He looks like a good SOLID Conservative. Does he have any RINO Tendencies? IN Free Reps PLEASE weigh in.
Pence is good and solid….but not sure good and solid is what will be needed in 2016 campaign. I think “in your face” is what is needed. I’d love Mike Pence to be President, but I’m not sure I’d love him as nominee heading into the campaign.
I was under the impression that Cruz was already loose in the Senate.
Ted Cruz or Sarah Palin... we need a warrior and not anything less.
The bottom line for any candidate is that the Tea Party must approach them, and get them to put in writing what their platform is ahead of time. More than anything else, the Republicans must abandoned the idea of just “maintaining the status quo”, and move to real reform.
The first assumption is that the Republicans must control both houses of congress and the presidency. But unlike last time, the RINO leadership must be gone. And the bulk of their reform agenda *must* happen in the first 100 days.
Which is a heck of a lot, because their mission is to turn back 100 years of “progressive” failure.
It is highly unlikely that they can do it all; but they can make gigantic structural reforms, if they enter office with a plan and prepared to act. Even 20% success would extend the life of the republic by 50 years or more. 30%, maybe a hundred years.
The very first thing they must do is for the new POTUS to work with congress to *diminish* the unconstitutional power and authority assumed by the office of the president.
1) Immediately halt and forbid the Presidential Signing Statement, which is leading to a constitutional crisis. Likewise forbid the appointment of “Czars”, and put strict time limits on recess appointments and when they can be made.
2) Resurrect both the Posse Comitatus and War Powers Acts, strengthen and clarify them. Remove the US military from any domestic law enforcement role.
3) Return the vast majority of federal land takings to the states. Reduce the power of the Presidential Proclamation to ceremonial only.
4) The POTUS should submit the State of the Union in writing to congress, as he is required to do, instead of wasting weeks and hundreds of millions of dollars preparing a dog and pony show.
5) All presidential directives, memos and other orders must be made through responsible (impeachable) cabinet officers.
6) Treaties, changes to treaties and “foreign agreements that do not rise to the level of treaties” (which is nonsense), that involve actions in contravention of the US constitution, must be abrogated. This includes treaties signed by the POTUS or his representative, but not confirmed by the US senate.
For its part, congress will have to be very busy indeed.
1) All appropriations bills will be subdivided into those parts of the government that are to be funded, and those which are not going to be funded. Don’t even send the unfunded ones to the POTUS. A special bill to pay for the closing of federal departments, based on actual closures.
2) The house and senate judiciary committees chairmen must do a major restructuring of the federal judiciary, just for efficiency. This would include subdividing the 9th circuit, rearranging the other circuits for population changes, and establishing strict rules for any secret courts not abolished.
They also need to strictly limit how federal judges can involve themselves with death penalty appeals, to prevent those judges personally opposed to the death penalty from dragging out cases for decades. Optimally, executions should happen within five years unless exculpatory evidence is presented.
And since the federal courts have been unwilling to reach final decisions on petty cases that clog the courts, congress must do it for them. This includes cases originating in public schools, cases that are clearly barratry (this means you, ACLU and contingency lawyers), cases involving corporations willing to waste decades of court time to avoid judgments, and a clear definition of state cases that should be excluded from federal hearings as outside of federal jurisdiction.
3) Congress should send two constitutional amendments to the states, the first being a balanced budget amendment and line item veto; and the second being term limits for all federal elected and appointed officials.
4) An act to prevent and eliminate the abuse of private information databases by public and private entities, that provides a means to verify and correct erroneous data, as well as an “opt out” for information other than criminal records. Overall legislation to renew and enhance 4th amendment protections to citizens only.
5) Congress and the POTUS should set up a standing committee for the renegotiation of all Indian tribe and indigenous people’s treaties and agreements, to include federal business law, the absence of which prevents reservation development by tribes.
Mike is a good solid governor here in Indiana but he’s a very low key personality for a politician.
He’d be a great POTUS but probably not a great campaigner.
As a reference, in the 2012 elections he ran 5 points BEHIND Romney and 5 points AHEAD of Murdoch.