McCain ruminates about running mates

Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has clinched the GOP race for president, said today that he has begun thinking about possible vice presidential running mates.

McCain told reporters on his campaign plane that he and his advisors have started to study the selection process of earlier campaigns. Without mentioning Vice President Dick Cheney, who headed George Bush’s selection committee before winning the job himself, McCain quipped that he was starting to put together a search team to vet the candidates and had “at least 100 volunteers to lead” the process.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, on Fox’s “Hannity and Colmes,” said Tuesday night that “any Republican leader in this country would be honored to be asked to serve as the vice presidential nominee, myself included.”

On the campaign bus, a reporter asked McCain if he would consider Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-Independent and a McCain backer who was sitting beside him.

“No,” Lieberman said quickly, sparking a laugh. McCain then praised his longtime friend and colleague, but said he has just begun the process.

Asked to respond to Romney’s comment, McCain said only that the main mission is finding someone “who can take your place, shares your principles, your values and your vision and your priorities.”

Later, at a town hall in Exeter, N.H., the state that revived his candidacy, a voter also asked McCain for his thoughts on the vice presidency.

“The vice president has two duties,” McCain said. One is to cast the deciding vote in the event of a tie vote in the Senate. The other, he said, is to “inquire daily as to the health of the president, especially true in my case.”

The 71-year-old McCain added that any president has to prioritize his agenda, and that he is looking for a vice president who shares his sense of the administration’s key priorities. McCain said he thinks the first priority of any White House is to secure the homeland against radical Islamic extremism. Noting that public confidence in Congress is now so low that its members are supported only by “blood relatives and paid staffers,” McCain said he also hopes to restore public trust in public officials.

In a brief news conference after his town hall meeting, McCain repeatedly declined to say if he will consider Romney, his former rival for the Republican nomination, as a running mate.

“I can’t rule anyone in or out because we have just begun the process,” he said.

Asked if Romney was on a short list, McCain replied that he and his advisors “haven’t made a list yet.”

johanna.neuman@latimes.com