Posted on 12/02/2010 7:47:53 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Though Pence says he won’t decide on whether or not to run for president until next year, conservative leaders I spoke to were equally as bullish on Pence.
Chris Chocola, president of the powerful fiscally conservative Club for Growth tells me Pence may benefit from being less well known, and less of a lighting rod than Palin. He also notes that “[Pence's] conservative credentials are really unquestionable.”
“[Pence] appeals to every group that Palin appeals to — and probably a little more,” says Chocola.
“Pence is Palin with gravitas. Pence is Palin with experience,” adds Brent Bozell, chairman of For America.
Regarding experience, FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey says of Pence: “He’s been a rock solid fiscal conservative, showing up not only for the high profile TARP and ObamaCare battles, but also championing issues that are maybe less glamorous politically, but are critically important for our country, such as fundamental tax reform, specifically the flat tax.”
I’ve written about this a bit before. The guy who’s usually mentioned as the threat to Palin is Huckabee, of course, because they’d compete for social conservatives. But establishment Republicans dislike Huck almost as much as they do Sarahcuda, as he’s ever eager to remind us. So imagine for a moment that you’re Karl Rove, nervously weighing the possibility that one of those two will be the nominee. You can try to head them off by pushing Romney or Daniels or Thune, but then you run the risk of a pure “centrists vs. the base” primary — and because the base tends to be more motivated to turn out, they’d have the upper hand. The alternative is to try to coopt part of the base by backing a compromise candidate instead, someone who might be more fiscally and/or socially conservative than the establishment would prefer but who would peel off base voters from Huck and Palin and would stand a better chance of appealing to centrists against Obama. That’s Pence. He’s got 10 years of legislative experience, he’s deeply respected by fiscal cons and social cons, he gives a good speech, and he’s less ostentatious about “values” than Huckabee is so he runs a smaller risk of alienating moderates in the general election.
What he doesn’t have is name recognition, and he’ll need to catch up on that in a hurry to have a serious chance against Palin and/or Huck. Which makes me wonder if, in the next few months, we aren’t about to see a serious public pro-Pence push among people like Rove and other GOP chieftains. I’ve been assuming that we’d see that on Daniels’s behalf, but between his gaffes about calling a truce on social issues and the calculus I described above about needing base voters to win, maybe Beltway types will give up on him as a lost cause and back Pence, the other Hoosier, instead. The big question is whether he’s willing to run for president now or if, as rumored, he’s thinking of running for governor first with an eye to 2016. He’d be a formidable candidate then too, especially with some executive experience under his belt: None of the obvious contenders — Christie, Rubio, Jindal — are especially closely identified with social conservatism, so Pence could clean up. Still, that’s a tougher field than 2012 would be, so maybe GOP insiders could persuade him to go for the big prize now by promising to back him. Honestly wouldn’t surprise me. Exit question: Would it work?
Update: A commenter reminds me that Palin said she won’t run if no other satisfactorily conservative candidate steps up. Well, by virtually any measure, Pence would qualify as satisfactory. Is that reason enough for the establishment to try to push him into the race — to call Palin’s bluff on that promise?
Methinks I shall dub him Sir Bonk-a-Lot...
You can try that again if you like, not sure where you got that quote but I didn’t make it lol.
They’re searching....desperately...hoping to find an ego and someone who “sticks”, but unfortunately, she has a huge jump on everyone and it’s hers to lose, despite the media, despite the establishment and despite all the handwringing and backstabbing going on.
LOL. Better and more civil than Sir *iss-a-Lot.
Read up on LOST when you get some time, retard.
They’re searching....desperately...hoping to find an ego and someone who “sticks”, but unfortunately,
(for them)
she has a huge jump on everyone and it’s hers to lose, despite the media, despite the establishment and despite all the handwringing and backstabbing going on.
Playing off a current BMW commercial, showing scenes from when the main character of the spot was a kid, and his parents were looking for stuff (toys, guitars, etc.) for him and saying “Hey, this is just as good as that one you like”, and the kid says...”No. It’s not.”
Pence should run for governor of Indiana and Mitch Daniels should be considered for the next president of the US.
It's as if he's putting "kick me" signs on every one of his posts.
*Contemplates how to change pissy's tagline*
:-)
LOL. Better and more civil than Sir *iss-a-Lot.
*Attempts to hold back laughter*
... Bonk!
You're gonna do permanent damage if you keep that up, bud.
I can't vote for Mitch Daniels. He's too short.
I have. LOST is not the slam dunk litmus test you seem to think it is. There are good parts and bad. She had solid thinking when backing it. Remember many high level Naval brass also saw this as a good thing. Her is her cogent thought on the matter.
“If the U.S. does not ratify the convention, the opportunity to pursue our own claims to offshore areas in the Arctic Ocean might well be lost. As a consequence, our rightful claims to hydrocarbons, minerals, and other natural resources could be ignored.” -Sarah Palin
How short is he?
LOL. Oh well, it’s late and I’m about to sign-out.
“Pence is Palin with gravitas. Pence is Palin with experience,” adds Brent Bozell, chairman of For America.
Pence is Palin without a following.
Only if they really, really believe one of the other guys is an easy beat for them and they think he won’t win the nomination without their help. I think there are still a bunch of these clowns who believe she’s an idiot, and would “saddle” us with her on that basis. I want to be there when they start thinking “My God, what have we done?”
Utter flippin tripe.
It was an odd day and I needed a good laugh.
You and Windflier helped.
I was thinking today (when I saw him on TV) that a Palin/Pence ticket would be great.
Pence is also Palin without the charisma.
I don’t think she’d take another veep spot. I wouldn’t if I were her.
It may well come down to Romney or Palin. I wish the anti-Palin cultists would think about that for a minute and temper their attacks until we se what happens.
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