# What is the possibility of a Romney-Bachmann ticket? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 14, 2011, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504 "2011-06-14T23:29:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/41 "2011-06-24T03:58:33Z")
> [@tnetennba](#): > > Is it you opinion that (a) the principle deciding factor in either of those elections was the vice presidential candidate, and (b) the principle deciding factor in America rejecting those veep candidates was their gender? > > If memory serves well, America loved Reagan. He would have beat Jesus Christ at that point. And while there was plenty of spite for Palin, it wasn’t because of her gender. In fact what it shows is that when the Presidential candidate is particularly down and out they look to a female VP choice as a means of trying to jack up their chances. And they choose poorly. They choose as a gimmick. Obama would have won with HRC at least as well as with Biden and if Biden stepped down and HRC reneged on her statement of no future ambition, they would win just as solidly as they will against any of this crowd. A female VP candidate does not work as a gimmick is all. A female of substance, who people could actually see in the job, such as HRC, would be something different. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/42 "2011-06-24T04:30:38Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > This is going to be very hard for the Republicans, because the media knows that this is where they part ways with moderates and independents, and so they’re going to hammer them on social conservative issues. It started in the last debate when John King kept pushing questions on social issues even though the candidates were pretty much all there to talk about the economy. They’re going to be forced to either denounce their own social positions or have their economic message muddied or overshadowed. When the Republicans were swept in last year in a wave of Tea Party enthusiasm focused on jobs and the economy, it took them about ten minutes to start trying to make sweeping changes to abortion policy. It was HR3–the third resolution taken up by the House–that at first attempted to limit Medicaid funding of abortion to victims of “forcible” rape, instead of just regular old rape. And we nearly saw the government shut down over funding for Planned Parenthood. All evidence suggests that no matter how much these candidates want to focus on the economy, if one of them gets elected he or she will push for big changes in social policy. So the media wouldn’t be doing us any favors by staying away from those subjects. > [@](#): > > That’s why Mitch Daniels was totally correct when he begged Republicans to pledge to put aside social issues for this election cycle. They all need to get on board with that, and respond to questions about social issues with, “We’re going to leave the status quo exactly the way it is. The economic problems facing the country are too great to allow us to be distracted by issues which are not causing the current problems and for which there is wide disagreement in the country.” They’d be just as well off saying “Please go vote for Barack Obama.” Like it or not, the Republican base is all about social issues. Even if the single-issue types don’t make up a majority of GOP votes, they’re the ones who are organizing in church basements and powering the ground game. They won’t vote Dem, but if the Republicans all promised to maintain the status quo on abortion/gay rights/whatever they’d stay home or vote third party. This is the dilemma for the Republicans–the social views that their base requires are increasingly distasteful to more moderate voters. But just refusing to talk about them won’t make those views go away. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/43 "2011-06-24T05:40:57Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Reagan was a union boss, by the way (of one of the most liberal unions in the US). He loved unions. Here’s a quote for you, "withour free unions and collective bargaining, freedom is lost.’ Of course, that didn’t stop him from firing the Air Traffic Controllers, which is a strike against him, not for him. Hijack for the point here. Back about 15 years ago, I worked with a former ATC turned programmer. One day we were talking about it at lunch and I said “Well, I’m sorry, but at the time I thought you guys deserved to be fired”. The whole table paused. He looked at me for a second, and then said “Yup, we probably did.” They were, like a lot of other unions at the time (the entire Steel Industry for one example), out of control. Demanding way too much money for far too little work. And he, after the fact, admitted the same. That they were just pushing their luck with wage demands and special conditions in a bad economy where they were not going to get any sympathy from the public. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/44 "2011-06-24T05:45:12Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > And I think the nation’s right would elect a woman in a heartbeat. Just like they’ve had no problem whatsoever with a black Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall was no conservative, not even a little. The present holder of the “black seat” was chosen to avoid turning the court all-white again. The fact that Judge Thomas was basically the furthest-right Negro on a federal bench anyone could find might indicate that they were afraid a more moderate black man would lose votes from the base. > [@](#): > > a Hispanic Attorney General, a National Security Advisor and Secretary of State who happend to be both female and black, George W. Bush is unusually racially progressive for the current GOP. He also favored guest worker visas; how much support did that get? > [@](#): > > and a black presidential candidate today who is drawing support from some of the staunchest areas of conservative politics, …in a vanity campaign that would be just as meaningless if he were white. I guess we’ve forgotten about the black head of the RNC already? But I guess you’re right. A lot of the base would love to elect a black or female candidate who’s, “one of theirs.” I wonder how many still insist that conservatives don’t need to be progressive, because conservative is not the same as progressive! > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I have to think the VP candidate will have to be a Tea Party favorite, since the presidential candidate will necessarily have to run towards the center in a general election. A Tea Party VP will help keep the base engaged. This plan’s too foolproof to fail twice! ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/45 "2011-06-24T06:27:22Z")
I didn’t say it was a _great_ plan. The Republicans’ best chance against Obama is to run a fiscal hawk who’s at least socially inoffensive to the independents and libertarians. This is one time when they’d be right to ignore their social conservative base. They stand to gain a lot more by running a candidate that can hold the middle, because the ‘base’ has nowhere to go anyway. They wouldn’t vote for Obama if Republicans put up a drunk raccoon for a candidate. But what will really kill Republicans is if they run someone who’s a fiscal moderate and a social conservative. In other words, one of the Paleo Republicans in the mold of Pat Buchanan, or another ‘compassionate conservative’ like Bush. Huckabee comes to mind. The Tea Party is all about the economy. Give them the kind of economic conservatism they’re looking for, and they won’t care if you’re socially liberal. Or at least, they won’t care enough that it will keep them home. But if someone comes along who’s an ‘establishment’ type who’s squishy on deficit cutting and curtailing the growth of government, he could pray to baby Jesus every night and the Tea Party will still sit on its hands. Mitch Daniels was their perfect candidate. They need to find someone else like him, pronto. Paul Ryan would be good, but he’s not doing it. Chris Christie is still a contender if they can convince him to run. Hell, even Jeb Bush might be welcome given the field so far. This should not be hard. The Republicans are in a great position to win the next election with the right candidate, so they should have people coming out of the woodwork. Where are the business leaders, right-wing economists, military generals, and other usual sources of Republican candidates? They’ve got Herman Cain from business, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/46 "2011-06-24T06:32:47Z")
Obama is already a fiscal conservative. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/47 "2011-06-24T12:19:04Z")
Sam, you’re just describing _your_ ideal candidate. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/48 "2011-06-24T15:18:54Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Sam, you’re just describing _your_ ideal candidate. This seems to be completely correct. Despite Sam’s assertions, the evidence points to the Tea Party as being the social conservative base of the party. [Tea Party members significantly more conservative than GOP as a whole](http://scienceblog.com/45855/tea-party-members-significantly-more-conservative-than-gop-as-a-whole/) > [@](#): > > For the GOP, the Tea Party is a mixed bag, according to political scientist Angie Maxwell of the University of Arkansas in a new report issued by the Blair-Rockefeller Poll… > > The Blair-Rockefeller Poll found that Tea Party members are predominantly white, middle class, educated, Christian males over the age of 45 and that 37.4 percent of Tea Party members believe that “the Bible is the actual Word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word.” In contrast, 29.7 percent of other respondents, who were not Tea Party members, shared that belief. > > Although Tea Party members tend to have a higher income, more education and lower unemployment rates than non-Tea Party members, they are more pessimistic about the future. When asked about their personal situations, 36.9 percent of Tea Party members reported they expect things to be worse or much worse in the coming year, in contrast to 23.6 percent of non-Tea Party members. The gap was even greater for views about the country’s future: 62.1 percent thought things will get worse or much worse in the country over the next year, while only 38.8 percent of non-Tea Party members held that view. > > Maxwell identified race consciousness and divergent views about equality as characteristic of the Tea Party. For example, in a comparison between white Tea Party members and white people who are not part of the Tea Party, Maxwell finds that white Tea Party members are more strongly opposed to federal support of housing, school, job and health care quality for minorities. Additionally, whereas support for “equality of opportunity” — as opposed to “equality of outcome” — remains a political value shared by most Americans, Maxwell wrote, she found that 30.7 percent of white Tea Party members disagree with the concept. Nearly two-thirds of white Tea Party members think “we have gone too far in pushing equal rights in this country.” > > Tea Party members, Maxwell wrote, “are particularly united in their opposition to President Obama.” Among white respondents to the Blair-Rockefeller Poll, Tea Party members are more than twice as likely to believe President Obama is a Muslim. Looking toward implications for the 2012 election, Maxwell wrote, “Their extreme racial views will make them less appealing to American Independents and centrists.” [The link in the article is bad. Here is the [correct link](http://www.uark.edu/rd_arsc/blairrockefellerpoll/5146.php).] Because of the extremity of their views, [Poll Shows More Americans Have Unfavorable Views of Tea Party](http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/poll-shows-more-americans-have-unfavorable-views-tea-party/). What’s interesting there is support for the Tea party has been fixed at 30% since they emerged, but disapproval has more than doubled over time. No matter what that 30% would like, it would be fatal for the GOP to nominate a candidate with strong Tea Party ties. Not because of their economic conservatism but specifically because of their social conservatism. You cannot separate the two. ---
**Author:** ![Recovering\_Republican](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@Recovering\_Republican](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recovering_Republican)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/49 "2011-06-26T19:26:36Z")
> [@JimH52](#): > > It would appeal to the establishment GOP and it would appeal to the Tea Party. Would it win the WH? Slim to none. the Tea Party is a challenge to the establishment. They can’t comprimise with it. I did find it interesting today that Bachmann was trying to walk back some of the Crazy on “Face the Nation”. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/50 "2011-06-26T19:58:58Z")
Like Palin with the “fire in the belly”, Bachmann suddenly has a [titanium spine!](http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/06/26/bachmann.interview/index.html?hpt=hp_t2) And of course, she denies that the money she received did any good for the “clinic”. Isn’t this the same clinic where her effeminate hubby counsels homosexuals back to their true christian ways? ---
**Author:** ![JimH52](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@JimH52](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimH52)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/51 "2011-06-26T23:44:59Z")
I am telling you guys. If the GOP regains the WH and majorities in both houses of Congress, you better have a lot of cash stashed away. Can you say, “Hello Herbert Hoover?” They will cut, cut, and more cut. EPA will be history and 40 years of environmental contraints will drift down the stream with the oil slick. ---
**Author:** ![Recovering\_Republican](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@Recovering\_Republican](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recovering_Republican)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/52 "2011-06-27T11:38:07Z")
> [@JimH52](#): > > I am telling you guys. If the GOP regains the WH and majorities in both houses of Congress, you better have a lot of cash stashed away. Can you say, “Hello Herbert Hoover?” > > They will cut, cut, and more cut. EPA will be history and 40 years of environmental contraints will drift down the stream with the oil slick. Perhaps… But since the rest of the world doesn’t have the environmental constraints we have, how are we supposed to compete if we aren’t going to practice protectionism? The real problem with the US economy is that less and less does it exist as a national economy and more and more it’s part of a world economy. Incidently, I suspect that if a Republican wins, the 1% who own half of everything will probably be feeling a bit generous, and “allow” limited economic recovery so their nutcase sounds less like a nutcase. The real problem is, do we get their puppet like Mitt Romney, or do we get a character they feel nervous about like Bachmann? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/53 "2011-06-27T13:53:48Z")
The rest of the developed world has much _deeper_ industrial constraints we have. Sure, China, India and other industrialized-but-not-developed powers don’t, but they also don’t require that their workers be paid a living wage and a host of other advantages. ---
**Author:** ![Recovering\_Republican](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@Recovering\_Republican](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recovering_Republican)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/54 "2011-06-28T12:09:14Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > The rest of the developed world has much _deeper_ industrial constraints we have. Sure, China, India and other industrialized-but-not-developed powers don’t, but they also don’t require that their workers be paid a living wage and a host of other advantages. Fair enough. But I go back to my point, how do we compete with that? Remember the movie Network when Ned Beatty’s “Mr. Jenson” tell’s Peter Finch’s “Howard Beale” that corporations are the nations of the world today, and nations themselves are becoming irrelevent. I think that’s actually where we are at now. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/55 "2011-06-28T15:35:48Z")
> [@Recovering\_Republican](#): > > Fair enough. > > But I go back to my point, how do we compete with that? We don’t. We compete along other measures that we are better at. It’s called the Future. Happens every year, regularly. > [@](#): > > Remember the movie Network when Ned Beatty’s “Mr. Jenson” tell’s Peter Finch’s “Howard Beale” that corporations are the nations of the world today, and nations themselves are becoming irrelevent. > > I think that’s actually where we are at now. People say that, and people are wrong. It may be true at some distant point but it is actually no more true than in the past. You might have an argument that it is \*\*less \*\*true, given that individual nations currently have such tremendous pressures to individualize themselves. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/56 "2011-06-30T21:14:29Z")
It would be a joke. Oil and water.Romney would not want to saddled with a right wing crazy who disagrees with much of what he stands for. He would have to gag her for several months. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/57 "2011-06-30T21:24:25Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > It would be a joke. Oil and water.Romney would not want to saddled with a right wing crazy who disagrees with much of what he stands for. He would have to gag her for several months. Yes, he could never win a nationwide election with a running mate who believes (by proxy of her husbands public statements) that homosexuals are “barbarians”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/58 "2011-06-30T23:18:27Z")
Are they big, muscular barbarians? With long, flowing hair and glistening oiled skin? Who wear nothing but a loincloth? ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504/59 "2011-07-01T00:29:27Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Are they big, muscular barbarians? With long, flowing hair and glistening oiled skin? Who wear nothing but a loincloth? I bet he wishes they were. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-possibility-of-a-romney-bachmann-ticket/585504.md?page=2)