Campaign dots don’t connect

Last week in North Carolina, John McCain sent a message to conservatives fearful that he’s not their kind of guy. In filling vacancies on the Supreme Court, he said, he would “look for accomplished men and women with a proven record of excellence in the law, and a proven commitment to judicial restraint.” He cited George W. Bush appointees John R. Roberts and Samuel Alito as models.

This week, he was in the Northwest, distancing himself from Bush on climate change. For sure, McCain is no head-in-the-sand denier on the issue. He looks at side-by-side photos of the same North American glaciers taken 75 years ago and today and says, sure enough, that ice is melting.

“I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges,” he said in Portland, essentially blaming the Cheney-Bush administration for sitting on its hands.

But connecting the North Carolina and Northwest dots is a stretch. Earthjustice.org, which had not opposed any president’s Supreme Court nominee since 1987, not even Roberts, opposed Alito.

"Judge Alito,” it says, “has repeatedly sought to go even further than the current (court) majority in restricting Congress’ authority to allow Americans to protect their rights in court, and to enact laws that protect our health and environment.”

VP possibilities: 1½ predictions

Prediction: John McCain will tap former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as  vice presidential nominee. That would help appease party conservatives and could put New England states into the Republican column.

Half-prediction: Barack Obama will not pick Hillary Clinton, unless polling convinces him that her blue-collar supporters would defect to McCain in substantial numbers. But if he thinks they’d vote for him, look for a white male with plenty of experience who comes from a region or large state that would otherwise go to McCain, such as Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (a Clinton backer who says he’s not interested); Gov. Tim Kaine or former Gov. Mark Warner, of Virginia; former Florida Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham; former Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia.

Then there were six

Vancouver’s Ed Cote is one of only six Democratic superdelegates from the state who are still undeclared. All 17 of them will help pick the party nominee. With Obama’s endorsement Thursday by U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott of Seattle, six, including Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, support Obama and five back Clinton.

Cote is not wavering in his plans to wait until after the primaries before announcing a preference, but he continues to be courted by both sides. Bill Clinton called him recently, although they didn’t connect, and Chris Gregoire called to tout Obama. “The governor and I had a nice chat,” he said.

Cote expects “there’ll be some sort of natural evolution” that will make his pick a no-brainer, but he doesn’t elaborate.

Apologies to the Paul people

I’m sorry that my April 25 column about “weird” things happening at the county Republican convention left the impression with some readers that I thought Ron Paul or his supporters are weird. For my money, the libertarian Texas congressman was the most straight-talking presidential candidate in either party this year. For example, from his book, “The Revolution: A Manifesto”:

“Every four years we are treated to the same tired, predictable routine: two candidates with few disagreements on fundamentals pretend that they represent dramatically different philosophies of government. The supposedly conservative candidate tells us about ‘waste’ and ticks off $10 million in frivolous pork-barrel projects that outrage him — the inevitable bridge-to-nowhere project, or a study of the effects of celery consumption on arresting memory loss.

“All right, so that’s 0.00045 percent of the federal budget dealt with; what does he propose to do with the other 99.99955 percent, in order to return our country to living within its means? Not a word.”

GREGG HERRINGTON’s column of
personal opinion appears on the Other Opinions page each Friday. Reach him at gregg.herrington@columbian.com.