A Gingrich and Romney ticket.

Politics & Elections
1

Compared to most of the other Republican candidates, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney at least seem like a couple of professionals. And at the moment they appear to be the top two contenders.

Suppose they decided to combine their campaigns.

  1. Is it plausible? Could they work together or do they have ideological or personal differences that are too extreme?
  2. Who’d be the Presidential candidate and who’d be the VP? I think Romney’s been leading but does Gingrich still feel he has a shot at the top spot? Would Gingrich or Romney be willing to settle for the second spot in 2012 or are they thinking it’s all or nothing?
  3. If they did announce a joint ticket, how would it effect the other candidates? Who would call it a day or who would keep fighting?
  4. Any precedent for a joint ticket being named this long before the election?
2

The ticket can’t win with Newt at the top, but he’s too arrogant to accept the running-mate job.

3

You suggest that the empty suit with the broken zipper could win with him a the top of the ticket?

4

Not in recent history, and it would be a bad move. There’s no real advantage to be gained from it and you lose months of time you could use in deciding who the best VP would be. I don’t think these guys would run together in any combination. In fact I think that Gingrich would have to be talked into accepting a VP at all. He may want to do it all himself. :wink:

5

I have to say this is shaping up to be a fascinating race. A month back the conventional wisdom was that Romney was going to win in a cakewalk but I was skeptical and believed that a serious challenge had to come from someone on the right. Newt was the last conservative standing so it was him. But can he actually go all the way? A whole range of right-wing commentators like George Will are setting their targets on him and that has to slow him down. What’s going on behind the scenes in the “invisible primary”. Are the more conservative GOP moneymen and operatives moving to him or is he still running a shoe-string campaign?

Gingrich is a target-rich environment but Romney has to be disciplined in his attacks and should mainly attack Gingrich from the right. This makes Romney looks more conservative and in Rovian fashion helps undermine Gingrich’s biggest strength: that he is the last conservative who can stop Romney.

Romney has the money to launch a massive barrage of ads at Gingrich and the weight of mainstream Republican commentary is also against him. That has to to hurt him in the next few weeks ,especially since debates become less important, but how quickly and how much?

6

Worst of both worlds. Neither are enthusiastically supported by the Tea Party base but lacks the integrity and independence of true moderates like say Huntsman. I’d prefer a Huntsman-Huckabee ticket…;

7

Yes! Yes! Oh, God, yes!

8

A friend of mine threw out Huntsman/Biden 2016 :slight_smile:

9

Somebody’s going to be sleeping on a wet spot…

10

I actually meant to put this post in the main Gingrich thread.

Anyway I don’t think Romney or Gingrich would make a good VP candidate. Romney might have made a good VP choice, if there was a general running who needed someone with strong economic credentials.

If Romney wins, I think Marco Rubio would be a good VP pick; it would excite the conservative base without alienating independents and would help in Florida and with Hispanics.

11

No one who is will ever win the WH.

12

Heaven help us if you’re wrong.

How about a Romney-O’Donnell ticket? That’ll drive the religious right bonkers- a cultist and a witch.

If Newt wins, may Scott Walker as a running mate- he might well be looking for work by then.

13

Based on her endorsement of Romney, I suspect she’s on the Gingrich payrolls. :wink:

14

Fox is doing their best to make Romney look presidential.

Sure, that looks like somebody I’d vote for.

15

If Gingrich was elected I could get out my favorite two t-shirts and wear them again.

“No Newt is Good Newt” and " Regime Change Begins at Home" The latter comes from the Bush the Younger presidency.

16

I think either candidate would accept the VP slot. But Gingrich is known as a loose cannon, and the world historical shtick has a limited shelf life. Romney won’t appoint him to VP.

Intrade puts Marco Rubio odds for VP at 22.7%. I say it’s higher.

17

Someone like Marco Rubio has Tea Party support and yet is not frothing at the mouth crazy.

18

Is “the tea party” a sufficiently unified group to have a single favoured candidate? I thought there were various factions each calling itself “tea party” rallying around various candidates.

19

I think they are cohesive enough to have a single despised candidate in Mitt Romney. If he is nominated, much of the Tea Party will stay home, or they will vote for a third party candidate like Donald Trump. Never underestimated the crazy.

20

I suspect neither Gingrich nor Romney would accept the VP slot, but if it were that or nothing in this election cycle, either just might take it. I can’t see either running for the top job again in four years, so that might be their least bad option. Marco Rubio looks like he’d be a great VP pick for whoever ends up being the GOP nominee, for the reasons Lantern mentioned. Florida will yet again be an electoral gem of great price.