The Republican Vice-Presidential Spectulation Thread.

[milhouse24]

For Romney, I think Jim DeMint is the best VP pick.

I like Rubio but they need to not Palin him.

I like DeMint as the best choice among current Senators.  He's been around for a while, has relatively high name recognition in the South, has experience, is liked by Evangelcials and Tea Partiers, and can help shore up the conservative base; while Romney appeals to Catholic moderates in Ohio. 

Portman would be a good choice if he had served longer in the Senate, but I think he is too new in the public eye to be taken seriously by the media.  He's more of a cabinet member option.  He might be able to deliver Ohio, but the ticket would lose a lot of enthusiasm in important southern swing states like Virginia and Florida.  He is sort of like Dick Cheney, had a lot of experience but didn't help or hurt the ticket during the election. 

Burr is okay, but Burr is also the ex-Vice President who killed Hamilton, so that may be a bad omen to deal with. 

Thune is a safe choice, but he might not help in Ohio or Florida.  He suffers from the Evan Bayh shrinking nice guy syndrome.  Campaigns need loud fighters.  Thune also pissed off a lot of Tea Partiers with the bailouts, and he's not as popular with southern evangelicals as the other guys listed. 

Rubio is a bad choice because he is very young and very inexperienced.  The moment he messes up, he will be compared to dan quayle, sarah palin, and john edwards. 

[milhouse24]

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Wow, I'm feeling positively energized here. I hope Mitt puts you in charge of the press release.

Sorry, I certainly would have tailored my post if I knew the point of this thread was to make you feel energized, not explain why Rubio would be a smart VP pick.

Marco Rubio has been a Senator for 14 MONTHS! 22 Months by November. I would disqualify everyone who hasn't held office for at least 4 years, or going on 4 years come next January. So if they're in office now, they should have been elected by 2008 at the latest.

Remember, Romney's only a one term Governor. Shouldn't he be looking for someone with more experience to back him up on some issue he has limited experience with? Such as foreign policy?

Experience didn't seem to be too much of an issue to voters in 2008.

Yeah, Biden was picked as VP because he had 30 years of experience. 
As for Obama, he had 4 years of experience, but he campaigned nationally for 2 years as president, so he learned and adapted to the media questioning and presidential questions/answers debates. 

Picking an inexperienced VP in August-November would be a disaster as Palin showed. 
Rubio might be able to handle the media spotlight, but then again, maybe he won't be able to, and he will sink Romney's campaign faster than Palin sunk McCain.  With a VP, you do not want to be too Risky especially with Inexperience.

If there is one thing you can control with VP selection, it is Experience.  So to even be a "not hurt the nominee" the VP has to have the experience and competence to replace the president immediately if necessary (example: Pres. Harrison).  So a "Do no Harm" VP must always have experience. 

[milhouse24]

PPP just tweeted:

"Portman would do little to nothing for Romney in Ohio and generally would be a bizarre VP choice. Much better known in DC"

I think Rasmussen found that VP Jeb would tie with Obama/Biden
But VP Rubio would lose to Obama/Biden by 2 percentage points. 
Therefore, I think that the Bush last name is not a dealbreaking turnoff for swing voters. 
Democrats were not going to vote for a Bush or Romney anyways. 
However, the liberal media may unfairly pile onto Jeb, but that would be a sideshow. 
I think a lot of Christian conservatives hold Dubya and the Bush family in high regard, so they may stick with Romney instead of voting for Obama.  Romney needs help with evangelical voters.  Catholics also look favorably onto Bush as well.  I think there is sort of a silent majority when it comes to Bush.  He won 2 elections after all.

[milhouse24]

Let's go through the current Senators and see which ones we can disqualify and which ones are possibilities.

Two Rules:
1. They must have been in office by 2009 at the latest.
2. They cannot be older than 60.

I'm going to go from youngest to oldest.
1. David Vitter, 51, 2005- (LA). Nope. DC Madam Prostitute Scandal.
2. John Thune, 51, 2005- (SD) Yes.
3. Lisa Murkowski, 55, 2002- (AK) Nope. Pro-choice.
4. Richard Burr, 57, 2005- (NC) Yes.
5. Lindsey Graham, 57, 2003- (GA) Yes.

And that's about it. There are a few that are 60. John Cornyn (TX), Bob Corker (TN), John Barrasso (WY), and Susan Collins (ME). Collins is disqualified because she is pro-choice.

So that leaves this list, which I rank in order of how good of a vp choice I think they would be.

1. John Thune
2. Richard Burr
3. Lindsey Graham
4. John Corynyn
5. Bob Corker
6. John Barrasso.

Lindsey is a bachelor and has the same problem that prevents Charlie Crist and David Dreier from running for national office, supposedly, which is they don't like women, cooties. 

I though Lamar Alexander would be a good choice if he was younger, since Tenn has regional importance.  I think DeMint is the best active Senator to appeal to conservatives and southern swing states. 

[milhouse24]

Name just one reason why Jeb would not be the best VP nominee?  And blaming his last name is a cop-out and if you're worried about last names, then "hussein obama" didn't scare away a majority of voters.  A majority of the voters will not be scared away from "bush".

Plus his better half is hispanic.

If Jeb is picked, the liberal media will be pooping their pants for the next 8 years, as will all liberals. 

[milhouse24]

WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT JEB BUSH?

Right? I wanna know why the right continues to wet themselves so much about him.

It might be fuzzy math, but every poll with Jeb shows that he can win the general election. 
Rassmussen did a poll that a Romney/Jeb ticket ties Obama/Biden which is better than all the other Romney possibilities.  You can not believe your lying eyes, but a 2 term governor from a swing state is a very valuable commodity to have in a close election.  All the liberals will be pooping their pants when Jeb is selected.  It will certainly be a field day for liberals with a little rope a dope.  The hispanics will never abandon Jeb and his wife.

[milhouse24]

While almost everyone insincerely deflects the VP question (Jeb said Rubio should be VP), Jeb strikes me as someone who might actually turn down an offer to be vetted. I think a losing VP run could arguably hurt his presidential ambitions more than others.

Obviously, Obama's middle name being "Hussein" is a different case because Obama isn't very ideologically similar to Saddam Hussein and never said he was proud of the job Saddam did leading his country.

I don't think the Bush name is nearly as toxic as the liberal media makes it out to be.  Liberals will never vote for a Bush or any republican.  Indepedents however will recognize that Jeb is a different human being than George.  White Catholics will support Jeb.  Hispanics will support Jeb. 

Are you the type of person that believes the republican party was wiped out after Richard Nixon resigned?  Do you believe that republicans would never return to the white house after jimmy carter? 

Do you believe that the Democratic landslide elections in 2006 and 2008 would create a generation of Democratic Congress, and that Republicans would be wiped out of Congress forever.  The American People have spoken in favor of Democrats? 

Clearly whether its their own fault or not, Democrats lost the Congress badly in 2010.  Look it up.  Democrats are now the endangered species.  Maybe its blind arrogance, but Democrats are partying like its 2008 all over again. 

Republicans have regained control whether by luck or strategy or Democrat incompetence.  I don't want to wake you up from fantasy dreamland, but its 2012 and the country has changed beyond Dubya's faults. 

[milhouse24]

I'm starting to think Tim Pawlenty might be chosen.

If I may ask, what exactly do you think he brings to the ticket?

Normalcy. He's not a crazy pick, it shows Romney is serious. Look at the last 3 defeated vp candidates: Palin, Edwards, and Lieberman. They were all picked to win, not really to help govern.

Pawlenty is conservative enough to please the base, but appealing to independents. He could help in MN, WI, possibly MI.

Palin, Edwards, and Leiberman were all worthless non-entities that supposedly would help win but really did nothing of consequence. 

The key is to find a VP that can actually help win a swing state, which often is the difference between winning and losing, which Al Gore and John Kerry can attest to. 

I think a dark horse candidate will be Governor Corbett of PA.  He's 62 which is not too old.  He can bring campaign volunteers across the border to Ohio.
He is a veteran of the Army, so he will appease the nation's veteran's and traditional republicans.  I think he's a white catholic, which will compete with Irish Joe Biden's constituency. 
He was Attorney General, so he's smart and knowledgeable about national security issues. 

[milhouse24]

I'm starting to think Tim Pawlenty might be chosen.

If I may ask, what exactly do you think he brings to the ticket?

Normalcy. He's not a crazy pick, it shows Romney is serious. Look at the last 3 defeated vp candidates: Palin, Edwards, and Lieberman. They were all picked to win, not really to help govern.

Pawlenty is conservative enough to please the base, but appealing to independents. He could help in MN, WI, possibly MI.

No he would not help in Minnesota, where no ones cares about him anymore except people who really hate him, or in Wisconsin and Michigan, where no one cares about him period, and probably no one knows who he is except a few who might remember him from his trainwreck of a Presidential campaign and silly movie trailer ads.

However he is a "safe" and non-controversial choice.

T-Paw is the safest choice who has already been nationally "vetted" by the media since his presidential run, so there won't be any "shocking scandals" left to uncover, which may doom portman, thune, or rubio. 

But T-Paw will absolutely not help in any way or with any votes.  If he goes super-christian with the media, he might be able to help Romney's base supporters. 

But the good thing is he will "do no harm" 

[milhouse24]

Romney campaigned with McDonnell again today. Will he continue these tryouts now that everyone's had at least one shot is my question.

Most of these tryouts are for PR purposes to excite voters in the swing states. 
Sure, it is also for Romney to get more familiar and comfortable with candidates he barely knew or spoke to before, and build trust and rapport. 
But a lot of it is for the media to see, and for the media to report and judge the potential partnership, whether the 2 people "look" like a good team.  His staff wants to see how a "potential ticket" will look campaigning and meeting voters in september.  will journalists think they create a strong image and partnership?  So these tryouts are for both external and internal feedback.  But more importantly, they are for building up excitement among swing state voters. 

The real Romney vetting will start with private phone calls, not public appearances. 
Of course, all these candidates want to kiss up and wow Romney, but I don't think any one is going to wow Romney enough for him to make a rushed decision. 
But it is good to put potential names out there into the press, and build up some excitement. 

Romney doesn't want to completely surprise the press and go quiet until the convention.  It is better to make strategic leaks to allow the media to salivate over VP candidates. 
I also don't think Romney will pick a surprise candidate, he'll likely leak the top 3 candidates a week before his decision.

[milhouse24]

Since Romney won the primary through default as the last man standing.

Pawlenty will be VP through default since he has no glaring faults compared to other candidates.