Just before midnight on July 3:
Mike Pence seems to be interviewing well. That is, he can put words into sentences and can stand Trump for small periods of time. So he’s my favorite.
Did anyone make the call before then? If not, bravo Sabutai!
Please share widely!
What’s the prize for winning the Veepstakes these days?…
nah. Too cruel.
what Sabutai really wanted was a piece of Eastern Europe. Perhaps there’s a province you could carve off for him.
2nd prize: two pieces of Eastern Europe.
Thanks for looking out for me, kbusch.
A regular stint on Fox News and a minor book deal.
To paraphrase a popular gag about holding a contest back when I was an undergrad at Penn, the first prize would be a week in Cleveland (or, so as not to offend the good people of the rest of the fine City of Cleveland, a week at the RNC), and the second prize would be two weeks (at the RNC, of course – or at least a guest pass for the next one!).
” Mistake by the Lake” was how people dissed Cleveland.
Front runners: Tim Kaine
Darkhorse: Mike Mullen, Bob Gates or Admiral Stavridis. Adam Smith or Chris Murphy come to mind.
Tim Kaine would not be a bad choice, I think – not much that I know of him though.
She needs someone of consequence, like Cory Booker.
Stavridis was interviewed for cabinet, imo.
Booker is the lightest of light weights. Agree about Adm Jim though.
I read his recently published book, and learned quite a bit – not just about him, but about the politics of low income housing over the decades. He’s the rare politician who can actually put pen to paper.
I like Cory Booker a lot, he’s thoughtful and an independent thinker.
I find that Booker is thoughtful of his ego, and dependent on Wall Street. His antics made for good cheap press, but the people of Newark don’t have much good to say about him — and Booker ran his city to make the 1% happy. He tore the heart out of many neighborhoods by selling off the schools and doing whatever Mark Zuckerberg told him to do for that money, and all but walled off some blocks to the benefit of corporate clients. This article tells a great bit. Picking Booker would basically confirm everything Sanders said about her.
I think Clinton is worryingly close to Coakley — her opponent is such an idiot that she’s going super-ultra-safe. A no-mistakes mistake. And Kaine, the Virginian Ambien, fits that bill perfectly.
I want to say it was called Street Fight or something like that. It sounds like he shook things up for the better, beat the machine, and got past some old divisions and identity politics. It was my introduction to him and as such my views of him are default favorable.
I don’t really know. What I do know is as an official, at most he traded one local corrupt machine for an out of state machine with much more money. Booker is the type of official who thrives on image and low-information reactions. But the idea of him as VP just would confirm all my worst fears about Hillary.
Indeed, Booker’s critics complain he did not impart jobs or ‘local machine’ style benefits – according to the article posted by Sabutai. That is in accord to his book – Booker’s base before acceding to office was neighborhood organizations, building committees upset with the increase in drugs, crime and loss of quality of life. His book dors not speak of ‘new democrat’ type projects sponsired downtown, or about charter schools (which Booker supported).
To me, he sounds like a democrat in the mold of Barack Obama – anti Tammany Hall type local machine, reform, rules based governance, support economic development, budget discipline, pro charter schools. Booker did have 70% approval rate when leving the city hall. He differs from Clinton in that she is also pro economic development, budget hawk, pro charter (depending on wind direction), but she’s less for rules based governance as for more machine style operation, friends and favorites rewarded according to services rendered.
The difference is subtle, but important enough that Clinton could not work well with someone like Booker.
douchebag. He romanced billionaires like Zuckerberg into a senate career.
Clinton is going to pick Kaine, I think. He’s the most sensible choice. There isn’t a lefty choice that makes sense. Warren’s out. Her convention time slot says. Perez doesn’t bring a lot to the ticket, aside from his ethnicity, which Clinton will have in the bag. He looks like a good guy and all, but he’s not held elective office above county commissioner. I like Sherrod Brown, but it’s hard to see taking him out of the senate to be replaced by a GOP appointee. Garcetti? We already have California. Castro facilitated foreclosures, and Texas isn’t in play. Vilsack has the resume, but do we need Iowa? I still can’t see Chuck Grassley losing? When it comes down to it, Kaine fits Hillary’s campaign focus on experience and won’t outshine her on the campaign trail, which Warren would have done.
I think Hillary’s approval rating will rise as the campaign goes on, but most people aren’t going to get excited about her.
6 6’s for the Booker takedowns. Never understood why people thought he was a liberal, or that he had anywhere near the rhetorical talent of Obama or Deval. He also had a long bromance with Christie.
And I agree with sab that she is running a safe Coakley Esque campaign and will likely pick Kaine for those reasons. Sanders has nothing left to give, he was a bit of a cheap date and now she can move to the center and win over Republicans who dislike Trump. Kaine is the last candidate standing, doesn’t threaten a Senate seat and F.O.B Terry can appoint himself. He’s about bored 2 years into a single four year term anyway.
I agree with Mark that this makes sense. The platform is already substantially to the left and Bernie and Warren will campaign for her. Who else besides those two would really excite the base? It’s not Brown. But the vanilla toast against a shit sandwich campaign is a risky move, this is not the year to play it safe or be gutless.
…but On The Issues puts Booker solidly in the left-liberal part of their rubric.
Gawker
In light of the reports of Trump’s dithering about the Pence announcement, we should be thinking about another tourney:
1. Will Trump dump Pence?
2. If so, when?
3. Who gets the nod the second time?
I’m worried that Pence dumps Trump from the ticket, and that Pence wins as vanilla against Clinton.
I don’t imagine either the RNC delegates going THAT rogue or the GOP electors forgetting which way is up.
It would be Mike in the library, with a lead pipe.
Maybe Trump dies.
Maybe something finally sticks to the guy.
Maybe he determines his brand will suffer more with a likely loss than with a quit.
I don’t believe Trump can win. But there are still ways he can not play.
He got pressured to pick Pence, who is as close to “generic conservative Republican” as you can get. And then if he quits in the middle of the race or in the middle of his term you got a reliable Republican ready to sign Ryan’s bills. Dad kept saying to was going to be Kasich, so he was wrong on that front.
My money was on Gingrich.
Gingrich’s money was on Gingrich, as well. ‘Two pirate ticket’, he said. Who better to take on the terrorists than two buccaneers.
Trump went boring, so HRC can afford to go boring.
Elizabeth Warren has magically disappeared from the Monday night lineup, reigniting speculation that she is being saved for an acceptance speech of her own. She had another meeting with Clinton in the past day as has Julian Castro, but he previously said flat out he wasn’t being vetted.
Warren would bring the recalcitrant Bernie folks on board, fire up the base, and be a great attack dog. Two women isn’t a big deal to me, and with Trump toxic already it would only widen that deficit which could easily swing the election. The downside is for Warren. It allows Hillary to go centrist in her administration and force Warren to be a loyal soldier rather than a potential primary threat and Senate foil. There are fewer places in Washington where she would be less threatening to Wall Street and more marginalized then as the Vice President.
…that a VP must subordinate all of her views to the top of the ticket rather than being the most influential voice to move the top in her direction.