Who will Mitt Romney pick as vice president? A conservative. - The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/who-will-mitt-romney-pick-as-vice-president-a-conservative/2012/04/02/gIQAMtTuqS_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_pmfix
RRD:Of course notwithstanding the delusions of some Romney supporters,Romney is not,in fact the nominee.
But he is the most likely nominee,and speculation on who he would nominate is legitimate. Cillizza floats the standard three candidates:Jindal,Christie and Rubio,and he argues,(not without reason) that Romney will follow in the footsteps of his predecessors & pick a ”opposite number” so to speak. I am not convinced of that.
First picking a Vice Presidential Candidate is not like picking out a shirt or a car,neither the shirt or the car can refuse to be picked,a Vice Presidential Candidate can. They may not believe that the Presidential Candidate will win,or they may not be ready,or like Mitch Daniels,they have family members who may object.
Second,Romney is a creature of the establishment,& one of the oft repeated claims of Rockefeller Republican Strategists is that Mccain made a blunder in choosing Palin,not simply because she was a unknown,(or a "incompetent" or the Liberal's version of the Whore of Babylon and Jezebel rolled into one et-al),but that he made a mistake simply by choosing ANY conservative,since Mccain needed to differentiate himself from Bush & demonstrate his ”Maverickyness” (as Palin,or Tina Fey might have put it),by picking someone like...Tom Ridge,or even Joseph Lieberman.
Now of course most Republicans would recoil at the thought of picking a pro-choice Republican for the Vice Presidency,but after all,
they ”would vote for a bag of cement if it had a R after it” &
"where will they go". Liberal Republican Strategists have invested heavily in the idea that Conservatism is toxic,and that elections are won "from the center". And who do you think is advising Mitt Romney? But Mccain did pick a Conservative? Yes and "look what happened",the Liberal Republican Strategists(LRS?)would say. If you accept the deluded notion that your base has no choice but to vote for the party's candidate
,if you accept the premise that morale is irrelevant,& that the base is "locked in",then why not do whatever you think will win over the independents and pick the most liberal Republican "Modernizer" you can(with the added benefit of poking those ”wingnuts” in eye ,while you're at it), (fn1)
It is important to remember that Romney includes among his advisors some of the same people who worked for Charlie Crist.(fn2)
And it is also important to recall that Romney,is,well,Romney. He is a Northeastern,Liberal Republican. Romney is the type of person who would readily accept the arguments of the LRS' that the base ”has nowhere to go”.
The man lives in a wholly different world than the,average Republican,much less the average Conservative.
He may pick a Conservative,or a pseudo-Conservative like Christie,or he may pick a Moderate.
Time will tell,if he gets the.nomination.
My guess is that he does not want to ”repeat Mccain's mistake”.
I wonder if Tom Ridge,or Colin Powell for that matter,is open to being the nominee. Footnotes: fn1. Murphy suggests Tom Ridge as VP. First Bad Idea From Murphy in A While - National Review Online
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/159744/first-bad-idea-murphy-while/jonah-goldberg To go forward, GOP must snap out of its Sarah Palin spell Mike Murphy - NY Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/gop-snap-sarah-palin-spell-article-1.428766
”But facts are facts. An inexperienced governor of a small state, she lacked the experience to be President and brought nothing to the ticket except a surefire knack for exciting voters who were already reliably Republican. It was a strategically awful choice, and I said so - both on and off microphone - at the time. Most pundits thought I was wrong. Look at the crowds she can draw, I was told. She "excites the base." Phooey. Every presidential election year brings forth some new nugget of conventional wisdom from the media elite that totally misses the real picture. Last year, the big wrong idea was this notion that base voters have somehow become the new swing voters. We are now told the party base - those voters who will vote for a bag of cement if it has an R or D attached to it - must be carefully appealed to, romanced and appeased. Under that funhouse reasoning, Palin was an inspired pick.” RRD:Set aside for a moment what you think of Palin,note instead that Murphy believes that the party base ”will vote for a bag of cement if it has an R or D attached to it”;that is,that they do not care about who the candidate is,or what the candidate does,they are robots without political beliefs,without convictions,without ideals,without values,they are just useful idiots to be mocked,ignored,& betrayed with impunity & yet still be expected to go door to door,day after day,week after week,knocking on thousands of doors,making phone call after phone call,since they ”will vote for a bag of cement if it has an R ...attached to it”. I am reminded of the lines from Atlas Shrugged "Oh,you'll always produce...",& ”you'll do something Mr.Rearden...”.
It also reminds me of the painting Ayn Rand mentioned in "The Money-Making Personality",a monk,a missonary,returns from preaching the Gospel to the people,to speak with high ranking officials of the Catholic Church.His hands are bloody,cut,he has suffered tremendously for his beliefs.
He tells them of his struggle,and the results.
They are living in luxurious surroundings.
One of the Cardinals is asleep.
One of the Cardinals plays with a dog.
The third looks at the monk with a expression of bewildered contempt,as if to say "why spend your time on hard work,when you can have relax and have fun like we do". fn2. See below:
Romney Campaign Run by Charlie Crist’s Political Aides http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/romney-crist-rubio-gingrich/2012/01/23/id/425195
RRD:For a contrary view see:
Romney’s Crist people aren’t really Crist people | Saint Petersblog http://saintpetersblog.com/2012/01/romneys-crist-people-arent-really-crist-people/ RRD:Rubio also came to Romney's defense,rather oddly calling the man who gave us Romneycare, a "conservative",(perhaps because Romney endorsed him?) Rubio: "Mitt Romney Is No Charlie Crist" | The Weekly Standard
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/rubio-mitt-romney-no-charlie-crist_618433.html
RRD:My view?
Yes,Romney has many advisors,including those who have worked on the campaigns of Crist AND Rubio,and yes the fact that these people are among his advisors, doesn't mean that he will take their advice.
However they are,nonetheless,his advisors,and they did,in fact ,advise Crist,and while taken in isolation, the fact that he has ex-Crist advisors is not that damning in and of itself,we are talking about Mitt Romney;someone who is known for pandering to liberals,and for reversing himself,someone whose senoir campaign advisor made the infamous Etch-a-Sketch comment,and someone whose aides reportedly told Politico that they believe that Romneycare would help Romney in the general election. See: Mitt Romney or not, GOP is coming for ‘Obamacare’ - Alexander Burns - POLITICO.com http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74629_Page2.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/who-will-mitt-romney-pick-as-vice-president-a-conservative/2012/04/02/gIQAMtTuqS_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_pmfix
RRD:Of course notwithstanding the delusions of some Romney supporters,Romney is not,in fact the nominee.
But he is the most likely nominee,and speculation on who he would nominate is legitimate. Cillizza floats the standard three candidates:Jindal,Christie and Rubio,and he argues,(not without reason) that Romney will follow in the footsteps of his predecessors & pick a ”opposite number” so to speak. I am not convinced of that.
First picking a Vice Presidential Candidate is not like picking out a shirt or a car,neither the shirt or the car can refuse to be picked,a Vice Presidential Candidate can. They may not believe that the Presidential Candidate will win,or they may not be ready,or like Mitch Daniels,they have family members who may object.
Second,Romney is a creature of the establishment,& one of the oft repeated claims of Rockefeller Republican Strategists is that Mccain made a blunder in choosing Palin,not simply because she was a unknown,(or a "incompetent" or the Liberal's version of the Whore of Babylon and Jezebel rolled into one et-al),but that he made a mistake simply by choosing ANY conservative,since Mccain needed to differentiate himself from Bush & demonstrate his ”Maverickyness” (as Palin,or Tina Fey might have put it),by picking someone like...Tom Ridge,or even Joseph Lieberman.
Now of course most Republicans would recoil at the thought of picking a pro-choice Republican for the Vice Presidency,but after all,
they ”would vote for a bag of cement if it had a R after it” &
"where will they go". Liberal Republican Strategists have invested heavily in the idea that Conservatism is toxic,and that elections are won "from the center". And who do you think is advising Mitt Romney? But Mccain did pick a Conservative? Yes and "look what happened",the Liberal Republican Strategists(LRS?)would say. If you accept the deluded notion that your base has no choice but to vote for the party's candidate
,if you accept the premise that morale is irrelevant,& that the base is "locked in",then why not do whatever you think will win over the independents and pick the most liberal Republican "Modernizer" you can(with the added benefit of poking those ”wingnuts” in eye ,while you're at it), (fn1)
It is important to remember that Romney includes among his advisors some of the same people who worked for Charlie Crist.(fn2)
And it is also important to recall that Romney,is,well,Romney. He is a Northeastern,Liberal Republican. Romney is the type of person who would readily accept the arguments of the LRS' that the base ”has nowhere to go”.
The man lives in a wholly different world than the,average Republican,much less the average Conservative.
He may pick a Conservative,or a pseudo-Conservative like Christie,or he may pick a Moderate.
Time will tell,if he gets the.nomination.
My guess is that he does not want to ”repeat Mccain's mistake”.
I wonder if Tom Ridge,or Colin Powell for that matter,is open to being the nominee. Footnotes: fn1. Murphy suggests Tom Ridge as VP. First Bad Idea From Murphy in A While - National Review Online
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/159744/first-bad-idea-murphy-while/jonah-goldberg To go forward, GOP must snap out of its Sarah Palin spell Mike Murphy - NY Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/gop-snap-sarah-palin-spell-article-1.428766
”But facts are facts. An inexperienced governor of a small state, she lacked the experience to be President and brought nothing to the ticket except a surefire knack for exciting voters who were already reliably Republican. It was a strategically awful choice, and I said so - both on and off microphone - at the time. Most pundits thought I was wrong. Look at the crowds she can draw, I was told. She "excites the base." Phooey. Every presidential election year brings forth some new nugget of conventional wisdom from the media elite that totally misses the real picture. Last year, the big wrong idea was this notion that base voters have somehow become the new swing voters. We are now told the party base - those voters who will vote for a bag of cement if it has an R or D attached to it - must be carefully appealed to, romanced and appeased. Under that funhouse reasoning, Palin was an inspired pick.” RRD:Set aside for a moment what you think of Palin,note instead that Murphy believes that the party base ”will vote for a bag of cement if it has an R or D attached to it”;that is,that they do not care about who the candidate is,or what the candidate does,they are robots without political beliefs,without convictions,without ideals,without values,they are just useful idiots to be mocked,ignored,& betrayed with impunity & yet still be expected to go door to door,day after day,week after week,knocking on thousands of doors,making phone call after phone call,since they ”will vote for a bag of cement if it has an R ...attached to it”. I am reminded of the lines from Atlas Shrugged "Oh,you'll always produce...",& ”you'll do something Mr.Rearden...”.
It also reminds me of the painting Ayn Rand mentioned in "The Money-Making Personality",a monk,a missonary,returns from preaching the Gospel to the people,to speak with high ranking officials of the Catholic Church.His hands are bloody,cut,he has suffered tremendously for his beliefs.
He tells them of his struggle,and the results.
They are living in luxurious surroundings.
One of the Cardinals is asleep.
One of the Cardinals plays with a dog.
The third looks at the monk with a expression of bewildered contempt,as if to say "why spend your time on hard work,when you can have relax and have fun like we do". fn2. See below:
Romney Campaign Run by Charlie Crist’s Political Aides http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/romney-crist-rubio-gingrich/2012/01/23/id/425195
RRD:For a contrary view see:
Romney’s Crist people aren’t really Crist people | Saint Petersblog http://saintpetersblog.com/2012/01/romneys-crist-people-arent-really-crist-people/ RRD:Rubio also came to Romney's defense,rather oddly calling the man who gave us Romneycare, a "conservative",(perhaps because Romney endorsed him?) Rubio: "Mitt Romney Is No Charlie Crist" | The Weekly Standard
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/rubio-mitt-romney-no-charlie-crist_618433.html
RRD:My view?
Yes,Romney has many advisors,including those who have worked on the campaigns of Crist AND Rubio,and yes the fact that these people are among his advisors, doesn't mean that he will take their advice.
However they are,nonetheless,his advisors,and they did,in fact ,advise Crist,and while taken in isolation, the fact that he has ex-Crist advisors is not that damning in and of itself,we are talking about Mitt Romney;someone who is known for pandering to liberals,and for reversing himself,someone whose senoir campaign advisor made the infamous Etch-a-Sketch comment,and someone whose aides reportedly told Politico that they believe that Romneycare would help Romney in the general election. See: Mitt Romney or not, GOP is coming for ‘Obamacare’ - Alexander Burns - POLITICO.com http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74629_Page2.html
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