McCain-Graham:Mutual-trust ticket

Americans should pick a president they think they can trust.

John McCain should pick a running mate he knows he can trust.

McCain knows he can trust Lindsey Graham.

And though Graham told me Wednesday that "John knows I don't want it and I know he's not going to ask me," he also said: "I'm probably John's best and closest friend in the Senate. We're friends in a way that real people are friends."

Graham, who turned 53 on July 9, is remarkably young for a senior senator from our state. That would give age balance to a ticket headed by a man who'll turn 72 next month.

But the most vital balance would come from McCain's faith in a devoted pal who's honest, knowledgeable, insightful, creative, hard-working, adept at crossing party lines, politically courageous — and the smartest public official this editorial writer has encountered in 10 years on this job.

Plus, Graham's a relentless, persuasive advocate for McCain. He even delivered a quick, effective answer Wednesday when asked: "How does McCain's economic approach differ from Bush's?"

Graham: "The chief difference is McCain's conscious desire to limit the government." He said McCain "fought like a tiger" — unsuccessfully — to stop the reckless entitlement expansion of the Bush-backed Medicare prescription-drug program. He added that McCain's also been much tougher on congressional-earmark waste than Bush.

Gov. Mark Sanford knows those McCain-Bush economic differences, too. He just briefly forgot them a week ago today when he admitted to drawing a "blank" when asked about them by CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

Graham: "It can happen to any of us. It'll eventually happen to me and everybody else."

And: "A surrogate says something that doesn't sit well and a lot of time is wasted on it. John's very frustrated about it. This campaign is about 'gotcha' right now. He wants a campaign about comparison shopping."

McCain should put trust at the top of his best-buy list while VP comparison shopping. OK, so McCain doesn't need Graham to win this state. So Graham, like McCain, isn't far enough to the right for some conservative-base hardheads.

So Graham's a bachelor.

Graham on his single status: "I think that would be an issue for some. I'd like to get married and have a family one day, but it would be the last thing I would do for political reasons."

It also should be the last thing that determines a vote.

Anyway, on or off the ticket, Graham would feel at home in the White House with the McCains: "I'm sort of part of their family."

Forget marital status and even policy positions. Wouldn't America's No. 1 do a better job if he had total trust in his No. 2?

Wouldn't you if you were a No. 1?

Graham's "forget it" response: "John needs someone who can help us win in areas that he might not otherwise win — or a transformational pick. I really want him to win and I know there are better picks than me."

He hailed Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty as "solid," Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman as a strong "outside the box" choice.

Al Gore's 2000 running mate on the 2008 GOP ticket? That would be light years "outside the box."

If not VP, would Graham, an Air Force Reserve JAG (Judge Advocate General) officer, prefer for McCain to make him AG (attorney general) or a member of SCOTUS (the Supreme Court)?

"I think I can be a bigger help to John in the Senate, working for bipartisan agreements. I have no desire to be a Cabinet official. And I love the law, but I have no desire to be on the Supreme Court."

He does, however, express an intense desire to keep making a positive difference, not just for McCain but for the nation. He's already wielded plenty of power in his first Senate term — and is a lock for re-election (if he doesn't resign to run for VP).

Not bad for a guy from modest means in the Clemson suburb of Central, a guy who, at age 22, adopted his 13-year-old sister after their parents died in back-to-back years.

Graham: "I wake up some days and say, 'Is this happening to me?' It's a blessing. I'm getting to do something important. I have a front-row seat on history."

He takes particular pride in his early, risky backing — along with McCain — of the now-successful "surge" in Iraq (see Paul Greenberg's column on this page): "My advocacy, my passion, I think that helped."

And while he denies interest in being on the 2008 ticket, he doesn't deny long-term interest in moving up:

"If I want to do something nationally later on, I think I'm building a resume for that. I'm not vain, but I do have a lot of self-confidence."

Now if McCain can muster enough self-confidence to trust his instincts, he'll pick the man he can trust.

Frank Wooten is associate editor of The Post and Courier. His e-mail is wooten@postandcourier.com.