Posted on 05/08/2014 6:49:25 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I’m old enough to remember when people thought the GOP had a strong field lined up for the next cycle, with no need for dark horses. Which is to say, I’m more than six months old.
Mike Pence is also quietly cultivating influential Washington figures such as Bill Kristol and Gary Bauer, while becoming one of the loudest voices attacking Common Core, a set of education benchmarks that has sparked a revolt among tea party activists.
The moves all bear the hallmarks of a potential run for president in 2016 — and some Republican leaders have begun talking up Pence as an under-the-radar standard-bearer who could return the GOP to the White House, according to interviews with more than two dozen prominent Republicans. They say the talk-radio-host-turned-congressman-turned-governor has the capacity to electrify grass-roots voters while uniting the constituencies that make up today’s deeply divided Republican Party.
“Pence could bridge really every group — the social conservatives, the fiscal conservatives, the foreign policy conservatives,” said Chris Chocola, president of the Club for Growth and a friend of Pence’s. “He’s not viewed as a fringe guy.”…
“In the last few months, people have reached out,” Pence said. “I’m listening.”
Actually, the money quote from the article isn’t in that excerpt. It’s this one, from Pence himself: “I am someone who doesn’t believe there is something wrong with the Republican agenda.” That’s an … interesting message to run on as the potential nominee of a party that’s been shellacked two elections in a row and, with great fanfare, engaged in a formal rebranding after the 2012 campaign. The most dynamic Republican pols of the last year are all about changing the party’s agenda. Most obviously, Rand Paul’s been pushing NSA reform and sentencing reforms; less conspicuously, Mike Lee’s proposed several pro-family economic measures. Virtually everyone in the prospective presidential field supports some form of immigration reform. It’d be supremely ironic if, after the rise of the tea party and people like Paul and Lee tugging the GOP in many different new directions, we ended up with a nominee who’s running explicitly on the idea of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
If you missed it last month, here’s my earlier post on Pence’s candidacy. The smartest critique of him in the WaPo story comes from Grover Norquist, who wonders what Pence’s “big thing” is. Scott Walker’s “big thing” is beating the unions in Wisconsin; if Pence ends up competing with him to be the “compromise candidate,” who’s respected by both the establishment and the grassroots, what has he accomplished to warrant picking him over Walker? (The same can be said for Rubio and Jindal, both of whom may also end up jockeying for the “compromise candidate” slot.) Pence has gotten out in front of opposing Common Core, but people who follow that issue closely like the boss emeritus think his opposition is mostly cosmetic. Maybe Pence’s “big thing” is simply the fact that he’s an exceptionally safe choice, almost to the point of blandness. Everyone else in the field has liabilities that will annoy some Republicans; even Walker, I think, might run into trouble on immigration. But Pence is, famously, a “full-spectrum conservative.”
The fact that he’s saying outright that he thinks there’s nothing wrong with the GOP’s agenda might be reassuring to undecided voters faced with hard choices in the primaries between hawks and doves, social moderates and social conservatives, and so forth. I think McCain got nominated in 2008 because GOP voters ultimately decided he was the safest choice; Romney was also the safest in 2012. Maybe all he has to do is jump in, keep his head down while the rest of the field nukes each other, and then accept the nomination when voters decide it’s all too much and they should just stick with the inoffensive conservative guy from the midwest.
Purely from a strategic view, the GOP ticket needs at least one, if not two, candidates from a Great Lakes state. Scott Walker (WI) would be my first choice. Gov. John Kasich (OH) (provided he wins reelection easily this year, as he should) would be fine, as would Mike Pence (IN).
I thought I’d make a speech since the RINO’s have me so worked up with the games they play on us. They keep trying to throw “excrement” candidates at us to see if one of them will stick and help split the conservative vote in the primaries and caucuses.
STAND WITH THE BIG THREE AND DON’T LOOK BACK.
I THINK ONE OF THEM WILL STAND A CHANCE TO BEAT THE RINO ANNOINTED CANDIDATE.
Just not true. No one supports Palin et al more than me. Pence isn’t a faker.
can we still say “dark horse”?
AND STOP YELLING.
Conservative talk is cheap when we need conservative action.
All we get from the GOP is liberal action like higher taxes and more spending. (The Paul Ryan Budget).
Buchanan liked Pence a while back. But when I looked into him, he was squishy on immigration.
I agree Walker may be the best candidate....very thick skinned too. Wonder if he has a good sense of humor to laugh off the smut that will be thrown at him?
Not the lightening pole. His radio experience make him alert on his feet in any conversation. Otoh well be needing two conservative senators soon
I’ll stop yelling, but seriously, a party whose goal is to amend Obamacare to make it more “market friendly” does not inspire me very much to support it in 2014.
A party whose leaders push through a higher debt ceiling without being deposed by the majority of their members that techinically didn’t vote for the debt ceiling hike smells pretty bad to me.
The 95 percent of Republicans who don’t get it won’t get my support for any office including President of the United States.
I don’t think Walker is POTUS material. But Pence? Like someone said, full RINO on the inside.
I listened to Mike Pence for years... And what exactly... precisely... do you know about him?
Works for me!
“You want to lose don’t you. Cruz is too inexperienced....First term Senator...remember? Do you want another Obama?????? No results!”
43 years old? Hell, I would put him on the supreme court. How is that for a chief justice?
Forget Palin. Although she is the best choice, the wounds haven’t healed yet. Palin is President in 2024.
I like Walker but I’m afraid he would go squish with immigration. If he could be trusted, I would have him and Rubio or Haley. Reason for Rubio is as VP he is useless, but it will bring in Hispanic voters and satisfies the GOPe. And 8 years after that I have Palin in the White Hut.
You obviously don’t know Mike Pence. Like I said, I don’t think he can win. But if I could put him in the White House today... I would.
Where in the hell have you and these detractors come up with the idea Pence is some kind of stalking horse or RINO? He’s done a damn fine job as IN Governor.
Uh Obama beat Hillary with no experience.
Walker is our best bet. Proven track record of winning big and fighting for things he believes in.
Something tells me he’ll enable Krispy or Jeb
Who is the dark horse? It takes 15 paragraphs for anybody to get to the point these days.
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