening,
though--it really takes three active players to make that happen. Part
of why there are superdelegates is to prevent such problems. If its
really close, whoever is in second place may be able to extract
concessions for stepping aside, but I can't see how a third candidate
could be considered.
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