Romney VP search: free-floating speculation and wish list thread

[milhouse24]

Ha, I'm an idiot.  I listed quite a few names in the poll, but forgot one of the main media frontrunners: Marco Rubio.

thats okay, none of the experts think Rubio is a serious choice to be picked.  Its mostly PR hype to increase hispanic republicans, and position Rubio for 2016.  Its also a good story for liberal media members to talk about the first Hispanic vice president. 

Here is who I think helps Romney wins:
1. Jeb because it will help him with hispanic voters and evangelicals
2. Thune because it will help him with evangelicals
3. Portman because it might help him in Ohio

Burr is okay, but I don't think Romney needs help in NC or the South. 
Virginia will be close but Thune, Jeb, and Portman help in VA.

Romney is better focusing on the Midwest and Florida. 

I actually think Romney has a good chance of winning Penn as well, with a high number of Republican catholics. 

[milhouse24]

It's considered rude to quit one's job running the CIA with less than 2 weeks notice.  Always leave them enough time to hire a replacement and train them on the phones.

Move Colin Powell to CIA.

[milhouse24]

Here are some examples of good VP picks: Al Gore, Joe Biden, GHW Bush, LBJ

Gore and Biden were from swing states/regions, previously ran for president/media vetted, had competence/experience to become president. 

GHWB, LBJ also had competence/experience and helped their tickets secure the southern region.

Mediocre VP picks: Cheney didn't help in any swing states, he had competence/experience, he was non-controversial (in 2000).  Lamar Alexander would have been a better political pick. 

Terrible VP picks: Quayle, Palin, Edwards
None had the competence/experience to be president
They didn't help win any swing states/regions

I think Romney is going to settle for a non-controversial pick that is slightly better than Cheney.  This depends on how he does in the polls and if he has a safe lead ahead of Obama.  While I think there are better options, it appears that his top 2 choices will be Pawlenty and Portman.  Both are seen as competent people.  Pawlenty will be non-controversial but he might look like Quayle, another mild mannered midwesterner who isn't taken seriously by the political experts.  TPaw might also hurt southern voters who feel ignored by the ticket.  Even though Romney wants to play it safe, he really needs a fighter and Americans want to see strong, passionate, and confident tickets. 

[milhouse24]

Unless Jeb wants to be a Senator, I don't see why he would refuse VP and just wait for 2016. 
He can't be scared and run from his name.  He can't be scared of the liberal media "blaming bush" for everything bad in the world.  If he thinks he has the record to run on and win, he needs to do it now.  There are no guarantees for 2016, some hot shot like Rubio may get steam and win like when Obama beat Hillary. 

Hillary also seemed to run from her name, she never emphasized "Clinton" or "Rodham-Clinton", it was always just "Hillary"

Maybe she was scared of Bill's image and Bill's Bimbos.  But voters can sense when a candidate is scared of their own name, and its weak and shows weakness and lack of confidence.  You've got to own up to who you are, 100% of yourself warts and all. 

There's no reason Jeb should be scared of his name.  Haters are gonna hate, but its how you respond to the haters that makes the difference between winning and losing. 

If he runs, the hispanics will go with him. 

[milhouse24]

Corker is good, but he is also up for re-election.
I like Lamar Alexander, but he is one year older than Biden, but it could be a equal matchup between the 2 of them. 

I like Thune, but it seems like he is too young and doesn't want to be vetted.  He's gonna wait until 2016. 

So, I've decided to choose Burr over Pawlenty, and its only because Burr's name is simpler to say and spell.  Voters are simple and dumb, and they don't pay attention until the last week or month, so the easier name to spell helps appeal to Swing Voters. 

I still believe that overtly ethnic and foreign non-english last names are too complicated for swing voters to handle.  Otherwise, Dukakis would have been president.   

[milhouse24]

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He needs a southerner on the ticket. Going with Thune will show that Romney doesn't give a **** about the South.

This is why he should go with Christine O'Donnell.

She's not married.

[milhouse24]

I maintain that Burr is an excellent pick.  He's Southern but not Haley Barbour Southern; he's from a swing state; conservative but not Jim DeMint crazy; he's won multiple elections; and he's scandal free.

I like Burr as well, and he can probably deliver strong GOTV in NC and VA.
But I think Thune is more popular with Evangelicals and has a higher national prominence. 
Burr has never seemed to indicate he has national aspirations, and therefore, he might not be well prepared to handle the VP media attention. 

I see this election similar to 2004.  Kerry could have won with General Clark or someone else besides Edwards.  All he needed was a few more votes in Ohio. 

Romney is very similar to Kerry in many ways, and he will face similar problems.  Are there any Republican Generals available for politics? 

[milhouse24]

He's not an excellent pick, tho I don't think there is an excellent pick that would be a game-changer for the Mittbot.  Burr would be a safe pick, which is why I am surprised he doesn't get more press.  Mitt likes to play it safe.  He only leaves his comfort zone if he feels the need.  Right now he doesn't feel the need to take risks, which is probably one reason The Mitt won't call out The Donald for being an idiot.  If the June jobs report is similar to May's, the chances Romney makes a safe boring pick go up.

Game changers List: Rubio, Ryan, (Christie) end of list.  

edit: add Christie

It just seemed, at least in the past, that so-called risky, game-changing VP with shock value and surprise are just a bunch of hot air that quickly loses steam.  It doesn't seem to translate into consistent votes.  I think in general, humans don't like surprises or change, and are unsure how to react to sudden changes before accepting and adapting to the new situation.  Surprises make humans uneasy and put them in flight mode. 

Rubio is so unknown, that while some hispanics will vote for him just because he's hispanic, other hispanics might not even be paying attention/don't care about politics.  His rawness might also scare away non-hispanics and whites who don't want a senate rookie as vice president.  If Rubio were truly a game-changer, it would need to change the swing vote states, not the popular vote. 

Romney would only choose rubio if he were desperate. 

Besides, Biden and Gore were very important game-changers that helped win elections and voters, even though on the surface they seem boring to the media. 

[milhouse24]

Chris Matthews seems to think its going to be Thune.

But that usually means that the most obvious choice won't be it. 

[milhouse24]

Smartest choice is Ayotte.  She'll bring in NH, help with women and younger voters.  

Remember, the McCain states plus NC, FL, VA, IN, OH, and NH = 270 EVs.

Picking a relatively young, freshwoman Senator with less than two years in office will inevitably led the voters to one conclusion: Sarah Palin 2.0.

Of course, Ayotte is not Sarah Palin (as much as I disagree with her politically, she's a smart one and relatively accomplished during her career), but most of the voters won't even know who the feck she is. All they would know are: woman, young, recently elected... just like Palin.

Picking Palin for Vice Presidential nominee was a huge setback for the Republican women in politics.

Romney is not stupid to repeat McCain's mistakes (he's good in making mistakes on his own ). Looks like the smartest thing he can do is to pick some boring, white dude indeed.

It could actually be a good thing to pick Ayotte.  The GOP has the vast majority of white male voters.  By picking another woman, it might actually bring more white women voters.  The problem with Palin was that she lost a lot of the white male vote.  Another problem with Palin was that being from Alaska, she never dealt with the national media or sunday talk shows.  She may have been a decent governor, but she was never prepared or experienced with the hard-hitting national questions from nyc journalists.  I think Ayotte is smart, a former attorney, and now senator, who is well versed on national issues and legal issues.  She should be capable enough to respond competently to the questions posed to her.  I think she would be a calculated risk that would be very beneficial.  The drawback is her age, its hard to take someone under 45 seriously. 

[milhouse24]

Obama'd just campaign against the SCOTUS. Same with any senator/congressman and Congress.

That's a smart move. 

I wonder why exactly did republicans win in 2010?  Hopefully those issues in 2010, won't come up again, otherwise Obama could be in trouble. 

[milhouse24]

Portman's association with Bush makes this election about Bush...imagine the line from Obama and Biden when attacked over the deficit..."Romney's running mate was the budget director who presided over many deficits"

Portman won't work, folks...

What? you presided over budgets deficits 2 to 3 to 8 times smaller than us!!!   ...that isn't really a trump card.  

let me check my math here: over 2 trillion (1.3 trillion estimated + unfunded Obamacare state coercion, double counting, etc) is more than 8 times 250 billion right?  

It would really seem self-hating for Obama to go after Romney for "approving HC in Mass but repealing HC in the Fed" and Portman for "smaller deficits than now"

We now have the big theme of the 2012 election - "Repealing Health Care" and either you're with Obama or you're voting for Romney - there is no 3rd option. 

All the pissed off tea-partiers are not going to risk keeping Obama in office just because "romney created health care in MA." 

It just seems like the worst campaign strategy for Obama, "that Romney created a program you hate just as much as you hate Obama-care."  Like, Obama wants to remind people why they hate him and his policies.  Romney's health care plan is bad, "but its not as bad as my Obamacare plan." 

Romney has complete cover now to "Repeal Health Care" and not worry about his past issues on anything.  Same with Portman, he will get a pass on everything else as long as he advocates for "repealing the health care mandate tax." 

[milhouse24]

Gary Johnson may be a huge threat for Romney winning mountain states. 

Do you think Romney would ever consider putting Johnson as his VP?

[milhouse24]

If Tim Tebow were older, I think he would be an excellent VP choice.

[milhouse24]

I think Clint Eastwood would make a good VP as well.