Pick the Republican team (P and VP) most likely to succeed in '16

[Gyrate]

@WillFarnaby

All Republican candidates besides Trump are substantially weaker than Mitt Romney. This means a Trump ticket will be the only one that has even a small sliver of a chance. Most likely, Trump will pick a military figure for his vp. He cannot pick a traditional politician.

The Democrats will either nominate a substantially hobbled Clinton or one of the sillier candidates they have going on over there.

This will be the most entertaining presidential election in over 100 years.

You know what they say: it’s all fun and games until someone loses a war.

[John_Mace]

@adaher

I do. It’s not an investment. Very little of federal spending could be called investing. which is why the old term, “spending” was always more truthful. “Investments” was just chosen because it sounds better. Even if politicians wanted to actually invest, few have the skill to recognize a good investment from a bad one.

Sure the do. A good investment is one that brings federal dollars to their voting district.

[BigAppleBucky]

@John_Mace

I’m thinking Kasich-Rubio would be the best bet against Clinton-X in Nov 2016. It solidifies an Ohio-Florida axis just about as best you can, pairs the most moderate of the Republicans with someone who is thought of as a “true conservative”, and adds maybe just enough Hispanic to the mix to pull in a few of those critical ethnic voters. Rubio, being young and looking even younger, seems like a much better pick for VP than P. And Kasich, with his years in the House plus 2 terms as governor is more suited for the top billing.

Older, experienced, moderate guy paired with up-and-coming “appeal to the base” guy (who happens to be Hispanic). ** Imagine if Rubio got out of the race now, and teamed up with Kasich from the get-go. Could that be an even better strategy?**

For the purposes of this thread, let’s not deal with whether or not Kasich (or whoever your candidate is) can get the nomination. Katich certainly has an uphill battle to win the nomination, but so does almost anyone at this point. This is all about who can best beat Clinton-X next year. And if you want to be even more creative, you can assume Clinton is not the Democratic candidate.

Thread inspired, in part, by this Op Ed piece by Frank Bruni in today’s NYT’s Week in Review section: The Real Threat to Hillary Clinton.

Rubio-Kasich is not out of the question. In recent history we’ve had Dubya-Cheney and Obama-Biden.

A year ago I would have doubted any Republican other than Bush could win the nomination. Now your pairing looks pretty good after Bush has pretty much blown up his campaign.

[ElvisL1ves]

There’s plenty of time to rebuild it, though. McCain looked done at this point 8 years ago, too.

[adaher]

Yeah, but McCain faced different issues. Jeb is THE establishment guy and yet the establishment is only lukewarm towards him. McCain was a former insurgent candidate who was the frontrunner by virtue of being “next” in a field that contained only newcomers who the base were equally skeptical of. So when all the others wheezed out, McCain was the logical choice left standing.

The problem for Jeb is that Kasich and Rubio are just as acceptable to the establishment and don’t have the baggage of his name. If GWB had been a bang up success, then yeah, Jeb would have a good chance regardless of early weakness. But given that most Republicans would really prefer someone else, and given the fact that there are other plausible options, means he probably is not going to have a resurgence as McCain did.

[Measure_for_Measure]

@adaher

Yeah, but McCain faced different issues. Jeb is THE establishment guy and yet the establishment is only lukewarm towards him.

If $100 million+ in fundraising indicates lukewarm support, it’s hard to imagine what enthusiasm would look like.

The establishment is comfortable with Jeb. He works well with the fat cats. It’s the Republican on the street who thinks he’s seeing a rerun. Trump showed us that there’s a meaningful divide between what the plutocrats demand and what the populist base desires.