# Who will be Trump's VP? \[plus\] Trump's Vice-President choice? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 20, 2016, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179 "2016-01-20T17:51:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 26
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179/501 "2016-07-18T12:41:50Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Although I agree with your overall point, I’m gonna have to give the “Worst VP Pick” nod to Sarah Palin. I don’t remember much of the Quayle Era, but despite his mental lapses, I don’t think he exhibited the degree of cognitive impairment that Palin does. I knew someone would say Sarah Palin. I agree Sarah Palin is an ignorant and mendacious scoundrel, which Quayle was not. But she didn’t really hurt the McCain ticket, and if anything spiced it up a little. In the end maybe she cost him a few votes, but maybe not. You can’t look at the VP choice during the campaign through the lens of “I am a smart liberalish voter and I know this person’s horrible.” The question is simple; does the VP choice help or hurt the campaign? Quayle was legitimately, from the get go, a drag on the Bush 1.0 ticket. He was laughed at as a dimwit right from the start and his Vietnam “Service” was a point of contention as well. Yet Bush still annihilated Dukakis. When was the last time a VP choice actually affected a campaign? Hell, I can’t even remember the last time the VP made the difference in delivering his STATE. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179/502 "2016-07-18T12:46:19Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Could be the Pence pick is the same impeachment/assassination insurance that the Quayle pick was. Is it your position that a madman intent on assassinating the President would stop and say “oh, well, I’d better not do it now because then Mike Pence would be President?” ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179/503 "2016-07-18T13:08:43Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > The war against terror is a cyber war, and a war for the hearts and minds of American youth with no future and nothing to lose. I absolutely agree with you, but how do you communicate that to the masses in a way that makes it seem like you’re doing something real and tangible? This is the basic problem, the real solutions take time, much more time than two terms of a presidency, possibly generations. Meanwhile, rounding up muslims and placing them in internment camps, banning muslims from entering the country and carpet bombing cities held by ISIS are all physical tangible things anyone can see. Authoritarianism and racism offer a quick visible “solution”. I just hope Clinton / Obama can do a good enough job of selling the alternatives. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179/504 "2016-07-18T13:20:57Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > I absolutely agree with you, but how do you communicate that to the masses in a way that makes it seem like you’re doing something real and tangible? This is the basic problem, the real solutions take time, much more time than two terms of a presidency, possibly generations. Meanwhile, rounding up muslims and placing them in internment camps, banning muslims from entering the country and carpet bombing cities held by ISIS are all physical tangible things anyone can see. Authoritarianism and racism offer a quick visible “solution”. I just hope Clinton / Obama can do a good enough job of selling the alternatives. That would require an educated and informed public, which the GOP has been fighting against for decades. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179/505 "2016-07-18T13:39:26Z")
The public during World War II was not any more educated or informed than today’s public, but was willing to see through a war that went very poorly, with far worse loss of life, for the first while. The public was willing to go through the massive surge in violent crime post-WWII without electing fascists, but I do not recall the USA being populated wholly be geniuses during that time. “It’s the voters’ fault for being stupid” is usually the wrong answer. If the people are voting for something different it’s because they feel they have been offered poor choices. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179/506 "2016-07-18T13:47:13Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > “It’s the voters’ fault for being stupid” is usually the wrong answer. If the people are voting for something different it’s because they feel they have been offered poor choices. Who determined the choices? In the case of the GOP, there were seventeen contenders. Was their nominee not what a majority of Republicans wanted? They can hardly complain about their own choice. In the Democrat’s case, no one except Bernie wanted to challenge the Clinton machine. Whose fault is that? Hillary put together a fund-raising and campaigning team to win the nomination, and it resulted in a majority of Democrats deciding she was the best candidate. Just who is complaining about poor choices, and where were they during the primaries? ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179/507 "2016-07-18T14:12:54Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > He’s also got a an actual good point in calling out the fact that the Saudi’s are not our allies and have been funding terrorism for years. I think Obama and Clinton need to make a much clearer case to the public about the progress being made against ISIS and they need to address the elephant in the room, Saudi Arabia. Otherwise, if more ISIS inspired attacks keep happening before November it is going to hurt Clinton. Because there have never been any Republicans that treated the Saudis as less than the evil scum they are. You won’t find any photos of GOP president walking hand in hand with a Saudi prince, or calling them great friends and allies. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179/508 "2016-07-18T14:28:18Z")
> [@Lok](#): > > Because there have never been any Republicans that treated the Saudis as less than the evil scum they are. You won’t find any photos of GOP president walking hand in hand with a Saudi prince, or calling them great friends and allies. Don’t forget kissing. You’d never see photos of a GOP President kissing a Saudi prince, either. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179/509 "2016-07-18T17:23:15Z")
> [@Lok](#): > > Because there have never been any Republicans that treated the Saudis as less than the evil scum they are. You won’t find any photos of GOP president walking hand in hand with a Saudi prince, or calling them great friends and allies. Unless I’m being whooshed: [https://melaniekillingervowell.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/bush-holds-hands-11-9-10.png?w=455](https://melaniekillingervowell.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/bush-holds-hands-11-9-10.png?w=455) > [@running\_coach](#): > > Don’t forget kissing. You’d never see photos of a GOP President kissing a Saudi prince, either. [https://thelapine.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/bush-kisses-abdullah-on-lips.jpg](https://thelapine.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/bush-kisses-abdullah-on-lips.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179/510 "2016-07-18T19:32:48Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Who determined the choices? The media, who gave him free tv time, and the RNC political apparatus - themselves a pack of morally suspect billionaires - who embraced him and his message because he was usually (well, sometimes) on brand. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179/511 "2016-07-18T20:00:59Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Unless I’m being whooshed: [https://melaniekillingervowell.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/bush-holds-hands-11-9-10.png?w=455](https://melaniekillingervowell.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/bush-holds-hands-11-9-10.png?w=455) > [https://thelapine.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/bush-kisses-abdullah-on-lips.jpg](https://thelapine.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/bush-kisses-abdullah-on-lips.jpg) Yes, you were wooshed. The posters were very directly referencing those photos with their specific denials. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179/512 "2016-07-18T21:42:30Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Is it your position that a madman intent on assassinating the President would stop and say “oh, well, I’d better not do it now because then Mike Pence would be President?” Given Pence’s own wackiness, it’s conceivable. But the overall point is that only a handful of Goppers were even willing to be considered, and Pence is as sane as any of that handful. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179/513 "2016-07-19T06:27:22Z")
> [@Lok](#): > > Because there have never been any Republicans that treated the Saudis as less than the evil scum they are. You won’t find any photos of GOP president walking hand in hand with a Saudi prince, or calling them great friends and allies. Trump is an idiot, but he has publicly spoken out against Saudi Arabia plenty of times. > **[Trump tells NYT he would consider halting purchase of oil from Saudi Arabia](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/27/trump-would-consider-halting-purchase-of-oil-from-saudi-arabia)** > > Republican frontrunner said if elected he would end the arrangement unless Saudi Arabia provided troops to fight Islamic State [http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-16/donald-trump-adds-saudi-arabia-to-list-of-countries-ripping-off-the-u-s-](http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-16/donald-trump-adds-saudi-arabia-to-list-of-countries-ripping-off-the-u-s-) [http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/04/03/458807/Trump-US-ties-Saudi-Arabia](http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/04/03/458807/Trump-US-ties-Saudi-Arabia) Even a broken clock is right twice a day, as they say. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-trumps-vp-plus-trumps-vice-president-choice/751179.md?page=25)