GOP Disavowal Week Continues
First, Chris Christie was out. Then Sarah Palin, as Diane notes below. But for those of us who thought those earlier announcements were inevitable, this may actually be the biggest revelation of the week:
Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican and tea party favorite, has said he will not be the GOP’s nominee for vice president in 2012.
“I’m not going to be the vice presidential nominee,” Rubio said at The Atlantic’s Washington Ideas Forum, according to the magazine’s Mark Ambinder. “The answer is going to be no.”
I hope that resolve weakens. Rubio is as good a choice as we get for the bottom of the ticket. He's great on the merits (conservative, principled yet pragmatic, intelligent, a gifted speaker) and makes irrefutable sense politically (young, telegenic Hispanic from the nation's largest swing state). What do you think? Will Rubio's protestations weaken when the voice asking him the question belongs to the next Republican presidential nominee? And, if not, who makes the short list when Rubio bows out?
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May '10
Re: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
The way you avoid Obama going negative and making the Republican toxic is to send Cain out there to lecture Obama every day- as a "not-racist" and remind us how bad BHO is.
Barbour is toxic because of his "Citizens Councils" comments in The Weekly Standard.
May '11
Re: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
Kevin McCarthy is young, handsome, articulate, and has a delightful self-deprecating sense of humor. He is from California and would probably be willing to give up his leadership position which Rubio doesn't have yet but expects. No governor adds to the ticket. No one else from the house who would run adds to the ticket. Cain wants to replace Trump at Celebrity Apprentice. Haley Barbour is a Southern White Male! Mitch Daniel doesn't want his wife to have to talk about their divorce. Kevin McCarthy will be the next vice-president.
Apr '11
Re: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
At the risk of seeming a crank, it might be—probably isn't, but it might be—that Rubio realizes that his position relative to the "natural born citizen" requirement is shaky. Absent a persuasive permissive understanding of "natural born citizen", I would not vote for a ticket with Rubio on it.
Oct '10
Re: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
Who would make a good VP for Romney?
1) Cain 2) Giuliani 3)
If Perry's the nominee, Rubio will be open to the VP position.
Edited on October 6, 2011 at 7:41amRe: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
The problem is the media's influence and ability to vilify a conservative candidate gets stronger with each election cycle. To combat this, a superstar V.P. is necessary. That's my theory. This will not be like previous elections. The wedges driven by the left in society, and reinforced by the media, make it different. It will not even resemble 2008.
Jimmy Carter
I don't understand that at all.
I'm with Mendel, VP don't mean squat. How many people vote for a party just because of the VP? When has ever anyone stated that what pushed them to vote for a party was the VP?
I bet more Republicans refrained from voting in '08 because of McCain than Palin sent to the polls. · Oct 5 at 7:51pm
Edited on Oct 05 at 08:00 pm
Oct '10
Re: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
I already mentioned Cain and Giuliani, but I think Romney would prefer somebody like the wonky Jindal. The VP is Jindal's if he wants it.
Oct '10
Re: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
Among the current crop of presidential candidates, which one is the most difficult to demonize?
Joe Escalante: The problem is the media's influence and ability to vilify a conservative candidate gets stronger with each election cycle. To combat this, a superstar V.P. is necessary. That's my theory. This will not be like previous elections. The wedges driven by the left in society, and reinforced by the media, make it different. It will not even resemble 2008.
Oct 5 at 10:46pm
Nov '10
Re: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
Oct '10
Re: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
She's easy to demonize. It's a shame Pawlenty dropped out because of her. Now the tea partiers have discarded her like a rag doll.
Nov '10
Re: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
I worry that our more "informed" candidates do not see any opportunity in running for 2012. The personal mudslinging in 2011/2012 will be severe, the expectations of a new president even higher than Obama's and progressive elements that will have a dying snakes' fight left in them. I wonder if our GOP superstars see more opportunity in picking up the pieces in 2016. The issue is will there be anything left?
Dec '10
Re: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
"young, telegenic Hispanic from the nation's largest swing state"
And he is light-skinned and can speak without a Cuban dialect if he wants to.
Sep '10
Re: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
He probably looked at the fact that he would have to run with either Romney or Perry and, like most Republicans in poll after poll, decided he didn't care for either one.
Mar '11
Re: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
The real action after 2012 is going to be in the House, and if the Republicans take the Senate, Marco Rubio will become a much larger voice right where he is. He'd be marginalized as VP. I'm looking forward to having Paul Ryan as the intellectual leader of the House as Budget Chairman or the head of the Ways and Means committee, and Marco Rubio framing the debate in the Senate. The founders intended for the legislative branch to hold the true power in government, and with these 2 guys sitting where they are, that power would be in good hands.
Apr '11
Re: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
Romney/ Portman. Robert Portman has solid foreign policy expertise (US Trade Rep), solid financial expertise (OMB), solid legal experience (Patton Boggs and another law firm, then Associate WH counsel), has been in the House, Senate, and Executive branch, and is a solid conservative. Other than foreign policy, it's not a "balancing" ticket, Portman would not add excitement or glamor to the ticket and there's no ethnic or gender bonus; it's just a solid, straightforward competency bid.
Budget fights with shrinking budgets are ugly, complicated, and difficult things. Resolute effectiveness seems like something that we should want and that voters would value.
Apr '11
Re: GOP Disavowal Week Continues
There is, fwiw, a small identity politics benefit from Portman. He's an Ohio Senator and went to U. Mich; if the GOP can win PA and MI, both of which are Mitt-friendly states, Obama could win Florida and still lose.