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Rubio/Fiorina: Does it Matter Who Leads the Ticket?
Many said during the debate last night that they would love to see a Rubio/Fiorina ticket or a Fiorina/Rubio ticket, and they didn’t care how the ticket was ordered. Does it matter who leads the ticket? I believe it does. The best order for that ticket would be Rubio/Fiorina for the following reasons:
- Fiorina would be much more effective attacking Hillary from the VP slot. Doing so from the top of the ticket would risk making her look mean and unpresidential to all those mushy independents out there — the people that want everyone to play nice. Nobody is too concerned if the #2 person on the ticket goes into attack mode. Besides, I think Carly would be more effective attacking Hillary, and that would allow Rubio to play the forward-looking optimist. Although it would be fun to see Carly debate Hillary, we saw last night that Marco could easily handle her.
- Fiorina’s CEO experience would make a fat target for the Dems, who would accuse her of being a heartless Richie Rita laying off thousands of common folk while wiping her feet on the poor. They did it effectively to Romney and they can do it to Fiorina. Those attacks fall flat against a VP candidate.
- I believe the Dems will have a very hard time mounting a successful smear campaign against Rubio. The stuff they’ve tried so far via their media organs has been very weak tea. Barring some hideous unknown scandal, they won’t be able to lay a glove on the young, handsome, Hispanic, middle-class Senator.
- Fiorina is not much younger than Hillary. Nominate her and you lose the youth advantage Rubio brings. It would be harder for Carly to appeal to the kids.
- The Dems would attack Fiorina’s complete lack of political experience. I know it doesn’t matter to some people, but it will matter to a lot independents. Attacking Rubio’s short career in the Senate doesn’t really fly given the current occupant of the White House.
I love Carly and would love to see her on the ticket, but I really think she would be better in the number-two slot. No matter who gets the nomination, they could do much worse than Carly. If she won’t take the job, give it to Susanna Martinez. We need a woman on the ticket to balance Hillary who, despite my doubts, says she’s a woman.
Published in Elections, General, Politics
Nominate another squish like McCain or Romney, and the GOP will lose in 2016. Guaranteed.
We shouldn’t cancel the primaries. It won’t be resolved, but it will be much clearer by the end of December. I think the Republicans need to begin reducing the field and get close to selecting a candidate before they can begin to coalesce behind someone to challenge Hillary. She is going to quickly begin her general election campaign.
Yeah, I wish there was some way to be sure about Rubio’s convictions regarding this concern. I have made the decision to assume he has changed his mind.
We make all kinds of decisions without perfect knowledge. This is just another one.
This idea has its limitations. I can agree with my husband on 80%+ of family issues. But if we disagree on whether he can still ‘date’ other people, we’re getting a divorce. But hey, we agree on just about everything else!
The problem is, with Rubio, the 20% disagreement includes the issue I’ve feel is critical to the future of all the other issues – amnesty. The Republican party has proven faithless on amnesty. I believe that one more massive amnesty will end conservatism in American (defined here as limited government / fiscal restraint). This issue cannot be in the 20%.
Also, Rubio is a little green – its hard to tell where he stands on many issues because he doesn’t have a strong track record. He can *tell* us where he stands, but as he’s outed himself as a “liar of political convenience”, so how can I possibly rely on what he says now, during an election? How can I assess percentage of agreement with this candidate?
Rubio Fiorina sounds like an expensive Italian car. Maserati Rubio Fiorina quattro valvole.
I’ve tried to warn them…. The republican party needs to compromise with their conservative base, not suppress it. Not “defeat” it. Ah, well…… I tried.
Carly seems to be a “youthful” 60-something and Hillary appears to be an “old” 60-something. Put another way, Carly doesn’t seem to be as old.
How about a squish like W?
I don’t think there is any chance this is even remotely resolved by December and expect it can be a nail biter until the convention.
There is a big difference between the 2 parties. Democrats are deciding who best to carry their message.
Republicans are deciding if they have a message and if so what it may be. That doesn’t get resolved before the Iowa caucus.
I so agree. I cannot wait to see what happens when the Left walks into a buzz-saw named Carly.
She and Rubio have very effective affects for this fight. Rubio’s more-in-sorrow-than-anger move vs. Jeb is exactly how one should counter specious charges.
This is the ju-jitsu W pulled on Gore when Al wents crazy during the debates. “My opponent isn’t well and not quite himself and that’s too bad. Please never mind that show–and haven’t we had enough drama–here’s what I’m about.” Bush 43’s image of authenticity is why the late revelation of the DUI arrest was so devastating: it exposed W as just another politician who hides the truth.
I voted for W in the primary as the superior candidate to McCain. But I must say, he was a disappointment from a limited government perspective (plus the whole amnesty thing). I feel I’ve learned from this process.
Like 2000 and 2004?
Same here…largely because he was a governor. I found it hard to find a clear policy divide between the two, however.
I think we’re losing sight of the fact that the purpose of the primaries is to reduce the field and select a candidate to oppose Hillary.
W had the advantage of not being Algore.
Ah, see, herein lies the problem. We’ve been concentrating on who can win against the Democrat versus who can win that we can live with. Sometimes you can win, and still lose.
Or John Kerry. Seems the democrats learn their lessons.
And this doesn’t apply now because Hilary Clinton is a charismatic centrist?
Once you hack off the real squishies like Kasich, Bush, Pataki, and Trump the rest are at least reasonable, and the more appropriate question becomes that of beating Hillary.
…and a democratic centralist.
There’s been a lot of history since 2000, including Medicare Part D and No Child Left Behind. Maybe we’ve learned a bit of a lesson about squishes.
More seriously, the Dems selected a numinous leftist masked as a centrist who proposes common-sense solutions, a balanced approach, ad nauseam. It has been a devastating combination.
It applies because the democrats figured out what they stood for, stopped hiding it, and embraced a wide open leftist to carry the message and he has done admirably to that end.
I don’t believe this is correct. Yes, he’s a leftist; but Obama is skilled at pretending he’s the moderate one in the room. In fact, Obama truly believes that, because he knows who real Commies are: e.g., his father figure Frank Marshall Davis. The evidence is a lot of voters believe him, and as I suggest, I believe Obama believes his own [expletive]. Add a bit of Lightworker worship…he’s close to unbeatable.
Hillary isn’t as good a liar as Bubba or Barack. She will get a bit of the worship from the feminoids, but a lot of that shine’s off now.
I don’t really see her as an easy sell, vagina or not, to most of the American electorate. Her only hope is that she’s less repulsive than the caricature of (insert name here) Republican. Our ideas, even though people actually like them, can’t carry the day if voters think we’re evil. It has become the folk wisdom of our nation that liberals are nice even if wrong and conservatives are evil. Period. Full stop.
This is why someone like Rubio with his boyish charm, compelling back story, short political history, and hopeful demeanor is possibly the best option. When some lefty shrieks out “Satan!” while pointing at Rubio he can just laugh and shake his head because the charge is ridiculous against him, but it actually has to be refuted against our other candidates.
Carly on the top of the ticket completely neutralizes Hillary’s entire campaign. This does not happen if she is in the VP slot. Clinton is running on her gender. Her brand is her lady parts. She has nothing else to recommend herself. Even Democrats see Clinton as old news with no accomplishments.
Carly does not have to be “mean”, she has even said she will stick to the record without personal attacks. Voters already know Hillary is a horrible person. Quinnipiac had 61% of voters labeling Hillary as dishonest and untrustworthy. Now, she is desperately trying to co-op Bernies’s ideas, because she is afraid she might not be the only woman in the race.
These are worth watching:
Titles are not Accomplishments
Carly Fiorina DESTROYS Hillary Clinton in Interview with Chris Matthews
*Edited to remove language that made it look like I was mimicking KP when I actually hadn’t read his yet. I take too much time posting and the conversation passes me by. …Back to lurking
Stick a fork in us; we are done.
I will grant your point in 2008.
2012? The mask was off.
Yes, my 2008 case is easier. That’s what made 2012 so frustrating for me. I had to watch Obama pull it off again. Romney was the perfect foil for this move: the Obamacare lies were defused, and Mitt stumbled when caricatured as Snidely Whiplash.