Sunday, April 01, 2012

Ann Coulter Is Right That Mitt Romney Should NOT Choose Sen. Rubio For VP

I know that a lot of people are not going to like this. And I do not like writing this. But commentator Ann Coulter said today that Mitt Romney should not choose popular GOP Senator Marco Rubio as his vice-president should he be the GOP nominee for president.
I am a huge Sen. Rubio fan. I was on his bandwagon way before there was a Marco Rubio bandwagon.
So I would love to see him on the ticket.
But not now.
In 2016, Sen. Rubio, God willing, would be reelected to a second term as senator. He will have gone through the rigors of a campaign and win on his record. He will have some experience under his belt.
That is the point Miss Coulter made in the link above.
And if Mr. Romney is the nominee, he will need to have someone with the experience that knows how Washington works.
I still hold out that Mr. Romney will look at his most serious opponent for the nomination, former Sen. Rick Santorum, as a running mate.
As noted by Matt Bai in the same link, most of the time people do not vote for who is second on the ticket.
Except that I believe last election, more conservatives voted for Sarah Palin as the GOP vice-presidential candidate than because of Sen. John "F--- You" McCain. But that is an actual exception.
Say what you will about Mr. Santorum but one thing I think helps rather than hurts his potential as a serious number two.
He will be an aggressive campaigner and one that will fight for Mr. Romney to win. 
Please folks, do not comment that there is so much bitterness and there is no way that an offer will be made and that he would reject it.
George H. W. Bush accepted Ronald Reagan's offer to be number two in 1980. And people may not remember, but that was a bitter campaign as well.
That is when you try to get the best team together. And Mr. Reagan was wise enough to realize that Mr. H. W. Bush would be an asset rather than a liability.
But Sen. Rubio as appealing as he is could run into the headwinds that Mrs. Palin did in 2008. And that could hurt in the long run.
But I think that there is still a race to be had and that all of this talk is premature. We need to let the process continue. It will not hurt the GOP to have a real race. And until it is over, we can speculate all we want.
So, if Mr. Santorum were to somehow pull it off and win the nomination, would Mr. Romney accept his invitation to be vice-president?

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