Below I put a silly little thing about who you want and who you think will be the VP. I think Romney wants to select Condi Rice as his running-mate for many of the same reasons Sarah Palin was selected . . . its a gimmicky play at identity politics rather than reinforcing competence and uniting all wings of the party. Palin was competent and united the conservatives, but that is not what McCain had in mind and his entire team grew jeleous of her popularity. I've heard the arguments that Rice would bring the "national security" conservatives with her - a notion that annoys me because it assumes that if you aren't a Neocon you aren't interested in national security. Besides, Romney already has that crowd behind him.
Erick Erickson puts it best HERE. Romney and his team need to understand that this is their one opportunity to bring over the most important constituency he doesn't have yet . . . conservatives. Senator Jim DeMint is beloved by tea party conservatives and respected by many in the liberty movement as well (see his interview with Reason). He's a modest man and would take the edge off of some of the Richie Rich problems Mittens has.
If the ticket is Romney-Rice, I will have a hard time figuring out what I'm going to do.
Yes indeed. Read this:
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/07/13/5_reasons_condi_rice_will_not_be_mitt_romneys_vp_pick
Posted by: RCB | July 13, 2012 at 11:24 AM
Rice is also pro choice. Maybe Romney will flip flop back to being pro death. I don't think the liberty movement cares who is going to be VP unless it was Rand Paul.
Posted by: John Smith | July 13, 2012 at 12:49 PM
Good grief! Rice has no more chance of being the Republican Vice Presidential nominee than I do! Just how gullible do you have to be to give credibility to the nonsense Matt Drudge spews?
Romney is one of the most play it safe guys in politics. You can count on him to make a safe, noncontroversial choice. This guy is so clearly playing not to lose as opposed to playing to win that it is obvious he won't be taking any chances with his choice of a running mate.
Yeah, sure! Drudge has the inside dope on this stuff! Romney is going to pick a black woman who is widely rumored to be a lesbian. Right! Oh, and although she is an extremely accomplished and able woman, she has never run for office at any level so she is a total wildcard in that regard.
Whatever else you may criticize Romney for, I don't believe he is stupid. I think he understands what a blunder McCain made with his gimmicky pick of Sarah Palin in 2008. In McCain's defense, he needed to throw a Hail Mary pass. He was going down and he needed to do something dramatic and unexpected to change the landscape. But there is no excuse for failing to properly vet Palin before putting her on the ticket. Had he done that, McCain could have gone in a potentially more constructive direction.
Romney isn't going to fly by the seat of his pants like McCain did. He isn't going to pick an African American running mate who is pro choice. So he maybe draws 7% of the black vote instead of 5%. At the price of ticking off a rabidly anti-abortion base? Hardly. And while most Americans couldn't care less whether or not she is a lesbian the same can't be said of a large swath of the Republican base. Lots of those folks are openly hostile to homosexuals. To the point of obsession.
Drudge might as well have said that Barbara Mikulski was at the top of Romney's VP list. That would be just as accurate. Do you think that trying to turn the conversation back to VP speculation might have something to do with what has been the dominant topic of conversion the last few days? Something the Romney campaign very badly wants to change the subject from?
This stuff ain't rocket science.
Posted by: Dan | July 13, 2012 at 02:30 PM
John,
you don't think the liberty movement would support Jim DeMint?
Posted by: Chris | July 13, 2012 at 05:56 PM
I don't think the liberty movement would support DeMint. Picking him would effectively cement my vote for Gary Johnson.
Posted by: Stephen Spiker | July 17, 2012 at 05:55 PM
Why's that? I'm generally curious because DeMint in the last four years or so has become very friendly to many in the liberty movement.
Posted by: Chris | July 17, 2012 at 06:08 PM