Am I the only one who didn’t see this coming? I am as consumed by politics as anybody out there but the name that Jonathan Last at the Bulwark mentions as a possible addition to Donald Trump’s VP list, along with Elise Stefanik, J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, Tim Scott and a few others simply puts me on the floor. Last is a good commentator and his analyses are always sound, but in this circumstance, I’m thinking that the premise is just too off the walls to begin with, so how can the analysis be anything but oddball? In any event, take a look for yourself. You might want to be close to the couch in case you faint.
We are going to have to start talking about this veep stuff because we’re just 11 weeks out from the Republican National Convention. It’s happening.
If the veepstakes are like a roulette board, I’ve had most of my chips on J.D. Vance for a while. (With a small side-bet on Nancy Mace.) Vance checks a lot of boxes: He sort of looks the part. He’s quick on his feet. He’s gone full-MAGA. And, he is owned, body and soul, by Trump.
There are a bunch of other names on the short list: Marco Rubio, Elise Stefanik, Doug Bergum. Maybe even Tucker himself. (Though Vance is a good proxy for Tucker.)
But there’s one person no one has mentioned who makes a lot of sense: Marsha Blackburn.
Are you down here on the floor with me now? Good. At least we won’t hurt ourselves for the remainder of this discussion. I don’t see Blackburn as hitting any of Trump’s bases. Supposedly he needs the woman’s vote and there is no way in hell that Blackburn, with her far-right abortion views, is going to deliver that. Even Last acknowledges that her abortion stance would have to be modified if she was on the ticket with Trump.
Beyond that, Blackburn is an age peer of Trump’s. She’s 71, he’s 78 in a few months. He doesn’t talk to people his own age, much less women. Why would he want an *old woman* on the ticket, never mind the fact that he’s an old man? A woman’s purpose in Trump world is to be ornamental. That is Elise Stefanik’s chief handicap right now, although since Kristi Noem just blew the brains out of her political career, maybe Trump is thinking on some level that a woman with judgement might just be better than one with Botoxed lips and heels. In any event, read Last’s rationale for this choice.
(1) The woman thing. […]
Blackburn could help Trump with women. Her affect is more normal and centered than Kari Lake or Kristi Noem and while she’s to the right of Trump on abortion at the moment, I suspect her position could be brought into harmony.
(2) Normie enough. Blackburn is MAGA all the way, but she’s still normie enough to keep the Wall Street Journal editorial page happy. This election will feature a number of anti-anti-Trump Republicans casting about for a reason to say yes. Blackburn gives them one.
See, he didn’t pick a nutjob like Mike Flynn. We can do business with Blackburn. Mitch vouches for her. Extending those tax cuts is the priority!
(3) Old. The thing about J.D. Vance’s youth is that it cuts both ways. On the one hand, he’s energetic and next-gen. But on the other hand, he makes Trump look elderly. I’m not sure Trump likes the idea of being onstage with someone who makes him look decrepit.
Blackburn, on the other hand, is a well-preserved 71. She’ll blend into the background without the possibility of overshadowing Trump, or making him look weak by comparison.
(4) No independent power base. Another advantage of picking an older vice president is that Trump knows they have no career after him. […]
And because Blackburn has a lower profile than any of the other names on the list, there’s less of a chance she could develop her own power base within the administration. There were “Pence” guys in the first Trump administration. In a second Trump administration, there would be no “Blackburn people.”
Blackburn has basically no profile. Blackburn is like Marge Greene, she fell into politics at the right place and time and she has the advantage of running in a deep red state. That said, I don’t see her as bulletproof. Trump is so toxic, the abortion issue is so toxic, and the fact that fellow Tennesseean Taylor Swift doesn’t like her, are all factors that could add up to problems for Blackburn. Maybe not problems that would result in her seat flipping blue but problems that could get her primaried.
I think Last is out on a limb with this one. That said, he knows the Republican party and the Republican electorate far better than I do and maybe he’s on to something here. I don’t see it. But I’ll be the first to eat a big piece of humble pie if this is indeed the direction Trump goes.
Frankly, I think you’ll see Tim Scott on the ticket before you’ll see Blackburn, if for no other reason than the theory that Scott can *deliver* the Black vote. Scott purports to have something that Trump indisputably needs. Blackburn has nothing that I can see to bring to the ticket.
That said, Dan Quayle was also a minus zero but for reasons which escaped us then and now H.W. decided to bring him on board. Point being, we have seen some very strange VP choices in the past and whomever Trump picks is going to be an oddball on one level or another.
Stefanik is the favored VP choice in many circles and she’s odd because she genuinely was seen as a rising star in the Republican party, and then she threw in her lot with MAGA and Ultra MAGA. Stefanik doesn’t want to be part of a post-Trump GOP, she wants to lead the lunatic fringe, apparently. And perhaps Trump will give her the chance to do just that. If the ticket is Trump/Stefanik, then rest assured Trump will play golf and do a few ceremonial things and Stefanik will out-Cheney Dick Cheney.
“Stefanik will out-Cheney Dick Cheney.”
Having just watched again, the movie ‘Vice’ with the brilliant Christian Bale playing Dick Cheney, I think that might be a big call.
But seeing how stupid Mr trump is, you might be right.
It doesn’t matter who his veep is. He’s not going to let anyone steal his thunder or tell him what to do. He’s the all-knowing (more than the generals) gift from gawd (awful). He will be Putin on steroids.
As far as Dan Quayle goes to get the VP nomination, it was money, though he might have looked like a dumber Robert Redford from “The Candidate”.
From Wikipedia:
His maternal grandfather, Eugene C. Pulliam, was a wealthy and influential publishing magnate who founded Central Newspapers, Inc., and owned more than a dozen major newspapers, such as The Arizona Republic and The Indianapolis Star.