Non-Obvious Vice Presidential Thoughts
Of the non-obvious ideas I suppose I like Mark Sanford the most: yes, he is from a solidly Republican state, but he offers both contrasts and sympathetic vibrations with McCain, i.e., he is an unambiguous small government budget hawk, and he is also a maverick who has been at odds with the local Republican establishment. But perhaps he is too obvious.
As an Alaskaphile, due entirely to Northern Exposure, Sarah Palin seems very appealing. She’s another rebel from the smallish government wing. Yet I wonder if she’s ready for prime time, so to speak.
I was most intrigued by Fred Smith, the founder and CEO of FedEx. He sounds like a badass, and he outRomneys Romney. Yes, Romney was a successful entrepreneur. But Smith was a successful entrepreneur and loyal Republican who also killed VC. No, not venture capitalists. Viet Cong. You see what I mean: Smith sits comfortably atop all three legs of the three-legged stool.
Imagine if McCain picked Ken Blackwell. That would just be crazy. Crazy like a fox! No, just crazy. But no less crazy than J.C. Watts or Michael Steele, both proposed by the normally sober RealClearPolitics blog. I actually had the Steele thought myself a few months back, but the trouble is that his resume is troublingly thin. So far. I wish he could be parachuted into a truly purple state, but alas.
Thus far I’ve been pretty milquetoast.
How about
the exhumed body of Silent Cal?
disgraced former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney?
Bernie Sanders of Vermont as part of a conservative-socialist front against Clinton?
former New York governor George Pata — wait, that’s just absurd.
I still want Scalia to run. As the song “Here Comes the Judge” plays in the background, he will fly from state to state, crushing injustice with his mighty gavel. Speaking semi-seriously, I would be interested to see a committed originalist or textualist in the White House. It would be pretty strange, I think, and possibly very healthy. I assume she or he would use that veto pen with great verve.
You know who I kind of like from a distance? Tom McClintock, the California state senator made somewhat famous by his role in the California recall election. Too bad he looks and sounds like a man possessed. Then again, that’s clearly why I like him.
I’m just waiting for the ferocious battle between Petraeus and Jindal in 2016, when frontrunning Petraeus will be laid low by the charge that he is some kind of secular humanist. Jindal, meanwhile, will use a massive botnet attack to cripple the federal government as he uses an army of homeschoolers to establish a sovereign Christian republic in the states of the Old Confederacy. But Jindal’s use of Bengalooru hackers will lead Dixie nativists to revolt, thus initiating a round of coups and counter-coups in the fragile new state. It’s at this point that Petraeus, at the head of an army of loyal Iraq veterans, will seize control of the heartland to establish the Islamic Republic of Petraeustan, governed by a particularly harsh interpretation of sharia law. His grand vizier? Imam Walid W. Bush, the man formerly known as “Dubya.” Caliph Bush 41 will, in a meeting with European president Tony Blair, declare eternal peace between the two warring civilizations. And all will be well.
You heard it here first, folks.
The best idea in here is Fred Smith.
I’m still rooting for Jindal, though.
— PEG · Feb 10, 10:29 AM · #
And Colin Powell. Not because he’s black. Although if Hillary gets the nomination he should get a sex change op.
— PEG · Feb 10, 10:58 AM · #
How can anyone’s resume be considered “thin” at this point, with Obama doing so well? Or do you think the Republican party would view the lack of experience differently than the Dems?
— Jeremiah · Feb 10, 04:38 PM · #
How can anyone’s resume be considered “thin” at this point, with Obama doing so well? Or do you think the Republican party would view the lack of experience differently than the Dems?
The idea that Obama is uniquely inexperienced for a major Presidential candidate simply doesn’t hold up to historical scrutiny. It’s a meme that’s really not based in reality at all.
— Freddie · Feb 10, 04:46 PM · #
Freddie,
I never stated that Obama was too inexperienced to be President, let alone “uniquely inexperienced.” I simply stated that his resume, compared to other recent, legitimate candidates (not people who simply ran, but people who had a serious chance of capturing their party’s nomination) documents less experience of the kind I’d wager most voters have traditionally considered important. To my knowledge, he hasn’t “run anything” (in the CEO/executive sense), and he’s a one-term senator. Obviously, it doesn’t disqualify him from office, it just looks thin. A positive of his success is that it probably opens up the option of running for president to a whole group of people who hitherto were probably considered too inexperienced.
Unless,of course, I’m missing something, either in his background, or in terms of other successful candidates in the last 20-30 years who’s resume was as light. I recognize that he had a distinguished academic career, and that’s probably the area where he actually stands out experientially compared to other recent candidates. But even that (unfortunately) doesn’t seem to matter much to much of the public, relative to experience (i.e. McCain).
I wasn’t knocking Obama (at least in terms of his experience), I was simply pointing out that there may be a whole bunch of folks with similar levels of (less than typical) experience who used to be thought of as “too inexperienced,” that might get a crack at the big time. If there is more in Obama’s background (besides “community organizer,” “civil rights leader,” and state senator) that I’m missing, it sure isn’t getting out into the public.
— Jeremiah · Feb 10, 08:26 PM · #
If Scalia ran, I would hope that somehow his commercials would start off with the recorded voice of Judge Reinhold saying “my name is Judge”
— hugo · Feb 13, 09:32 PM · #
The key is to get a non-boomer. The American people have endured 16 years of a baby boomer in the Oval Office, and have opted to support the two candidates whose lives were not changed by Revolver. John McCain is pre, Barack Obama is post, throwing nice little parethesis around America’s worst generation.
— George · Feb 14, 11:46 PM · #
Fmr. CO Gov Bill Owens would be an excellent pick – governor of a swing state, foreign policy and national security expertise . . . but then he had to go and get himself a deevorce.
. .. Talk about bad timing.
— shua · Feb 15, 09:57 AM · #