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Donald Trump To Announce Mike Pence As Vice-Presidential Running Mate (theguardian.com)
Donald Trump has selected Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his vice-presidential running mate. A senior GOP official, cited by many media outlets today (including the WSJ), confirmed the news, adding that the announcement will be made Friday. The Guardian reports: Pence brings several qualities to the Trump campaign that Republicans have found lacking, not least of which experience in government. The 57-year-old spent 12 years in Congress, including two years in a leadership role with the House Republican Conference. He was elected governor of Indiana in 2012, and gained a degree of national notoriety that's to a controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which he signed into law and then wanted revised, after many argued it would allow discrimination against LGBT people. A Trump-Pence ticket could send a message to Republican dissenters who feel they cannot support a candidate who has proven inconsistent on guns, abortion, LGBT rights and other social conservative issues. Just before the Indiana primary election, the staunchly conservative governor endorsed Ted Cruz, Trump's leading opponent and a far-right senator from Texas.An anonymous reader shared a BuzzFeed article on Pence today. The article digs into some of the opinion pieces Pence has penned over the years. In one such article, Pence wrote that "smoking doesn't kill." "Time for a quick reality check. Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn't kill," he wrote. In another piece, he argues that Carbon Dioxide "can't be the cause of increased global temperatures" because it is "a naturally occurring phenomenon in nature..." not an unnatural one.
However, I suspect that Trump has left himself with few friends and fewer qualified choices, so this is what the Trumpsters get. Mike the Generic Guy
There's also the fact that about half the names released so far that are speaking at the RNC are either Trump's family or sports "stars" like Dana White and Tim Tebow. Not really what you would call credible endorsers that can drum up much support. Tebow is an obvious play for the evangelicals though, and I assume Dana White is there to support Trump's whole "good in business(debatable)=good in government" platform.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
In my opinion, Trump will succeed not because of his political prowess, but because of who he resonates with.
People are tired of the elite ruling, making decisions based on cronyism and who lines their pockets. Trump isn't afraid to call them out.
The elite don't seem to understand that the non-elite vastly outnumber them, and are tired of their voices no being heard or making a difference.
Will Trump being president be a disaster, probably.. but at least it would shake things up and make the elite take notice how easily they can be replaced by the unsatisfied masses when the option presents itself.
This means that Pence won't be running for governor of Indiana. Which means he's going to be out of office entirely come 2017.
Actually that isn't implausible. It is possible that Trump is really doing this to put a final nail in the coffin of the Republicans as a Democratic "operative".
I keep coming back to the time when Obama flip-flopped on telecom immunity during the run-up to the 2008 election.
People kept pointing out that this one act caused the telecoms to donate more money to him, which got him elected. Given the closeness of the 2008 election, it's plausible that if Obama *hadn't* done this that he would not have become president.
People also pointed out that: "it was necessary to get elected - he can't implement hope and change unless he wins".
It was a rationalization based on "the ends justify the means".
I shudder to think that Pence was chosen simply for this reason - an expedient choice to increase the odds of Trump being elected, and not for his opinions, competence, or experience.
My soul is fading, I am become like the Democrats.
Turing was an idiot savant, apparently. Imagine walking into the IRS for an audit and confessing to having hidden tons of income 20 years ago (where they are forbidden to look, and wouldn't find out anyway)? Well, that was along the lines of what he did. He basically volunteered himself for punishment.
Under the circumstances, I don't feel that the target selection was all that bad. He *was* the person most responsible for Bletchley Park's successes during the war. People get into a froth without knowing the whole story on Turing. Sure, the law was shitty back then, but the law was shitty in every other time, too, in some respect.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
I don't much care if a president is having orgies and playing online as a cam girl, so long as she has good policies. It's kind of like drug testing: weed isn't my thing and we don't smoke up at work, but I'd hire a guy who smokes weed in a place where smoking weed is legal, so long as I have reason not to project any performance issues. If he has a good work history, seems well-adjusted, and interviews well, I have reason to believe his personal life isn't my business; and let's be honest: you can put in all the screens and filters and 6-day interview processes you want and still hire a crap candidate--or worse, you can get me.
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Actually, I think he did.
I suspect that Gingrich doesn't think Trump has any chance of winning. However, he and Trump both know that former republican candidates for both P and VP make crazy-large amounts of money on the conservative talk circuit. Republicans seem to pay very large amounts of money to listen to failed candidates speak. Democrats do too, but it seems to be less-crazy amounts and fewer venues, and the people usually have more credentials than "failed to become president".
(I personally think that that was the only reason Trump ran, and that he as surprised as everyone else that he's in this spot.)
There's also the fact that about half the names released so far that are speaking at the RNC are either Trump's family or sports "stars" like Dana White and Tim Tebow.
That side of the campaign sounds more like Camacho 2016 with each passing day. Tell me this exchange doesn't sound familiar.
It sounds like every single platform statement Trump has come up with.
I'm growing weary of politicians using 1984 as a playbook, but I'd really prefer not to see Idiocracy used as one, either.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!