Romney Takes Lead in VP Race

I’m not sure Mike Huckabee could have received worse news than Mitt Romney’s endorsement of John McCain. Not because Huckabee had a chance to get the Republican nomination (that miracle ain’t coming) but because Romney suddenly looks like the man at the top of McCain’s VP list.

Those of us McCain supporters on the more moderate side of things have known all along that the senator’s troubles with the Republican base would almost certainly result in a less-than-centrist VP choice. A lot of us have been thinking McCain would ultimately have to make nice with the social conservative wing and pick a guy like Huckabee. But with the anti-McCain vitriol coming from the conservative punditocracy (who are more big business/law-and-order oriented than they are religious), Romney now seems like the more likely compromise – an outcome made all the more likely by his willingness to play by party tradition and try to end the nomination process in orderly fashion.

McCain could still end up going another direction. They don’t call him a maverick for nothing. But if I were making odds, I’d place Romney at about even for the VP nod. For Romney, it puts him in perfect position to easily secure the nomination next go around. For McCain, it will quicken the healing process and give all those pundits who’ve painted themselves into a corner a sneaky way out. We’ll know soon enough if this is where everything’s headed.