Does it ever really matter?
Who was the worst VP pick in recent history? Dan Quayle? Bush won.
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.
Now, now, let’s not bicker and argue - Quayle and Palin were both unqualified and out of their league in their own very special way.
I happen to think that Mike Pence would make a fantastic President. Or at least I did before he decided to join Donald Trump’s ticket.
So… Heroin and Zen lead to Tourette’s?
Maybe a rare form resulting in Firesign and Lebowski quotes…
“Always glad to meet my child’s ballet teache…Rocky Rococo rug ties the room together! Oh, do excuse me, Mademoiselle. I’m a 2016 election survivor…”
You like people who like to discriminate against gay people?
The intent of RFRA has never been to discriminate against gays, it just happens to work that way. As does the 1st amendment in general. Guess we’d better repeal the 1st amendment so that people don’t have freedom of association anymore. They might use that freedom in discriminatory ways after all.
Of course it was. That was the sole reason for creating it, and others like it, in the first place.
This simply must be included in your first collection of Adaher’s Greatest Hits.
Not the original RFRA. And the subsequent ones are only about discrimination if you believe that all Americans MUST participate in gay weddings if asked to for money.
I just happened to read about (couldn’t bear to actually watch the clip) the press event announcing Pence, which the CNN article described as “lukewarm”. Basically Trump predictably spent half his speech praising himself, and Pence was introduced with the general attitude of “and this is the guy. He’s a good guy.” There was none of the enthusiasm or solidarity that usually accompanies such events, and Trump rubbed it in even harder by essentially saying that he hoped that picking this very conventional guy would stop all the griping and unify the party.
Pence is probably already regretting his decision, and Hillary must have been cackling to herself the whole day.
On the bright side, Pence gives Clinton someone to attack that the public hasn’t already made up their minds about.
And she’ll have no shortage of things to attack – Pence is practically a parody of an extreme far-right nutjob.
I agree. I never paid much attention to Quayle but he was just sort of benignly stupid, like a drooling golden retriever that’s so stupid it’s likely to fall down the stairs and break its leg or take a crap in your living room. Palin is more like a pit bull with a mental disorder and an advanced case of rabies.
I don’t know any more about Pence than I got out of looking at that summary of his positions on the issues, but on that basis I would say he should scare the living daylights out of any rational person. I don’t know if Trump particularly intended to get someone of such notably lunatic stature, but he was looking for an established political figure and let’s face it, he didn’t really have a lot of options with most established political figures running for the hills.
Pence is actually the hardest right candidate to ever be nominated for VP, but his executive experience and Congressional leadership experience lend him more gravitas than some past VP selections.
Please walk us through the politics behind its creation and timing and purpose, then. Just for entertainment’s sake.
Sometimes it’s best to take a deep breath before clicking Submit, friend.
Indeed
Dan Quayle
This may be Clinton’s floor in one sense, but there may be another floor for liberalism and progressivism that has yet to reveal itself. The world is rapidly destabilizing, and that almost always favors an authoritarian who can take advantage of chaos and fear and promise stability. It’s terrifying how easily humans inevitably fall for that trap, and I’d say we’re getting closer to a tipping point.
Hillary Clinton, to many, represents a standard, a status quo that is increasingly showing itself to be impotent in dealing with global change. You have the potential for race-based civil unrest, which could force white moderates to retract from their desire to dabble with progressivism and lurch backward toward the politics of identity. There’s also the ‘existential’ threat of global terrorism – nothing new there necessarily, but the frequency with which it occurs and the ease with which it now impacts areas that were 10 years ago considered to be ‘safe’ (e.g. Europe and North America) makes people even more bearish on the politics of moderation and progressivism.
But beyond that, the Brexit vote and Turkey revealed a potentially deeper problem at hand: the collapse of America’s occasionally soft, occasionally hard hegemony and the post WWII economic and political world order that was created by and for the United States. The Brexit vote could be the first tangible sign that Europe is fracturing. The attempted coup in Turkey could be the first sign that NATO is also fracturing. The United States could conceivably soon find itself with nations increasingly questioning their relationship with the United States. Do we necessarily get the privilege of overfly rights? Do we get the opportunity to use air bases in the Middle East? Will we be allowed to keep troops on Okinawa? And if so under what conditions?
All of this leads me back to the fact that America will most likely continue to see itself weakening, and that could mean the demand for a tougher leader.
The events surrounding the VP picks solidifies 2 thoughts I’ve had about Trump (only 2 of many, many thoughts)
Thought #1:
If Trump wins, I can see him going one of two ways. Way #1 is to let Pence and the right wing run things behind the scenes while Trump just acts presidential; in other words, he gets to do the fun stuff while Pence and the right wing do all the heavy lifting. Way #2 is that he’s in charge and creates a whole lot of chaos like a lot of people think he’s going to do. Either way is bad for the country, especially for anyone who wants less discrimination against minorities and women
So what happens if Trump and Pence have a falling out, Trump has a temper tantrum and wants to get someone else? I assume before the convention he can do that, what about after the convention but before the election?
Yes it would be a disaster, but conventional disasters don’t seem to effect Trump at all, does he have the power to do it?