Why # 2 Matters

Back during the primaries, the McCain Campaign floated a trial balloon about John McCain only serving one term as President. So it was only a matter of time before that idea resurfaced as it did this weekend:

John McCain's White House campaign manager refused to be pinned down Sunday on whether the 71-year-old Republican might commit to serve only one term as president if he is elected in November.

Rick Davis, interviewed on Fox News Sunday, was asked if the Arizona senator might pledge at next month's Republican convention to serve a single term and decline to run for re-election in four years' time.

"You're going to have to come to the Republican convention to find out what's going to happen there," Davis said ahead of the September 1-4 gathering in Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota.

Asked if he was ruling out the idea or not, the campaign manager said: "I'm not talking about it at all."

Obviously, Davis' refusal to talk about it means, at the very least, they have considered it in the past. Perhaps the campaign's refusal to go into details it to maintain an element of strategy and surprise, but still the idea has obviously been discussed within the campaign braintrust.

But if Senator McCain is going to do this, he is going to have to do what is right for the country and for the party, not just what is right for the election. Clearly, moreso than even the usual situation for a running mate, McCain's selection will clearly be the frontrunner in 2012. It means that McCain's selection of a running mate needs to be a conservative that we can trust to govern, and not just the right guy who happens to be from a swing state.

If Senator McCain is to only serve one term as President, he needs to select somebody in the mold of a Jindal, Palin, or Cantor moreso than the mold of a Crist or Pawlenty. If he is going to make such a bold announcement, he needs to make the right choice to serve as Vice-President. He owes that to the people who support him.