Gore & Whitman.

CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN

Talk about implausible. My fellow TV blowhards look at me with pity when I suggest that New Jersey Governor Christine Whitman would be the best candidate. And they're right that there's almost zero chance Gore would ask her; it would piss off the Democrats too much.

But if he really wants to win, he should choose her. The country is moving into a post-partisan period, even if the politicians aren't. In one swoop, picking Whitman would make Gore much more appealing to independents (he trails Bush among them) and make sure that the gender gap stayed open. Whitman on the Democratic ticket would be a loud message to the voters that the Republican Party is irredeemably right-wing and hopeless on a woman's right to choose. In New Jersey, she has governed six years essentially as a New Democrat, closer ideologically to Gore than to Bush.

Whitman is unacceptable on the GOP ticket because she supports so-called partial birth abortion--a total deal-breaker for Bush because it would cause a walkout at the convention. She might turn Gore down--she has already endorsed Bush--but having decided she's not running for Senate, what else is she going to do with her life? The argument that she has no future in Republican politics if she did this makes no sense, because she has no future in that party anyway. When it comes down to it, few politicians refuse the chance when asked. Come on, Al. Be really bold.

JONATHAN ALTER, a columnist at Newsweek, is a contributing editor of The Washington Monthly.