Wednesday 21 February 2024

Trump's List of VP Choices

 Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy, Byron Donalds, Kristi Noem, and Tulsi Gabbard.

I noticed this from late yesterday.  

The odd thing....back in 2016, as Pence was selected....if you walked around and asked people on opinion...more than 90-percent would have said they didn't know the guy or his resume.

If you asked a hundred folks today over the six?  99-percent would say they absolutely know the resume of DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and Gabbard.  Probably 50-percent would say they know something about Donlds, Noem and Tim Scott, but it's limited.

Prior to the 1990s.....the VP  selection (for both Republicans and Democrats) was a no-name character that maybe a quarter of the nation knew a brief bit about.  If you asked around Alabama about Agnew (Nixon's VP)....maybe 3-percent would have responded about him being briefly a governor of Maryland.  If you'd brought up Eisenhower's selection of Nixon as a VP in the 1950s....maybe only 3-percent of the public would have known he was a Senator from California (late 1951 to Jan  1953).  

Even if you brought up Bush II's selection of Cheney and asked people of his resume....they would have responded for the most part that he'd been in the Reagan era, but had forgotten his job or success story.

So, here's the thing.....whoever Trump selects (if he wins)....is likely to the be the follow-on President in 2028's  campaign.

For this reason, the pick matters more than you'd anticipate.  

What happens to the remaining five?  Well....I suspect that most will be getting cabinet posts.  Gabbard for example....might well fit into the SecDef job.  Tim Scott might make a fine Secretary of State.  Donalds?  Homeland Security?

Scandals to be found?  That's the odd factor playing out....in that most have had 'heat' put upon them and there's just not much scandal-material existing.  I admit....Donalds would normally be dumped-upon, but he being black....he might hold a 'ace' or two in his hands and avoid trouble.

Picking Ramaswamy?  That's my logical choice.  On debate and style...he would hurt the news media folks to a great extent.  

1 comment:

Bigus Macus said...

I concur with your assessment.