Keystone once again
When you look at who is being considered by Barack Obama and John McCain as their vice presidential running mates, the importance of Pennsylvania to each becomes clear.
McCain, the Republican, is said to have former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge high on his list. Some rapturous Republicans here think that would give McCain an easy victory in Pennsylvania. I'm not so sure. McCain will get a lot of those votes no matter who he picks, and the Republicans haven't done that well in statewide elections of late. McCain might be betting that Ridge can make him palatable to white Democrats who are reluctant to vote for Obama because of his race.
Ridge carries liabilities here as well, including his consorting with Enron during the push to electric competition in 1996. The records of that are locked away for 25 years under the state's idiotic records laws. Don't count on the Repubican-controlled Senate to allow any consideration of a bill to open Ridge's gubernatorial papers to public inspection. Nationally, Ridge was the first Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, a millstone around anyone's neck. Expect a lot of document searches there under the much-stronger federal Freedom of Information Act to ferret out any dirt from that, especially as relates to the run-up to Hurricane Katrina and the FEMA cesspool.
And of course, there is the whole issue of Ridge being pro-choice and thus supposedly unacceptable to the religious right that forms the base of the Republican Party nationally. I suspect that if Ridge gets the nomination, the right would come to tolerate him. He was never a table pounder for abortion rights, seeming moderate only in contrast to the ban-abortion crowd.
On the Democratic side, Obama has two potential choices with strong Pennsylvania backgrounds. Hillary Clinton's father, Hugh Rodham, was born and raised in Scranton, and the family had a cottage on Lake Winola in the Poconos. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, who is in the running mainly for his foreign policy background, was also born in Scranton and lived there until age 10, when the family moved to Delaware. He is an Irish Catholic--his mother was a Finnegan. Both Clinton and Biden would help Obama win votes outside of the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh regions, especially in the Anthracite Region around Scranton.
And of course, Obama could ensure that Pennsylvania's electoral votes end up in his column by selecting Gov. Ed Rendell, who remains popular across the state even if deeply annoying to Democratic liberals who consider him a (DINO) Democrat In Name Only. Rendell has disclaimd any interest, in part because of the Catherine problem. The elderly Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll would become governor if Rendell becomes vice president, and she just isn't up to the demands of the job.
So Pennsylvania appears likely to be fought over in 2008 even more than it was in 2004 or 2000. That doesn't guarantee we'll get a vice presidential candidate on either ticket with state ties. Winning national elections CAN be done without Pennsylvania, even if we relish thinking of ourselves as the keystone to victory.
Update: I think we can scratch Ed Rendell off the list, if he was ever on it. Rendell just named a new Secretary of Environmental Protection, John Hanger. I doubt Hanger would have agreed to take the job without some assurance that Rendell wasn't going to resign in the next couple of months.