For McCain, ex-rival may be just the ticket
- added July 18, 2008
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It was not so long ago that the idea that John McCain would even entertain tapping Mitt Romney, his bitterest primary rival, as running mate would have seemed preposterous.
The McCain-Romney feud was the juiciest of the Republican presidential primary season, featuring two men who generally just did not seem to like each other.
Romney said McCain would set a "liberal Democrat course as president." He said one of McCain's proudest accomplishments, his campaign finance bill, took "a whack at the First Amendment" and told voters grappling with money woes that McCain "has said time and again that he doesn't understand the economy."
McCain, for his part, witheringly cast Romney as a flip-flopper.
But that was then.
These days Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is serving as a wingman extraordinaire for McCain.
He is ubiquitous on U.S. cable television, where he talked up McCain's economic proposals on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC on Wednesday alone. He has dutifully raised money for McCain. And Romney has developed a reputation as a campaign surrogate who can talk fluently about the economy and who has roots in Michigan, an important swing state where his father was governor.
Now Romney is attracting perhaps more buzz than anyone else as a potential running mate for the man he once derided.
And if the initial rapprochement between the two seemed a tad forced after Romney pulled out of the race last winter, something approaching warmth now seems to be entering their relationship. At a fund-raiser in New Mexico in the past week, McCain even aimed a gentle jibe at Romney - raising eyebrows among veteran McCain watchers, who know that his irreverent teasing and sarcasm are often his way of showing affection.
The McCain-Romney feud was the juiciest of the Republican presidential primary season, featuring two men who generally just did not seem to like each other.
Romney said McCain would set a "liberal Democrat course as president." He said one of McCain's proudest accomplishments, his campaign finance bill, took "a whack at the First Amendment" and told voters grappling with money woes that McCain "has said time and again that he doesn't understand the economy."
McCain, for his part, witheringly cast Romney as a flip-flopper.
But that was then.
These days Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is serving as a wingman extraordinaire for McCain.
He is ubiquitous on U.S. cable television, where he talked up McCain's economic proposals on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC on Wednesday alone. He has dutifully raised money for McCain. And Romney has developed a reputation as a campaign surrogate who can talk fluently about the economy and who has roots in Michigan, an important swing state where his father was governor.
Now Romney is attracting perhaps more buzz than anyone else as a potential running mate for the man he once derided.
And if the initial rapprochement between the two seemed a tad forced after Romney pulled out of the race last winter, something approaching warmth now seems to be entering their relationship. At a fund-raiser in New Mexico in the past week, McCain even aimed a gentle jibe at Romney - raising eyebrows among veteran McCain watchers, who know that his irreverent teasing and sarcasm are often his way of showing affection.
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