Patterico's Pontifications

7/11/2016

Pence, or Head Fake?

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:41 am



The Washington Times has this hilarious headline: Mike Pence has ‘95 percent’ chance of being Donald Trump’s VP pick:

Constitutional lawyer James Bopp, an Indiana delegate to the Republican National Convention who is close the governor, told The Washington Times that Indiana House Speaker Brian C. Bosma, 58, a conservative Republican, had sought advice from him on running for governor.

“He wanted my counsel on what he needed to do to set himself up to run for governor, because he expects Pence to step down as governor in order to be Trump’s running mate,” Mr. Bopp said in an interview.

The Trump election team boosted the Pence speculation Sunday by suddenly adding a campaign rally in Indianapolis to a fundraiser planned for Tuesday featuring Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence.

Several Republicans close to the campaign and to the governor have told The Times over the last 24 hours that they are now convinced it’ll be Mr. Pence.

Mr. Bopp, also a member of the convention’s rules committee, told The Times that the “rally made it a 95 percent probability it’s Pence.”

95% sounds very convincing! The only way they could make it more convincing would be to add a decimal. Say, 95.6%. Now that’s a real likelihood!!!

I still think it’ll be Newtie.

52 Responses to “Pence, or Head Fake?”

  1. i’m not really all up into the whole veep thing this year as long as it’s not a Sarah Palin level fiasco I’m just not super intrigued

    Mr. Trump is like the cheese

    he stands alone

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  2. pence so farked things up, the dems are likely to take the governorship, bopp is practicing wishful thinking

    narciso (732bc0)

  3. I think Newtie is the choice and the choice was made weeks ago.

    This is all B-level reality TV BS distraction to build supposed suspense.

    Patterico (6228e1)

  4. FWIW, Evan Bayh is replacing Baron Hill as the Dems candidate for Senate, so maybe there is a sense of overall blood-in-water (or a shift of current R candidate Todd Young to Gov candidacy) http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/11/politics/evan-bayh-senate-run/.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  5. ‘the several republicans’ could be the vendor at the arena,

    narciso (732bc0)

  6. Evan Bayh in Indiana?!
    Russell Feingold in Wisconsin?!
    Is Tom Daschle going to mount a comeback, too? (LOL)

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  7. I think some people working for Trump want it to be Mike Pence, and they are trying to convimce Trump, but Trump probably prefers Newt Gingrich.

    And some other people working for Donald Trump want it to be General Mike Flynn, probably in order to sabotage his campaign, because this a reminder to some people of what George Wallace did in 1968 by naming Curtis Lemay.

    Sammy Finkelman (c82029)

  8. So, who gets Katrina Pierson for #4?

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  9. What difference does it make who goes to funerals in the next administration? VP choices never end up moving votes.

    crazy (fcf2fd)

  10. Maybe they end up moving votes in the “lets be rid of him sense” – Donnie could pick Pence or Walker, or insist on choosing Christie, if only to score the mutually beneficial coup of scoring a “swing state” upset and letting disgruntled opposition clear their enemy from the governors mansion.

    That may be the lesson learned from Kamala Harris v. Lorretta Sanchez, conservatives may pick Harris or at least blank-ballot because being a junior senator is a lesser evil than remaining California AG.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  11. Sammy,

    Mike Flynn is an urbane general, hell, he still says “radical” before “Islam”.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  12. Newton Leroy Gingrich is 73. What is this election? Return Of The Nosferatu Flower Children? Watch Hillary pick Bernie.

    nk as magyardad izzyelk (dbc370)

  13. I had this dream, where Trump picks Gingrich, not as the VP candidate, but as the GOP Presidential candidate in an agreement with all parties, with General Flynn as VP.

    “We have to unify the party to beat Hillary Clinton, and the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one*.”

    Then I woke up.

    —————
    *thereby creating the quote that Spock was so fond of.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  14. In that vein, Kevin, he could also gather as much dirty laundry on her, point to his own, and state that he will quit, but only if Hillary quits also.

    That or your dream in #13, is worthy of DJT being on future paper currency – it could even be in orange ink.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  15. THAT’S LIKE THE DUMBEST DREAM EVER IN THE HISTORY OF DREAMS

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  16. That is illogical. If Trump were the kind of person who would do that, we would not want him to dao that. We would want him for President.

    nk (dbc370)

  17. what George Wallace did in 1968 by naming Curtis Lemay.

    LeMay probably helped Wallace, as it gave him some foreign policy and military credentials. It certainly did not hurt him with the hardcore “law and order” types he was courting. Remember, this was 1968, when it seemed like the country was on the brink of civil war; 2016 is but a pale shadow.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  18. I particularly liked that Spock and the Federation would be constantly quoting Donald Trump. My subconscious is a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  19. ‘captain, we are in serious danger’

    narciso (732bc0)

  20. I have absolutely no idea who this Pence guy is and I don’t care.

    If Trump picks Gingrich then he’s toast. Plain and simple. Come on. Gingrich. What planet are you living on?

    Of course he’s toast no matter what he does, because Hitlery is going to steal this election, in the most brunt, brutal, obvious fashion you have ever seen in your lives. Wait and see. You will not believe what this crook is going to do.

    hunson abedeer (80144e)

  21. i’ll put it up right up there with vp pawlenty and portman, it’s worth about one bearclaw,

    narciso (732bc0)

  22. Yes, all last names starting with P and being rather bland Midwesterners.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  23. Curtis Lemay had said nuclear bombs were just another weapon! Or so it was reported. During the Cuban missile Crisis, he’d wanted to bomb Cuba. Shades of Goldwater and the daisy ad.

    Sammy Finkelman (c82029)

  24. 12. Newton Leroy Gingrich is 73. What is this election? Return Of The Nosferatu Flower Children? Watch Hillary pick Bernie. “Don’t trust anybody under 70”

    Donald Trump will consult with Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, and Bob Dole.

    Certainly Henry Kissinger:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gimF4G7mBs

    (Hillary Clinton also sought to bask in his glory and Bernie Sanders disagreed)

    Here is George Schultz:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOfxkf6OZoE

    Bob Dole endorses (sort of) Donald Trump:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FCccCRNQxQ

    ….and Newt Gingrich for Vice president:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=budumRreTcg

    Sammy Finkelman (c82029)

  25. “Hitlery is going to steal this election, in the most brunt, brutal, obvious fashion you have ever seen in your lives.”

    LOL, just LOL at Hillary having the stones, supporters, or discipline to do this.

    And even if she somehow manages to break character and actually says or does something bluntly, which group would you put the odds on for the inevitable coup d’etat? Ruthless bullies with guns or SJWs with feelz and rentacops?

    Dystopia Max (76803a)

  26. Pense brings a nod to conservatives with his hard-right credentials, Congressional experience as well as time at the helm in a Midwest state like Indiana. He’s not particularly flamboyant either and he would not upstage ‘The Great White Dope’ like “Newt Gingrich, Moon President,” can– as SNL so aptly labeled him in 2012.

    Newt doesn’t bring any state with him, either, but does carry the kind of seedy, if not rigged, government experience Trump keeps saying he’s opposed to– as well as the knack to sound like a Cliff Claven which suckered most Republicans for years– Shouting ‘Reagan’ doesn’t work any more, as he learned in 2012. Lots of personal baggage, too- they’d have six wives between them– GOP family values on display.

    On the other hand, Newt’s media savvy is in a league with Trump’s and he’s experienced at doing battle with the Clintons. Together they’d be an entertaining show– which is Trump 101. But if Trump pics Newt Gingrich, Moon President, I’m back to voting for Hillary. Gingrich has no business being a heartbeat away from the Oval Office. He ought to try eating a salad, too.

    The real losers in this are Christie and Kasich. The brass ring was Christie’s to grab in 2012 and he let it go by. This time around, it’s Kasich who blew it.

    The political move is to get Pense onboard. The showbiz move it to team up with Newt. So of which mindset is Trump? It’s Brain Salad Surgery…

    “Welcome back, my friends; To the show that never ends; We’re so glad you could attend; Come inside, come inside…”

    DCSCA (a343d5)

  27. It’ll be the usual inner-city districts with 175% voter turnout over registration numbers, military absentee ballots being shipped to Australia by banana boat, and boxes of votes being found in car trunks after the fact for a few weeks in all close districts kind of thing, Dystopia Max.

    Ingot (e5bf64)

  28. Meanwhile, a federal judge has ruled in a Virginia case that the Virginia law requiring delegates to vote as bound is a violation of the delegate’s first amendment rights of speech and association.

    https://twitter.com/gabrielmalor

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  29. You know it’s the End Times when Bob Dole endorses Newt Gingrich for anything.

    And old as he may be, George Schultz would probably make a better Secretary of State than Hillary or Lurch. He was Reagan’s point man in winning the Cold War. These twerps can’t even win an already won war, and may have lost the Cold War, too.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  30. Yes, all last names starting with P and being rather bland Midwesterners.

    That leaves Palin out, too. But he’s probably saving her to run the EPA.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  31. certainly crossing the streams, but red queen was on the left side of the spectrum, in the 70s, and lurch was an out and traitor on two continents,

    narciso (732bc0)

  32. What is definitely now true is that the Indiana Senate seat will flip to a Dhimmicrat: Evan Bayh. He just announced today that he is taking the place of the dude who won the primary. Bayh is unbeatable in this state.

    With Bayh at the top of the ticket, Indiana becomes a toss-up state in the presidential race.

    Oh. If anyone screams about the unfairness of the GOP considering dumping Trump at their convention, just direct them to what the Dhimmis just did to Baron Hill in Indiana by bringing in Bayh.

    Ed from SFV (3400a5)

  33. George Schultz is too busy waging war on the weather.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  34. no one gives a farthing, about baron hill, I point out those two mentioned nominees, that went anywhere, to indicate the utter insignificance of such a report,

    no schultz’s big thing now is getting rid of nukes,

    narciso (732bc0)

  35. Pence isn’t a crazy idea. He would be dull and pliable, no threat to steal the show or poach upon the Trump brand throughout the campaign.

    The problem with Christie turned out to be that because he had been so colorful before he defected to Trump, the resulting contrast as he groveled and licked Trump’s tiny little hand ended up getting lots of media attention.

    Mind you, in Trump Universe (not to be confused with Trump University, although they’re related), even the young and beautiful piece of *ss next to you isn’t supposed to actually, you know, deflect the spotlight, not even for a moment.

    And this is why Newt will get some role in the hypothetical administration, but won’t be the running mate: Newt would generate far too many headlines of his own. Trump’s been happy to have Newt’s praise and support while he was seeking the nomination; and Trump’s been remarkably restrained in his grumpiness when Newt has differed with or criticized him. But Newt has been a leading man himself, and nobody with an ego the size of Trump’s is going to risk putting Newt into a constitutionally protected four-year gig as the “opening act” if he’s going to be any kind of rival.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  36. Our host wrote (#3): “This is all B-level reality TV BS distraction to build supposed suspense.”

    I definitely agree with that. But Newt is useful in trying to influence that dramatic arc. That doesn’t mean Trump’s going to handcuff himself to Newt for the entire campaign (and potentially thereafter, if they had a chance, which I doubt).

    Beldar (fa637a)

  37. Basically Trump’s trying to make the Veep selection process into about five episodes of Celebrity Apprentice.

    But I hated that show anyway. Its popularity should have tipped me to the fact that the country was steadily going brain-dead.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  38. no schultz’s big thing now is getting rid of nukes,

    It was Reagan’s thing, too.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  39. Maybe he should pick Ann Coulter and get double the media exposure.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  40. I still wonder what American history would be like had Reagan chosen Jack Kemp as his running mate rather than GW Bush.
    We might not have gotten a President Clinton, and therefore we likely wouldn’t be dealing with his coattails wife at this time.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  41. @17- Anybody who even tries to make a comparison of 1968 to 2016 simply fuels Beldar’s perception that the country is going ‘brain dead.’

    DCSCA (a343d5)

  42. Re: 40 – that is an awesome alternate universe novel waiting to be written.

    Steve Malynn (1d7837)

  43. Re: 37 –

    Basically Trump’s trying to make the Veep selection process into about five episodes of Celebrity Apprentice.

    But I hated that show anyway. Its popularity should have tipped me to the fact that the country was steadily going brain-dead.

    Beldar (fa637a) — 7/11/2016 @ 3:09 pm

    Beldar you have hit the nail on the head – we are living in Idiotocracy – if there is ever going to be a Conservative/Constitutional resurgence some conservative leader will need to win the idiot vote, and do it with design and subtlety.

    Steve Malynn (1d7837)

  44. We might not have gotten a President Clinton

    Nor either President Bush.

    Reagan
    Kemp (88-96)
    Powell (96-04) (moving to the center as one must to hold the string, preempting Obama, and avoiding 9/11)

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  45. perhaps, but the rockefeller wing wanted inclusion then, so they wouldn’t scamper off, and stab the party in the back like they did to goldwater, despite the fact that much of what had gone wrong was do to those same policies,

    narciso (732bc0)

  46. That was another strike against Bob Corker, “Call Me, Harold” which pre-empted an actually black American blue dog who would have been nursed for a run in 2012/16. Clinton or Gore redux stinks it up against Giuliani/Gingrich/Romney in 2008.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  47. Ed from SFV (3400a5) — 7/11/2016 @ 2:26 pm

    Evan Bayh. He just announced today that he is taking the place of the dude who won the primary.

    This is asign of central control in the Democratic Party. That is not good.

    Oh. If anyone screams about the unfairness of the GOP considering dumping Trump at their convention, just direct them to what the Dhimmis just did to Baron Hill in Indiana by bringing in Bayh.

    Baron Hill had to agree, of course, and he didn’t have any prospect of winning. It’s likely that Senator Schumer, who wanted to get Bayh in, made it more difficult for Hill to raise money. Bayh apparently has $10 million left pover form his previous campaigns or preparation for the 2010 race he never made. Schume must have promised Bayh at least that he’d get all his seniority back, but what was promised to Hill? It’s not quite legal to promise anything.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 7/11/2016 @ 3:27 pm

    I still wonder what American history would be like had Reagan chosen Jack Kemp as his running mate rather than GW Bush.

    We might not have gotten a President Clinton, and therefore we likely wouldn’t be dealing with his coattails wife at this time.

    It might have been enough for Bush not to pick Quayle. Some people really wanted to get off that train.

    Bill Clinton would not have given up if he saw no way to win in 1992. Just like Hillary did not after 2008. He might have traded jobs with Senator David Pryor in 1990.

    Sammy Finkelman (c82029)

  48. Is Mike Pence on that list because Trump couldn’t get Mitch Daniels? It doesn’t make any kind of sense otherwise. Mike Pence actually made a non-endorsement endorsement of Ted Cruz before the Indiana primary.

    Sammy Finkelman (c82029)

  49. I think its part of his olive branch to the self-appointed religious right and also a way of getting Cruz without getting Cruz. Mitch, though competetent, would be uber-Beta and would put many more people off as reminder of the Bush era.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  50. Donald Trump told the Associated Press that he has narrowed down the list to four people: Chris Chrstie, Michael Flynn and two others he wouldn’t name. The other two may be the ones he is most likely to name and are probably Newt Gingrich and Jeff Sessions.

    I think Mike Pence has been fired.

    On July 5, the Associated Press has six people on the list, including Senators Bob Corker and Joni Ernst who both took themselves out of contention and did not complete the questionairres. General Michael Flynn was missing from the July 5 list.

    Earlier, Donald Trump had talked about announcing the vice presidential nominee only during the convention, and in fact, the day he would be nominated, as was traditional through 1972, but he later indicated he might do what people wanted and name the candidate the week before the convention – that is, this week, which would give a deadline of Friday.

    Sammy Finkelman (c82029)

  51. The CBS Evening News reported today that Trump will make his announcement on Friday, and this will be followed by anow-traditional series of campaign stops and appearances on the Sunday morning interview shows.

    Newt Gingrich has suspened his contract with Fox, but they say that does not necessarily mean he will be the vice presidential nominee.

    Sammy Finkelman (c82029)


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