Isn't Bill Miller the only non-WASP the GOP has ever nominated?

[RB TexLa]

Why do people think they would nominate a woman, a Jew or an ethnic minority this year? It's pretty simple, white don't play that.

[onenote]

1. if you are asking whether he is the only Catholic, the answer is yes

Other than Miller, the repubs have never nominated someone who wasn't a protestant. And they've never nominated someone who wasn't male and white. So I guess the answer is yes.

But I see no reason to think that they'd be unlikely to nominate a Catholic this time around. Heck, most of the SCOTUS choices they all seem to love so much are Catholic.

WIll they nominate a woman or an ethnic minority this time around? I don't particuarly think so, but it wouldn't completely surprise me. They are in dire straits. They need to throw a hail mary pass to get the story focused back on them. Breaking with the past and nominating someone who doesn't fit the mold of their past nominations might be one way to do that. Again, not saying that they will, just that they definitely might.

[RB TexLa]

2. I knew they hadn't nominted anyone who wasn't white, and they are not going to break with

that. Or break with only nominating males. It will be a male WASP.

It's just part of silly season to say they are going to do any different.

[LTR]

3. Does Spiro Agnew count?

His father was a Greek immigrant, though he was protestant (Episcopalian).

However, there was also that silly old rumor about Warren Harding being part black.

Meanwhile, the Dems have had three Catholic Presidential nominees:

Al Smith
John F. Kennedy
John Kerry

As for VP, they've had one woman (who is also Catholic - the dreaded Ger Ferrarro), one Jew (the dreaded Joe Lieberman).

[RB TexLa]

4. True on Agnew. And that part is as big, the GOP vp nominee will be a white.

[grantcart]

5. ah yes Miller the sacrificial lamb to help Goldwater go down in flames

I wonder who is willing to ruin their reputation with McCain.

[LTR]

6. Okay - here's the answer: It's Charles Curtis

He was the Republican VP under Hoover. And he was half Native American:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Curtis
http://www.vpcharlescurtis.net/



Nearly half of Curtis' background was made up of American Indian stock. His mother, Ellen Pappan Curtis, was one-fourth Kaw, one-fourth Osage, and one-fourth Pottawatomie (as well as one-fourth French). Curtis spent part of his early life on a Kaw reservation, and is the first and only person with acknowledged non-European ancestry to reach either of the two highest offices in the United States government's executive branch. Curtis was the last U.S. Vice President or President to wear a beard or mustache—in his case, a mustache—while in office.

There was an article about him in the current USA Today:

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/06/long-before-oba.html

So, now ya know.