A Deal?

Mitt Romney bowed out of the presidential race with a great deal of class, giving what most people feel was the best speech of his political life.

This has led a number of people to wonder why. After all McCain had less than half the delegates he would need for the nomination and the primaries in states in which Huckabee could win were all behind them. It would have been very difficult for Romney to have won enough of the upcoming primaries to capture the nomination but he could have continued to provide conservatives with an alternative to McCain and made sure that he went into the convention without ever having received a majority of votes from self-described conservative voters.

Given the degree of hostility between the McCain and Romney campaigns this was an entirely reasonable scenario.

But instead Romney pulls out of the race and praises McCain on the area in which McCain intends to hang his campaign, national security and the war in Iraq.

This had led to a great deal of speculation about what may have been going on behind the scenes and one theory which is emerging is this. A deal was supposedly brokered by the bigwigs at the RNC between McCain and Romney. The terms of the deal are said to be that McCain will serve one term and decline to seek reelection (because of age and health). McCain's vice president will not seek the presidency and the Republican establishment will back Romney making him the most likely nominee in 2012.

I have to admit that this makes a great deal of sense. The Republican party has a better chance of winning in November with a united party and Romney pays his dues by "taking one for the team", thus earning the trust of the Republican establishment. Altogether a win-win for McCain, who is too old to run again, and Romney, who is young enough to come back in four or eight years.

The one thing the deal hinges upon is McCain picking a running mate who can be depended upon not to seek the presidency himself. This lets out Huckabee who is an incredibly stupid and piggish little thug who actually thinks he can be president one day. In fact it excludes nearly everyone who is on the young side who isn't a nonentity and a nonentity brings nothing to the ticket that helps McCain win.

One name suggests itself to me and that is Fred Thompson. Thompson is far more of a real conservative than McCain and so might reassure conservatives. Thompson's performance at the South Carolina debate proves that he can handle himself well in a debate and that he can fill the vice presidential candidate's traditional campaign role of attack dog. And perhaps most important Thompson and McCain are friends.

Thompson's endorsement of McCain may signal that the deal has been finalized and at the appropriate time the announcement will be made.

Is any of this true? I have no idea but it is an interesting theory.

Even so I'm still not voting for McCain.