Posted on 03/22/2012 8:24:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Yesterday's endorsement of Mitt Romney by former Florida governor Jeb Bush sent the implicit message that the time had come to wrap up the nomination process and begin focusing on the general election. Bush made that more explicit in an interview with Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Salena Zito --- and Bush had an idea how to make the ticket even stronger:
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says Republican front-runner Mitt Romney has earned the right to take on President Obama in November.
“It is time to get behind the nominee,” Bush told the Tribune-Review on Wednesday during a visit to Pittsburgh. “And it is time for the country to focus on the most important thing, which is to elect a president who will create a climate for high growth and job-creating abilities for our country.”
Does he want to be VP? No, but he knows the man for the job:
“Marco Rubio,” he said of the freshman Florida GOP senator, who served as a volunteer on Bush’s governor’s campaign. Bush described Rubio, 40, as “dynamic, joyful, disciplined and principled.”
“He is the best orator of American politics today, a good family man. He is not only a consistent conservative, but he has managed to find a way to communicate a conservative message full of hope and optimism,” Bush said.
No doubt, Rubio would be a popular choice for a running mate in the GOP. He routinely wins the polls here at Hot Air for the slot, for example. If Romney does win the nomination — and that seems just short of certain now — he’d need a popular figure like Rubio among conservatives, and I’m not sure there’s another choice that could help him consolidate the base as effectively.
However, I’m still not sold on this as an effective general-election choice. Rubio has not had any executive-branch experience yet, and has been in the Senate for a mere 14 months. He needs more time to garner broader experience before one can make the claim that he has a resumé that justifies him being one heartbeat away from the Presidency. (Yes, I know Obama only had two years in the Senate before beginning his run for the top spot. Look how well that’s working out.) As talented as Rubio is, he has a brilliant career ahead of him if he shows some patience and builds a record of more than just fabulous oratory. He needs a full term in the Senate with his name on significant legislation, then a term as governor in Florida. With that kind of record, Rubio might be unbeatable in any cycle. With four or eight years as VP after less than two in the Senate, Rubio could end up being a historical footnote.
Bobby Jindal makes more sense as a running mate in this cycle, or Nikki Haley, both of whom are governors outside of Washington with Southern draw. Jindal probably would be better in getting conservatives to coalesce behind him, and he has a real track record of political reform in his second term in the top spot in Louisiana.
Update: Fox asked Rick Perry about rumors of his being on the shortlist, and Perry says that rumor is all it is:
“Texas governor versus VP? The balance on that one isn’t even close,” Perry said. “I would suggest to you that’s deep in the rumor category and I got a better gig where I am, thank you.”
Perry would make a pretty good running mate, though, and would help Romney get conservative backing. I don’t see Perry in a #2 slot, however, and I doubt he sees himself there either.
Neither is that low down dirty dog sitting in the WH, but guess it doesn’t matter anymore.
Neither is that low down dirty dog sitting in the WH, but guess it doesn’t matter anymore.
We’d like to know why anyone would post ‘can’t stand Rubio.’
Rubio is good looking, young, conservative, likeable, articulate, a great speaker and shares most of our values.
I’d like to know why some people on this site cannot resist the opportunity to bash The Bushes on every thread.
How about concentrating on the enemy? Every day Obama reveals himself as more and more horrible, destructive to our country and despicable.
Yet, post after post here, is sniveling about something on the Republican side.
You don’t like this one because of this little thing he did or said, or that one because he wears a sweater vest ...
Except for Ron Paul, there is no excuse for bashing on this forum. Not even for the last choice.
But when it gets to the point that people are bashing Rubio..... okay, it’s now certifiably SICK.
Like I said... maybe if my vote counted, I might see things differently... I doubt it but maybe... but I have the luxury of not voting for mitt if he is nominated and I will not vote for him. If he is the nominee... Mississippi will vote for him over obama. I will vote for Newt or Rick... preferring Newt.
LLS
Obots do not care about what it means to be a natural born citizen w undivided loyalties. They could care less what the Framers intended. They care about one thing only: justifying the moonbat marxist America-hater in the WH. That is their sole concern.
Of course the Framers intended to exclude King George and those of his ilk from siring the future POTUSes. Anybody who can’t see that is deluded beyond all possible hope. But Obots won’t concede the Framers could be so exclusive. Surely the Framers didn’t want to hurt King George’s feelings by excluding his offspring from the new country’s highest office! Obots can’t see past their own faulty assumptions, so they project their own biases and assumptions onto the Founders. Fail.
You can’t reason w these people, mj. Reason has nothing to do w their position. All they care about, as I said, is justifying their leftist loon man-child. Anything that threatens his legitimacy shuts down whatever part of their brain hasn’t already died of post-modernitus. Reasoning w them is a hopeless cause, sad to say.
RE: Rubio who is also a Mormon ‘of record.’
Marco Rubio is an PRO-LIFE ROMAN CATHOLIC.
He was raised Mormon, and is still on the LDS membership rolls.
Two Mormons on the ticket - or Rubio will be forced to repudiate his Mormon membership. He hasn’t done that yet.
Rubio was 8 or 9 years old when his mother brought him to the Mormon Church.
However “smart” the young Marco Rubio was, I seriously doubt anyone under the age of 8 or 9 really had a grasp on the doctrinal between different branches of Christianity.
Let’s remember, many of us belong to the churches not because we did some serious soul searching and independent thought and decided that church best represented our own views or is “correct.” We belong to our church because our family does, or our friends and neighbors do.
I also note that Church is about connecting to something higher. And on one level that something higher is the feeling of community. We’re not going to say churches are just social clubs, but are they not basically religious social clubs? So it follows that the Rubios, brand new to Nevada, would start attending church with their closest family members in the area.
At 13, Rubio’s family moved back to Catholic-heavy Miami and begin once again attending Catholic church. There isn’t much of a Mormon community in South Florida anyway, but it makes sense that the Rubio family would again be attending the church that their friends and family in the area did.
Rubio still identifies as Catholic but attends a non-denominational Baptist church in West Kendall. It seems to us that for Rubio, the actual act of going to church isn’t so much about the scripture as it is the community. How else do you explain a Catholic going to a Baptist church?
Unless Rubio is actually a Mormon sleeper agent who is part of a vast Manchurian conspiracy to join Romney in the White House to rule America under strict Mormon law, I’m really not sure how any of this is all of that important.
It’s not like Mormonism and Catholicism translate to very different political opinions. Both creeds are anti-gay marriage and anti-abortion.
I was also baptized Mormon when I was 8. I quit attending when I was in my 20’s. I never officially resigned until some Mormon posters here on FR demanded that I quit calling myself a Mormon even though I was born into a multigenerational LDS family and still had my name on the rolls.
YOU may think it is a non-issue, I take it you are Catholic, but others may not be so understanding and it could well complicate the race if two Mormons ‘of record’ were on the ballot. You don’t need to convince me, I understand that Rubio no longer attends the LDS services, but until he resigns or he is excommunicated, he is still considered a Mormon by the LDS Church.
How can he, at some point in the race, come out and refute the LDS Church while Romney is such a super Mormon? What kind of division would THAT cause?
Well said!
Jindal is ruthless and a power grabber. His conservatism is a facade.
Thank you... I just tell it like I see it.
LLS
For my part, I think the reason people are not attacking Obama and are still attacking other Republicans is because there is a war for the sole of the opposition to Obama.
If we do not get this right, we will have gained nothing except the right to take the heat when the SHTF, which it most certainly will do.
If the next President will take the blame for all that will happen, then we should at least go down doing our level best to change things for the better.
Will Romney be that person?
Based on past actions,and ignoring all rhetoric and promises, he will not. He will do all that Obama will have done, only on a smaller scale. When things don’t work out, the socialist movement will then say, “See, we tried it your way but it didn’t work!” They will then argue that socialism is the only way to go, and the people who are the moochers and looters will hold sway.
I want the situation to be changed for the good - I will vote for those that I think will.
Right now, other than Newt, there are none, IMHO.
I do pray that I am wrong.
Well, I don’t have an opinion of Rubio I just know that he like Jindal is not a Natural Born Citizen since his parents were not Citzens when he was born. Obama has the same problem and should be thrown out immediately. It looks like we will be stuck with Romney. But if Rubio runs we will have a constitutional crisis that has been doubled since Barry Soetero is not a NBC
Ah, mojito, spewer of nonsense. It's quite telling that you believe that what facts are true depends upon what one wishes the answer to be. Very illogical. It goes far to explain birtherism.
Unfortunately for your theory, both Obama and birthers are both pretty much wrong about everything. Correcting birthers has nothing to do with defending Obama. It has everything to do with not letting insanity take over FR.
Birthers do not uphold the US Constitution. They distort it, and then demonize the very institutions they pretend to defend when those institutions explain how birthers are wrong. They are quite Anti-American.
Birthers use the term themselves. It's reminiscent of Truthers, another well developed wacky anti-American conspiracy theory. As noted, it does not defend Truth or the Rule of Law. Just the opposite. People who defend Truth and the Rule of Law are the ones setting Birthers straight.
While it is quite possible that U-Kno-Hoo was born in Hawaii, it is not, by a long shot, a dead cert. Neither is the contention that he was born somewhere else. We can't prove it. He can't prove it. So far, the score on the BC is BHO,Jr., 1; Birthers, 0. But the game ain't quite over. Probably never will be, since Team Obama masterfully uses it as a smoke-screen to deflect attention away from other stuff like "Natural Born Citizenship," and his tight, decades-long friendship with the Commie Bomb Builder, Ayers.
Understandably back-burnering the BC, (which BTW, is about as real as a six-dollar bill) that still leaves the mythical "reasonable person" with a highly suspicious Draft Registration, a SSN that doesn't click in the Federal System, somewhat smelly Illinois Bar records, No passport records, sequestered college records, and an admitted substance abuse problem, hopefully in his past. We ain't dealing with George Washington here. We're dealing with an unknown guy from nowhere who is paid to read stuff that mysteriously appears on his teleprompters and collects multi-million dollar royalties on an autobiography he didn't write.
Perhaps, mlo, one such as yourself might confront that there is such a thing as being too acceptive of Obama's bona fides?
As far as insanity on FR : IMNSVHO,there is a case of massive Cognitive Dissonance afflicting the entire US population about this guy. He has driven us all mad. Probably part of the "PLAN."
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