Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour yesterday said that he is too conservative to be John McCain's running mate but that the Arizona senator's maverick reputation will help him in an election in which moderates and independents will be more important than in recent years.
Mr. Barbour also urged Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, not to name his pick for vice president until after the Democrats' convention, when he can draw the sharpest distinction between the parties.
Mr. McCain will depend on "persuasion" to snare independents and disgruntled Democrats on Nov. 4, unlike George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections when victory depended on maximizing the turnout of each party's hard-core partisans, said Mr. Barbour, a former Republican National Committee chairman.
"I am a lot more conservative than John McCain," Mr. Barbour told The Washington Times at a luncheon meeting with the newspaper's editors and reporters. "It may help him that he is not as conservative as I am."
More Democrats than before are going to be unhappy with their party's nominee, whether it's current Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton loyalists. Such Democrats may be ripe for the picking by Mr. McCain, a maverick Republican admired by many Democrats and independents for his own occasional and unpredictable independence. But Republicans are also poised for defections.
The Washington Times also provides four videos of the interview:
TWT Video: Barbour on being a potential running mate for McCain
TWT Video: Barbour: Why McCain is a strong candidate
TWT Video: Barbour on race in the 2008 presidential campaign
TWT Video: Barbour compares Bush to Truman
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