July 18, 2012 01:58 AM UTC

John McCain's Damning Faint Praise

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• by: Colorado Pols

One of the many sidebars to the recent story of Mitt Romney’s ties to Bain Capital, and the dubious uncertainty over when exactly Romney left Bain (thus deserving, or not, a pass for Bain’s layoffs and factory closings after that time) is the possibility that Romney was passed over in 2008 as a vice presidential candidate to run with John McCain due to the same questions.

Not so, says McCain today and Politico reports:

Mitt Romney’s tax returns had nothing to do with Sen. John McCain’s decision to choose Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008, according to the Arizona Republican, saying he chose the former Alaska governor because she was a “better candidate.” [Pols emphasis]

McCain received more than two decades worth of Romney’s tax returns as the former Massachusetts governor was undergoing the vetting process four years ago, far more than Romney has released publicly in the 2012 campaign. Democrats have questioned whether McCain saw something untoward in those tax returns and decided to choose Palin instead…

Asked why he chose not to go with Romney, McCain said: “Oh come on, because we thought that Sarah Palin was the better candidate. Why did we not take [Tim] Pawlenty, why did we not take any of the other 10 other people. Why didn’t I? Because we had a better candidate, the same way with all the others. … Come on, why? That’s a stupid question.”

On the one hand, what is McCain supposed to say? Yes, Romney’s financial records are pure political poison and that’s why Romney wasn’t chosen to be the vice presidential nominee in 2008? Obviously not, so he’s got to go with a different answer. McCain really has no choice but to maintain that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was “a better candidate” than Mitt Romney, or else be prepared to discuss the reasons Romney wasn’t chosen. Even then, he still might have to.

And honestly, either way seems like a bit of a minefield.