(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Lake, Mace, Haley, or someone else - the race to be Trump's VP [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-06-22

From Trump's outhouse to his penthouse — is Nancy Mace staking a claim to be the Indicted One’s 2024 running mate? A year ago, only a lunatic would have suggested that possibility. In June 2022, Trump endorsed Katie Arrington over incumbent Mace for the SC1 US House seat after Mace had criticized him for inciting the Jan 6 riots. Nevertheless, Mace won, and her previous criticism disappeared like a fart in a hurricane.

Now the political punditocracy views Mace as a leading candidate for the VP nod. Why not? The job is not glamorous, but it is a well-trodden rung on the ladder to the top.

John Nance Garner, FDR's first Vice-President (1933-1941) famously described the VP position as "not worth a bucket of warm piss" (bowdlerized to “warm spit” for the general audience). It was an accurate, if acerbic, analysis of the job. VPs were rarely influential or even part of the administration.

When he ascended to the presidency in 1945, another of FDR’s VPs, Harry Truman, did not even know the US was developing the atomic bomb. And as late as the second Reagan administration, VP George HW Bush could plausibly, if inaccurately, deny he knew anything about Iran-Contra.

However, the job has been a stepping stone to the presidency for 15 VPs , through the death or resignation of the incumbent President,

or because they later won elections in their own right.

In 2024, the two most likely contenders for the presidency are term-limited to four more years — a first in US history. And regardless of whether Biden or Trump prevails, the winner will become the oldest man to win a presidential election. So the presidential prospects for either of their VPs are solid.

As it stands, Kamala Harris will continue in the position if Biden wins. However, on the Republican side, there is no clear candidate for the job. The one sure thing is that his old VP, Mike Pence, will not be his new one. This power vacuum has thrown the door open. And political considerations suggest that the favored candidate will be a woman of any color or a Black man.

Trump had selected Pence to shore up his evangelical support. But events have shown that the 2020 loser owns them anyway, so another boring old white guy seems unlikely. A Black man is also a longer shot than a woman, as Trump is more likely to win by recapturing suburban women than he is by increasing his Black vote.

So while South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott , a 2024 presidential contender — or an off-the-wall wack job like North Carolina LT Gov. Mark Robinson , a current NC gubernatorial candidate — remain possibilities, I think a woman is a more likely proposition. This likelihood brings us back to Mace and the others.

Mace’s 2021 apostasy was a rare show of independence for her. In 2016 she worked on Trump’s SC campaign, and even after he had endorsed her opponent, Mace filmed a campaign ad in front of Trump Tower. Predictably, this sucking up earned Trump’s scorn. But this calculating woman knew her man. She stuck to her ass-kissing and went to the mat for him during his espionage indictment.

She made her position clear in a recent interview when she told Politico,

"We can't afford four more years of Joe Biden. I'm willing to bury the hatchet to save the country, and I know President Trump is too."

Her words are fool’s gold. If she were solely motivated by beating Joe Biden, she would back a candidate more likely to appeal to independents than Trump. I suspect her reason for supporting her former antagonist springs from her calculation that he is the most likely candidate to win the GOP nomination. Then, even if that ticket lost, her name recognition would be through the roof for a 2028 race with no incumbent.

Although maybe I am giving her too much credit, and she is just another mindless MAGA — like Kari Lake.

Lake brings us to swivel-eyed lunacy. She is an indefatigable election denier who still thinks some unknown authority will anoint her the Governor of Arizona. And she has embraced Trump like a drunk sucking the dregs out of a gin bottle, at least according to a People piece . The entertainment rag reports a source says, "Kari Lake is there all the time. There’s a suite there that she practically lives in."

I do not know People’s journalistic ethics code, and I have no idea how reliable their source is. Fairness also demands I mention that a senior advisor for Lake (are there any junior advisors) claims that whenever Lake overnights in South Florida, she stays at “Hilton properties in Palm Beach with her loving husband of 25 years" — which seems like an oddly specific, yet also florid way of denying the accusation.

A better candidate for the VP slot would be Nikki Haley. As a former Governor of South Carolina and US Ambassador to the United Nations, Haley has as much gravitas as a Republican can muster. She has also gone out of her way not to criticize Trump despite theoretically competing against him for a job.

Besides, as Mace proved, Trump may carry a grudge, but he will forgive as soon as he feels your lips on his bum — just ask Graham, Cruz, and Rubio. And Haley is primed to pucker up.

This list is hardly exhaustive — there are plenty of others, like South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who both check the gender box and are willing to grovel. And anyone who thinks they have a handle on Trump’s running mate should consider that even Trump has no idea who it will be. And will not know for sure until 15 minutes before he offers the willing victim the position.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/22/2176998/-Lake-Mace-Haley-or-someone-else-the-race-to-be-Trump-s-VP

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/