OK - you wanted some serious input….
Here is who I
don’t think is on Trump’s short list:
Ted Cruz – way too much very personal rancor between the two. For Trump to ask and for Cruz to accept at this point would be tailor made campaign ads for Clinton. All she would have to do is run the sound bites of Trump repeatedly calling Cruz a liar and Cruz calling Trump a narcissistic liar. For them to stand smiling, hand in hand on the stage at Cleveland would be a disaster IMO. While politics is a rough full contact sport and jabs are made, I just don’t see the two men hugging it out and singing Cum By Ya. The #nevertrump Cruz supporters would not I believe forgive Cruz for betraying his principles nor would they suddenly put their trust in Trump. And how would those Trump supporters who truly believe that Cruz is the Devil Incarnate feel about it? Not going to happen.
Marco Rubio – some of the same reason as above plus Rubio says he is not interested. In fact, he hasn’t even really “endorsed” Trump, only saying, “I signed a pledged to support the nominee.” Sort of like saying, “I signed that damned piece of paper way back when, back when I thought Trump was a joke, but since I signed it, I have to live with it. But I don’t have to like it”. LOL!
Scott Walker – his support for Trump is tepid at best, quite a bit like Rubio’s.
John Kasich – two term governor of Ohio and former congressman, he has both executive and legislative experience, and he could be a ticket balancer as he’s somewhat of a moderate on some issues and strongly conservative on others and from a swing state. But Kasich has said there is “zero” chance, “Never. No chance” of him being Trump’s running mate. And Trump said it was “unlikely” that Kasich would make the short list. We will see what happens but I don’t see Trump and Kasich as a fit with each other.
Mia Love – too inexperienced IMO and not enough name recognition. And her Mormon religion, although not any big deal to me at all, might turn off some Evangelicals. And she’s got the “birther/ “eligibility” cloud hanging over her - born here in the US, but her parents did not become citizens, didn’t even have their “green cards” until after her birth – some call her an “anchor baby”. I think she is a NBC but others may question that and make it and her religion an issue. But her inexperience is probably more of an issue for Trump.
Martinez and Haley - both have said they are definitely not interested and Trump even said that Haley wasn’t under consideration. Either might be looked at as an affirmative action pick and like Love, some “birthers” have questioned Haley’s eligibility.
Rick Perry – he seems to be interested but could be labeled as a twice failed POTUS candidate. The lieutenant governor and then governor of Texas, outside of Texas he doesn’t seem to have much popularity and has no experience in DC.
Jim Webb – despite Carson saying that Trump would be open to nominating a Democrat as his VP, and then Trump throwing Carson under the bus, saying a day later that, “No”, that he (Trump) would not consider a Democrat, Webb is not very likely.
Not on the poll but supposedly under consideration or on the short list:
Chris Christie – Trump recently said Christie is on the short list, but IMO that wouldn’t fly as both are brash outspoken North Easterners with big, dare I say YUGE egos. And Christie wouldn’t bring in votes from NJ due to his current low popularity and would probably hurt Trump overall in other states, especially in the South and Mid-West and West. Some people in other parts of the country even see NY and NJ as being the same state – : )
Newt Gingrich – too much baggage and too long out of office. But he might be a very good cabinet pick or even as Chief of Staff or Press Secretary.
Sarah Palin or Ben Carson – Trump dissed and disassociated himself from Palin over her comments on Sunday regarding Ryan and she hasn’t been on the campaign trail in any official capacity since just before the Wisconsin vote when she (or Trump) suddenly canceled her campaign appearance. Carson evidently has just been removed from the VP search committee but met with Ryan by phone today “ahead of the Trump meeting” with Ryan tomorrow. Carson also said he wasn’t interested in the VP slot. And “low energy” Carson just doesn’t seem to have the personality to deal with Congress. Carson, like Palin also suffers from Foot In Mouth disease.
Joni Ernst (Junior Senator from Iowa and has a military background) - seemed to support but did not full out endorse Rubio. IMO, she does not have enough experience for the VP slot but is said to be on the short list.
Jan Brewer (former AZ governor) - she’s a woman and has conservative creds, has been a big Trump supporter and Trump surrogate on TV all along and certainly shares his border and illegal immigration positions but has no DC experience.
Mary Fallen (current governor of OK and a former congresswoman) – she IMO might be a good pick for Trump as aside from being a woman, she has both executive and legislative experience and is conservative. But she seems to have little name recognition outside of OK.
But I think Trump is navigating his ship through some narrow channels.
On one hand (even if he says he doesn’t need them) he has to smooth over and convince at least some of the #nevertrump Republicans and former Cruz and Kasich supporters or those conservatives who are “soft” or wary of supporting him, by picking a VP candidate who has some conservative credentials.
On the other hand, as Trump is counting on pulling in the #neverhillary Democrats - the blue collar, ant-immigration and pro-US-Jobs, protectionist Sanders supporters, Trump realistically can’t shift too far to the right in his VP pick.
But most of all he needs someone who knows their way around DC and Congress and someone who can help him push through his legislation (unless Trump really intends to by-pass Congress with EO’s) which may sometimes mean brokering and making compromise deals with the Democrats, in other words, someone who can work with both sides of the aisle – Art Of The Deal.
So who do I think it will be?
Going out on a limb here, but I’m thinking it may be Paul Ryan.
Don’t laugh.
Ryan has not yet said unequivocally that he wouldn’t support Trump, but that he was “just not ready to yet”.
At a presser earlier today, Ryan seemed a bit conciliatory and seemed to leave the door open by saying that the party needs to unify in order to defeat Clinton (seemingly Ryan conceding that this is the GOP’s top priority). I’m looking for the quote that I read earlier today but can’t find it, but Trump seemed to back off from criticizing and has soften his tone toward Ryan.
As noted above, also consider that Trump distanced himself from “free agent” Palin’s criticism of Ryan and openly supporting and endorsing his GOP opponent saying, “She’s a terrific person, but she’s very much a free agent and I didn’t know about this until yesterday,” Mr. Trump said. “I guess she’s been fighting, or she’s endorsing somebody that’s running against Paul Ryan, and I didn’t know about it until yesterday when I read about it.” And of Ryan, Trump said, “I’ve always liked him, He called me not so long ago, I don’t know, a number of weeks ago, but he called me and he was very supportive and very nice and I thought everything was fine, and then I got blindsided, so we’ll see.”
I think tomorrow’s meeting between Trump and Ryan may be very interesting. If Ryan comes out of the meeting and further softens his recalcitrance to endorsing Trump or comes out of the meeting saying he’s now ready to support him, I think Ryan could end up on the VP short list.
On the down side of thinking that Ryan could be Trump’s VP pick is that Ryan was Romney’s running mate in his failed 2012 run. But that could be spun as to Romney’s weakness as a candidate more than Ryan’s weakness as the VP pick. But it still could be a problem for those conservatives who see Ryan as a sellout as House Speaker. Also on the down side for Ryan is that if Trump is likely to be beaten by Clinton, he’d be a two-time VP loser and I don’t really think he wants to take that risk for a future run himself as POTUS if Trump is likely to lose the in the General.
On the upside, Ryan could calm the fears of some who fear Trump as being too far left or not constitutionally conservative or conservative enough, if he could seemingly pull Trump into some more traditional conservative GOP base positions without too much alienating the middle or the blue collar Democrats, if Ryan can be seen as being “reasonable” and not a hardliner/severely “rightwinger”, if that could pull in enough unconvinced Republicans and Democratic cross over voters and mean a Trump victory with Ryan as VP, it could work.
Although Ryan’s seemingly “free trade” and immigration positions could be a negative for both conservatives, Trump supporters and the blue collar Democrats/#neverhillary/Bernie supporters, if Ryan could get Trump to moderate on some issues like taxes and entitlements and Trump getting Ryan to come around to some of Trump’s positions…..
At this point I don’t see anything that Trump does, even something so way out of the box like picking Ryan as VP as being a negative for Trump’s most ardent supporters. Those ardent Trump supporters IMO will see anything Trump does or says as being “brilliant”, “pragmatic”, “common sense”….
All I can say is that stranger things have happened and this is certainly the very strangest election cycle in all of my 55 years.
Now as to the less serious response – Ivanka Trump for VP!
But while I’m joking, it’s not a crazy as some of what I’ve seen on another site whose name I will not mention.
I’ve actually seen some posters there proposing Ivanka or Donald Jr. or Eric Trump as Trump’s VP. And if they were not serious, if they were trolling, I would have laughed.
There was even one poster who said that the VP pick should be Donald Jr. and when he becomes POTUS, his sister Ivanka becomes VP, then Eric and so on and so on down through the family line all the way to Baron. And no, it did not seem that the poster was trying to be funny.
Poll
