Sanford not a good choice for McCain

Vice President Mark Sanford?

Sounds far-fetched in these parts.

Yet in the realm of national political punditry, our governor is high on short lists of running mates for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain (see George Will's next-door column).

Or is the presumption of McCain's nomination premature? Thursday's New York Times reported that during McCain's unsuccessful 2000 White House bid, "top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself" due to their concerns about his "relationship" with a female lobbyist.

But that front-page story was heavy on unnamed sources and innuendo, light on named sources and specific charges. McCain's forceful denial of its scurrilous implications seemed to blunt any menace it posed to his nomination — at this point. In a delicious twist, the Times' weak cheap shot even rallied many conservatives who previously had scorned McCain to his defense, negating their riled reaction to the paper's endorsement of him last month.

Back to these parts: A McCain-Sanford tandem would make our governor, though born in Florida, the first South Carolinian on a major-party ticket in 176 years.

John C. Calhoun was VP under President John Quincy Adams from 1825-29 and President Andrew Jackson from 1829-32, the latter stint featuring native South Carolinians in both the presidency and vice presidency. But Calhoun became the first VP to resign (Spiro Agnew's the only other one) after "Old Hickory" ended our state's defiant blustering against federal tariffs with a force threat that ended the nullification crisis.

Forward to 1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt almost picked Charleston-born James F. Byrnes as a running mate before choosing Henry Wallace. Four years later, FDR almost picked Byrnes again before choosing Harry Truman. Both times, Byrnes' chances were hurt by the Southern taint of Jim Crow and his switch, early in adulthood, from the Catholic to the Episcopal church. At least FDR, in 1941, put Byrnes on the U.S. Supreme Court, from which he resigned the next year to become a veritable "assistant president."

Forward to 2008: Will Sanford resign the governorship while running for VP?

A named source in the governor's office, spokesman Joel Sawyer, answered Thursday: "He's not going for vice president, so it's an irrelevant question."

Gee, everybody's a critic.

But would Sanford turn McCain down?

Sawyer: "He hasn't given it a moment's thought."

Will Sawyer join Sanford on the national campaign trail?

Sawyer: "Seriously, he finds this very flattering, but it's just not something that's on his radar screen. He's focused on the job at hand and his four young sons."

And if McCain's focused on his best White House shot, he won't pick Sanford.

This South Carolinian has eagerly voted for Sanford at every opportunity. His big-picture vision, libertarian instincts and political courage in sticking to his fiscally conservative guns during six years in Congress and more than five years as governor are extraordinary. His nerve in taking a pair of piglets — Pork and Barrel — to the Statehouse produced a grand 2004 spectacle by sticking it to the General Assembly for its free-spending ways.

Too bad the General Assembly, which generally gets its way, has been sticking it to Sanford on nearly all of his major proposals, including income-tax reform and restructuring of state government. His governorship — at this point — looks like a lame-duck enterprise with nearly three years left.

Much of the rut Sanford's in has been dug by our state's strong-legislature, weak-governor format, much by haughty lawmakers' reluctance to meet him halfway.

But his tendency to dig in his own heels also hinders him. Commitment to principle is admirable. Refusal to compromise in the absence of any practical alternative is futile.

Last year, Sanford rejected something (a public school choice plan) that would have been far better than nothing (we got no choice plan at all, thanks to his veto over the bill's lack of a private-school element).

McCain's VP choice should bring a) an impressive executive resume, or b) more electoral votes than he already has clinched.

Sanford would bring neither.

OK, so the GOP VP pickings appear too slim to yield the optimal answer of c): both a) and b).

OK, so political times have changed since JFK picked LBJ in 1960 to pick up Texas. Running mates increasingly come from non-swing states — New York's Jack Kemp (1996) and North Carolina's John Edwards (2004) in the can't-win category; Indiana's Dan Quayle (1988, 1992), Connecticut's Joe Lieberman (2000) and Wyoming's Dick Cheney (2000, 2004) in the can't-lose group.

Still, McCain can do better than Sanford.

And Sanford can do better than playing second fiddle to McCain — if he can find a way to stop playing second fiddle to the General Assembly.

Frank Wooten is associate editor of The Post and Courier. His e-mail is wooten@postandcourier.com.