Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney should stay away from a controversial vice presidential selection, says former New Hampshire GOP Sen. John E. Sununu, son of former New Hampshire GOP Gov. John H. Sununu, who’s one of Romney’s chief surrogates in the campaign.
“For all of the discussion about playing to key states, adding foreign policy experience, or balancing a ticket’s ideology [in choosing a vice presidential candidate], the stark truth is that none of it really matters,” Sununu the younger writes in
The Boston Globe. “In the end, there is only one imperative: don’t blow it.”
A great vice presidential pick can provide “very modest upside potential,” Sununu says. But that “can be quickly and effortlessly offset by a choice that becomes a distraction. Distractions are the result of the unexpected, and the unexpected occurs when candidates have been poorly vetted.”
He argues that Sen. John McCain’s choice of ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008 was a mistake. “It didn’t take long for the press to find comments from Sarah Palin supporting the infamous ‘bridge to nowhere’ before she endorsed John McCain’s crusade against it,” Sununu writes. “Good campaigns will identify conflicting positions early and avoid the embarrassment of being unprepared.”
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