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.
Pence.
Gov. Scott Walker Signs Gun Confiscation Law Under Cloak of Domestic Abuse
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3152959/posts
Pence is on my short list, along with Cruz, Palin, Santorum, and Jindal. If he is the nominee, I could not only vote for him but gladly campaign for him.
The talk is tough, but the actions???????
I’ve watched politics and politicians with D’s and R’s next to their names for years and have figured it out to this.
They talk big differences, but in reality there are virtually no differences.
Pence is talking as if he doesn’t support Common Core, but the acid test will be if he abandons it or not.
Another acid test is Medicaid expansion under Obamacare.
Pence is playing the game my RINO Governor Tom Corbett (PA) is in his re-election year.
Pence pushes an alternative to create a fight with the Obama Administration to look good politically.
Trying to expand Medicaid on one’s own terms has the smell of the GOPe “Amend Obamcare” agenda.
Why didn’t he just flat out say NO to Medicaid expansion like governors or legislators in the more conservative states have done.
Pence and Walker would make for a formidable ticket. Two accomplished governors with great track records..
Pence and Demint were the only ones I saw out and with the people at the 9-12 rally in DC.
Pence is not RINO on the inside. He voted against the banks bailout, he voted against the prescription drug plan for seniors, he voted against the bailout for Chrysler and GM.....these are just a few things I can come up with off the top of my head.
I don’t think those votes qualify as RINO by a long shot.
Scott Walker recently did something to knock him off my list but my failing memory can’t dig it up. It must have been gun related though.
Uh Obama beat Hillary with no experience.
And look how that turned out. Do we really want another President with zero experience?
Mike Pence is bland but at least that is consistent with what he is, compared to Walker who is over-rated.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/218055/say-it-aint-so-mike/congressman-steve-king
“I first want to be clear about one thing: Congressman Pence is a friend of mine, of whom I think so much that I have said, with deference to his committed Protestantism, that the only position for which I would not support him is pope.”
Christie, Rick Perry, Scott Walker, Nikki Haley, Rand Paul and others are worse on immigration.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131120gop-governors-immigration-reform.html
You mean like Obama? Obama was a one-term Senators for just a few years and not only beat Hillary but got elected President twice.
I beg to differ on Cruz. His only downside I see is whether he has the charisma for the race, but he’s got a lot more than Hillary, and he is much quicker than her on the fly.
Experience means as much in a presidential campaign now as military experience, which is none. It’s about campaign execution and performance.
I would be very happy with Pence or Walker, or a combination. Both guys are solid. I might go with either in the race. I just don’t and won’t discount Cruz.
You mean like Obama? Obama was a one-term Senators for just a few years and not only beat Hillary but got elected President twice.
You guys are going to screw us conservatives again by being stupid. Ok nominate him and see what happens.
He told the Tea Party not to worry about primarying bad Republicans.
I just don’t and won’t discount Cruz.
There is something about Cruz that I don’t like. He seems slimy to me. It is personal. Does that mean I won’t vote for him in the national election....no. I have voted for worse. However, I will NEVER vote for him in the primary.
First, Scott Walker endorsed Marco Rubio’s amnesty plan.
Then he claimed no additional border security measures were needed.
Then he proposed a slightly less destructive alternative to Obamacare.
Then he opposed “austere” spending cuts.
Then he endorsed Paul Ryan’s tax increase and cuts to military retirees.
In the landmark case of District of Columbia v. Heller, Cruz drafted the amicus brief signed by attorneys general of 31 states, which said that the D.C. handgun ban should be struck down as infringing upon the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Cruz also presented oral argument for the amici states in the companion case to Heller before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
That was a safe house district. I think Dick Lugar won in 2006 in a bad year.
Mike Pence is a good guy it seems but he is not going to excite anyone
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.