While the liberal media is busy calling Donald Trump a “racist” and trying to twist his words into something for their 6 o’clock news casters to grasp at, the Republican nominee for president has been attending to much more important matters at hand, choosing a VP to compliment his presidency.
For the first 200 years of this republic, to be chosen as a presidential running mate was considered a matter of duty but hardly a thing to be desired. Once elected, most couldn’t wait to hand their title off to some other hapless soul.
John Adams said his position under Washington was “…the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” FDR’s second in command, John Nance Garner, was a bit more colorful about the matter. He said the job was not “worth a bucket of warm piss.”
However, the role of VP has changed over the past several administrations. If nothing else, it has often come to serve as a springboard to bigger things. George H.W. Bush rode Reagan’s coattails into the White House, and Dick Cheney became one of the most powerful figures in the world under George W. Bush.
Dean Obeidallah, of CNN says that being the vice president is like being one of the lesser Kardashian sisters, they are paid great, treated like celebrities, and have almost no responsibilities.
Obeidallah is off base about the significance of today’s VP. With Hillary Clinton at age 68 and Donald Trump at age 70, the importance of the choice for VP is more concrete than ever. Should Trump run the table, he would be 78 before ending his second term.
Picking a VP because he or she can offer an important swing state has become less important than it was at one time. Balancing the ticket with someone who holds sway in Washington, is female or a minority are probably more important. Based on that, here are a few likely choices for Trump’s running mate.
So who will Trump pick to be his running mate? Our sources reveal these five candidates to be the ones going through Trump’s grueling vetting process.
Joni Ernst (Senator from Iowa)
Joni is a top choice not only because she’s a woman, but also because of her track record. While in office she has worked tirelessly to cut spending and defend state’s rights against federal law (tenth amendment).
Trump likes her because she has proposed eliminating the IRS, Dept of Education and EPA. She also is a member of the National Guard and famously suspended her campaign race for senate for two weeks so she could fulfill her duties.
Trump met with Joni on Monday and afterwards she told Fox News she had “a good conversation with Donald Trump.”
Mike Pence (Governor of Indiana)
In the days before he met Joni Ernst, Donald Trump spent time with Indiana Governor Mike Pence and his family at the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey.
Pence is being looked at because in addition to his term as governor of Indiana, he also spent 12 years as a Congressman in Washington. Trump has made it clear he is looking for someone to help him get bills passed in Congress. Only someone who has been in Congress that long and is friendly with both parties would be able to help Trump accomplish that goal.
Trump complimented Pence, tweeting “Spent time with Indiana Governor Mike Pence and family yesterday. Very impressed, great people!”
Tom Cotton (Senator from Arkansas)
Some people don’t consider Tom Cotton to be a viable choice for VP because he is a freshman Senator. But what they are forgetting is that he also spent two years in the House of Representatives. He has a lot of experience in Washington.
People have also written him off the VP short list because of Cotton’s work in the foreign policy community. Cotton believes not getting involved in Syria is a failure on the U.S.’s part while Trump is a supporter of not policing the world.
The two also differ when it comes to Vladimir Putin. Cotton is an outspoken critic of the Russian leader while Trump is highly complementary of the man.
While the two men have some differences of opinion, you shouldn’t write the man off just yet. Trump gave a radio interview in which he said, “I’ve gotten very good, you know, very good statements from Senator Cotton, who is a, you know, who I know, whose parents I know and met…I think that he is a very talented guy. He’s also very popular. He’s a very popular person…”
Chris Christie (Governor of New Jersey)
CNN reports that Christie is already being vetted as a potential choice. As a two-term governor and former U.S. attorney, Christie is a proven campaigner and has already been appointed to run Trump’s transition team. Whether running two white guys from neighboring states will play well in the rest of the country is open to debate.
Jeff Sessions (Senator from Alabama)
Sessions has been all in for Trump since early on and is genuinely enthusiastic in his support for Trump’s hard-line position on immigration. On the plus side, Sessions and his staff have vigorously promoted Trump to key lawmakers in Washington. He also leads Trump’s national security working group.
On the downside, white man from a deep-south red state offers little to augment Trump’s appeal to women, minorities, or Democrat-leaning independents.
If we have learned anything about Donald Trump it’s that he is unpredictable and very much his own man. In the end, Trump will pick whoever he thinks will do him the most good in his bid for the presidency.
~American Liberty Report
