McCain Veepstakes speculation begins
Posted: Friday, February 08, 2008 1:01 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum
Although McCain will not admit he is the Republican nominee, he did answer a question on how he would pick his vice president -- telling reporters in Norfolk, Va., that where a potential vice presidential candidate lives would not impact his decision.
"The process will begin and the fundamental principle behind any selection of a running mate would be whether that person is fully prepared to take over and share your values, your principles, your philosophy, and your priorities," McCain said, explaining how he would pick a vice president. "I think that's the first and only real criteria for the selection of a running mate."
"And by the way, from a practical standpoint, I think that former President Clinton and former Vice President Gore showed that you don't have to be regionally different," McCain continued. "I think that America is such now, that the quote, regional differences, don't play the role that maybe they did in earlier times."
McCain stressed he is not thinking about that decision now and reminded reporters that Huckabee is still in the race. "I don't want in any way to discount the candidacy of Governor Huckabee. He's in this race and for me to dismiss him, I think would be inappropriate and would be inappropriate and unrealistic."
The Arizona senator also said although he doesn't know if we'll know the Republican nominee earlier than the Democratic one, he would rather the process not be drawn out.
"If there's a contested race, if it continues to be contested on the Democratic side, then there's more attention to the candidates, there's more current media on their part," he said. "I don't know how this thing plays out but from my personal standpoint, the earlier the better."
