Opportunities and Dangers for Romney in VP Choices

[jimnyc]

Living in the NY area, I hear/see a lot from Chris Christie in my "home" state. I don't agree with everything he does, but he's one hell of a public speaker and I love the way he says what he wants, and does so without tripping over his words. He says what he is going to do and goes ahead and does it. Rubio is a favorite, but he's still saying he doesn't want the job. And not mentioned, and I know haters gonna hate, but I think Sarah Palin would help rile the base and get a lot of voters to the polls. And before anyone says anything about intelligence - what has Biden done in office? I don't think I've heard of him since 2008!


Now on a glide path to becoming the Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney's mind is turning to potential running mates - a choice that has haunted some of his predecessors.

Romney has a rich trove of potential candidates from whom to pick, from Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin to Senator Rob Portman of Ohio.

Others on the list are Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia, and Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval.

Who best helps his chances against Democratic President Barack Obama in the Nov. 6 election? Does he pick someone who can help him win a state, or a Latino to reach out to Hispanics? A woman?

Romney advisers are adamant about the most significant requirement of the job, that the person selected have the ability to immediately step into the presidency if needed.

"I honestly believe he wants someone who can be president. Governing comes first and the politics comes second," said a senior Romney adviser.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/romney-christie-portman-haley/2012/04/06/id/435028

[Gator Monroe]

Congressman Daryl Issa of California , Michelle Bachmann, Coburn , DeMint, Rubio, West...:link:

[jimnyc]

Congressman Daryl Issa of California , Michelle Bachmann, Coburn , DeMint, Rubio, West...:link:

I like Bachmann, personally, but she would end up getting shredded I think. Maybe Allen West? Palin? Haley from SC?

[Gator Monroe]

DeMint or Coburn would bring Gravitas , West or Rubio would drive the left insane

[Kathianne]

He needs a real conservative, but not one of the 'nutters.' Coburn? Possibly. Paul Ryan would be good, though I don't think he wants it. Bobby Jindal also would be a draw. While I like Christie, I think he has a record similar to Romney's on certain issues that provide the same problem.

[Kathianne]

George Will on VP choices:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/romney-needs-a-heavy-hitter-as-his-vice-president/2012/04/06/gIQAB0sVzS_story.html


What Romney needs in a running mate By George F. Will (http://www.washingtonpost.com/george-f-will/2011/02/24/ABVZKXN_page.html), Friday, April 6, 8:20 AM Barack Obama’s intellectual sociopathy — his often breezy and sometimes loutish indifference to truth — should no longer startle. It should, however, influence Mitt Romney’s choice of a running mate (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romneys-veepstakes-begin/2012/03/30/gIQATWo8lS_story.html).


In his 2010 State of the Union (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/27/AR2010012705474.html) address, Obama flagrantly misrepresented the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which did not “open the floodgates” for foreign corporations “to spend without limit in our elections” (the law prohibiting foreign money was untouched by Citizens United) and did not reverse “a century of law.” Although Obama is not nearly as well educated as many thought, and he thinks, he surely knows he was absurd when he said last Monday, regarding Obamacare, that it would be “unprecedented (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-remains-confident-supreme-court-will-uphold-health-care-law/2012/04/02/gIQA9HIOrS_story.html)” for the Supreme Court to overturn a “passed law.”


More important, and particularly pertinent to Romney’s choice, was Obama’s Tuesday speech comprehensively misrepresenting Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget. (For Ryan’s refutation of Obama, go to http://ow.ly/a6hPz.) Remarkably, the 42-year-old congressman is today’s agenda-setting Republican. Admirably, Romney has embraced Ryan’s approach to altering the ruinous trajectory of the entitlement state and forestalling what that trajectory presages, a “government-centered society” (Romney’s phrase in his fine Milwaukee speech Tuesday night).


Obama’s defense of reactionary liberalism — whatever is must ever be, only increased — is not weighed down by the ballast of scruples. His defense will be his campaign because he cannot forever distract the nation and mesmerize the media with such horrors as a 30-year-old law student (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/sandra-fluke-says-she-expected-criticism-not-personal-attacks-over-contraception-issue/2012/03/03/gIQAJq1UpR_story.html) being unable to make someone else pay for her contraception. So Romney’s running mate should have intellectual firepower, born of immersion in policy complexities, sufficient to refute Obama’s meretricious claims and derelictions of duty. Here are two excellent choices:


Ryan already is at the center of the campaign and is the world’s foremost expert on the Ryan-Romney plan. No one is more marinated in the facts to which Obama is averse. Ryan has not yet honed his rhetorical skills for communicating complexities to laypersons, but he is a quick study. One drawback is that he is invaluable as chairman of the Budget Committee and in 2015 might become chairman of Ways and Means.


Louisiana’s Gov. Bobby Jindal, 40, was a 20-year-old congressional staffer when he authored a substantial report on reforming Medicare financing. At 24, he became head of Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals, with 12,000 employees and 40 percent of the state budget. Back in Washington at 26, he was executive director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. In 1999, he became president of Louisiana’s state university system, which has 80,000 students. In 2001, he served as an assistant secretary of health and human services. He became governor after three years in Congress...

[Thunderknuckles]

You have to put Mitch Daniels on that list as well.
When Romney was in Indiana somebody asked him where Mitch would be in his Administration. Romney's response: "Wherever he'd like to be"

As far as the others that have been mentioned, I think they're good choices with exceptions of Palin and Bachmann. Palin may be a popular mouthpiece but I don't think folks want a repeat of what happened last time. My gut tells that while people may like Bachmann, they don't envision her in the White House. But that's just my gut's opinion and it's not very smart with all the beer I keep loading it down with :p.

[fj1200]

Jindahl is the future but he needs to continue racking up experience as an executive... and get over that disastrous SOTU response from a couple of years ago.

[SassyLady]

I vote West or Haley.