Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
In our past discussions of who would make for a shrewd VP pick, the Ricochet shortlist comprised Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Allen West, Susana Martinez, Chris Christie, and Bobby Jindal.
Each of these young, politically fresh-faced candidates would easily boost the excitement factor of a Romney headliner by a factor of no less than ten. And all of them (with the exception of Christie, whom some would argue is a squish on a few of the important issues) can eloquently and passionately articulate the principles of conservatism.
But precisely none of these candidates would be an ideal running-mate for Mitt Romney. Or at least so says Romney surrogate John Sununu in his Boston Globe column today entitled "An exciting VP? Don't go for it, Mitt".
The vice presidential pick can bring on board a good campaigner, a substantive voice, or some skills and experience where the nominee falls short. This very modest upside potential can be quickly and effortlessly offset by a choice that becomes a distraction. Distractions are the result of the unexpected, and the unexpected occurs when candidates have been poorly vetted. (You know who I mean.)
[...]
So let us embrace the obvious: The winning choice is the dull choice — a running mate the public already knows, warts and all. Mondale, Bush, Gore, Cheney, Biden. These were not picks that lit the world on fire. They were serious, experienced names, vetted by the harsh media glare of a previous run for president or service in the president’s cabinet. They weren’t from key states, and weren’t part of some grand plan to balance ideology. But they all won.
My initial reaction was suspicion that Sununu, not exactly a sizzling player these days, must be angling for the position himself. But the former New Hampshire Senator told NRO that Romney would be ill-advised to tap as his VP nominee someone from the northeast lest he "be accused of being so parochial that you can't even look outside of your own backyard." That at least suggests that he's not interested in the position for himself.
Sununu's bottom line seems to be that if Romney wants to avoid providing fodder for yet another made-for-TV movie, he should take care not to select a running mate in the mold of you-know-who. The problem with this obvious advice is that exciting and unvetted aren't always synonymous.
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Dec '11
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
I'd go along with Ricocheter Romney expert, James of England in his choice of Senator Portman from that electorally rich state of Ohio.
Nov '10
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
Apparently I can get no one, not even my fellow Ricochevians, to take seriously Governor Scott Walker. If he wins his recall election, I would nominate him the most successful as well as the most courageous and principled conservative voice in the whole rank of GOP governors, and someone with REAL executive experience into the bargain.
Mar '12
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
I was just coming here to say that I'm pulling for Walker. But I wonder if he wouldn't do more good in Wisconson.
May '10
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
Are all elections the same? I could have sworn something was different about 2010.
The industry of news media has changed significantly since the 1990s. The fangs have come out. I wouldn't plan on a boring candidate getting a free pass. I fully expect Romney to select such a candidate, though.
More to the point, I would wonder if the 2012 elections will be more similar to 2010 or to 2008. Has the Tea Party movement fizzled out? Do voters just want to return to government which makes the trains run on time? Or are many swing voters looking at politics in a fundamentally different way than they did ten years ago?
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
Aaron Miller
Are all elections the same? I could have sworn something was different about 2010.
2010 was different: it was a midterm.
But I get your point. When I showed Sununu's column to Troy earlier, one of his first responses was that "conventional wisdom is true until it isn't."
May '11
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
I think a bold but effective choice would be Kevin McCarthy from the House. He is well liked by GOP insiders and closely tied to Paul Ryan's agenda so it would signal that Romney is all in on that agenda which should excite the more conservative portions of the party. As one of the three original Young Guns, he represents the future of the party without the baggage of being excessively extreme. I met him briefly at Tim Scott's birthday party this past summer and told him that I had been predicting his selection as VP at ricochet and he laughed politely and said he would cross that bridge if he came to it.
Nov '11
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
This is going to sound small, but . . . after destroying Bush the Elder's presidency with negotiated tax hikes and saddling the nation with nearly two decades of David Souter, John Sununu has given enough advice. That he and other Bush/McCain retreads populate the Romney brain trust is an unpromising indicator.
Feb '12
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
Romney aka Mr Bland does not want to be outdone by his veep so it would have to be Mr Bland and Mr Blancmange. I doubt there will be a female veep for Romney as the Grecian 2000 look wouldn't stand up for long. All for show.
Newtzilla on the other hand, it matters not. America needs a president not a show pony especially after The One. No more learning on the job..
Apr '11
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
Portman and McDonnell are on Troy's shortlist, too. Jindal would be exciting to the informed base, but other than his color is not a hugely exciting figure to non-policy wonks. Do you recall the response to his SOTU response? Chris Christie would be the opposite; exciting to people who weren't that into policy, but death to the informed base; we'd hear a lot about a Cameron with charisma, two North Eastern moderates, all that jazz.
West, Paul, Rubio, and Ryan would all be exciting, but other than Ryan, they seem even more exciting (and committed), because they have very little experience. Rand was an ophthalmologist until a couple of years ago, Rubio was in the State House of Representatives, West was unemployed after losing his 2008 House election. Like Obama, they would be less qualified than Palin. Even Obama had 4 years in office before he moved to the White House!
Aug '11
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
Sununu's the guy who told us that Newt was unfit for office because he fought against the GHW Bush tax increases.
He doesn't exactly make me want to go out and vote for Romney tomorrow.
Mar '11
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
Aaron Miller
Are all elections the same? I could have sworn something was different about 2010.
If the old rules no longer apply then why is the GOP again nominating the next guy in line?
I'm afraid 2010 is looking more and more like the exception, not the new rule.
Apr '11
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
He also gave us Thomas. The Thomas/ Souter contribution to the bench was the best made by any President other than Bush jr. since Harding. I agree that he's not Romney's best adviser, and that his being fooled by Rudman into supporting Souter was a terrible moment.
Bush and McCain employed a pretty high portion of the conservative world during their time in office/ campaigns; I don't know how badly you feel Ambassador Bolton's endorsement tainted Romney's campaign, but I don't think many view it as implying moderation. Romney also has a pretty big tent, which includes a lot of them, but also includes a bunch of people from outside, like Judge Bork or Walid Phares. Reagan had a bunch of guys from the Ford and Nixon years, and would have been improved by more (such as Rumsfeld).
Aug '10
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
Past the oxymoronic elephant in the room ( excuse the triple entendre) , whoever Mitt picks will be ( according to nfm) a woman- eating , babyloving , tonedeaf racist who loves Nascar and uses hoodies for targets in the church basement with a gun used to shoot Gabby Giffords then sold by unknown parties to Geo Zimmerman.
Dec '11
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
James Of England
Romney also has a pretty big tent, which includes a lot of them, but also includes a bunch of people from outside, like Judge Bork or Walid Phares.
Walid Phares is one righteous dude! Had the great good fortune to hear him speak at the Heritage in '07 and get his autograph on The War of Ideas.
Apr '11
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
Walker, like Ryan, has the best arguments against a VP nod being his excellence. A big chunk of his reforms were thrown out by the court a couple of days ago by an Obama appointee essentially on grounds of corruption. They'll fight tooth and nail to keep those reforms down, and no likely successor would be as good at getting them implemented and permanent. Running and failing as VP (including an almost certain Wisconsin loss) would be even worse, absolutely dooming his gubernatorial ambitions.
Governor Martinez, my second choice, suffers somewhat from the this, although less significantly (it's New Mexico!). Governor McDonnell, my third choice, would be replaced by Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who's also pretty good. It might even be a benefit, as it would give Bolling incumbency for the 2013 election.
May '10
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
(1) you don't have to be VP to be an exciting surrogate for a President (2) more than ever, there are a huge number of "channels" to fill which require multiple surrogates for the President; (3) social media and blogs decrease, at least incrementally, the importance of the VP as surrogate (4) Once elected, the VP doesn't do that much (although I suppose the position could be Constitutionally turbocharged to draw a Ryan or Rubio; (5) a VP Ryan or Rubio means no House or Senate with the VP.
So, I guess a certain pundit I know is spot on in pointing to the retiring Sen. DeMint as the idea VP. He's not exciting, but not boring, and "Southernizes" the ticket (assuming that matters?).
Apr '11
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
I think that this is closely related to Sununu's point (full disclosure; if I'd been in the US for the fall of '08, I'd have spent much of my time supporting Senator Sununu's losing reelection campaign; his much less appealing father seems much more positive to me as a result of that association).
In a billion dollar a side negative campaign, you need a VP about whom one simply couldn't believe this stuff. We'd see a lot of high production value recreations of West's pistol whipping his Iraqi prisoner, or of Jindal's exorcism. Both of those things would make it easier for people to believe the other crazy things said about them, as SNL helped support the Palin Derangement Syndrome spreaders. This is why dull/ white-bread, helps. You can't imagine Ryan shooting Gifford.
Apr '11
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
My fourth choice. ;-)
Southernizing the ticket certainly matters for Virginia and North Carolina, and those two states may be harder for Romney than Florida and Ohio.
May '10
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
Mendel
Aaron Miller
Are all elections the same? I could have sworn something was different about 2010.
If the old rules no longer apply then why is the GOP again nominating the next guy in line?
I'm afraid 2010 is looking more and more like the exception, not the new rule.
In regard to the behavior of politicians and their consultants, I agree. And some of the Tea Party fervor seems to have dissipated. But I get the impression from conversations with liberals and conservatives alike that many voters still consider politics differently than they did four years ago.
How many swing voters? There's the rub.
Are the majority of voters now supportive of significant reductions in government programs and authority? Probably not. But, because of the issues involved and because of President Obama specifically, I doubt this election will be typical.
If this election bears much similarity to any in recent history, I would think it would be the election between Carter and Reagan. But Romney is no Reagan, so why one would think the one's VP choice should inform the other's VP choice is beyond me.
Mar '11
Re: Sununu to Romney: Pick a Boring VP
Romney absolutely needs a Veep choice who excites conservatives.