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This. It will motivate the tea party to get out and vote. And it will get him the hispanic vote.
Ps god I hate rubio
Not to mention that it plays well in Florida. Florida was one of Obama's most surprising pickups in 2008... and probably one of the easiest to swing from 08 this November. Rubio also appeals to Hispanics when the party hasn't been doing so well with them, and they're the fastest growing voting bloc in the country.
Loooooool. But then hey, he wouldn't be our governor any more.
He actually does have a lot of positives of running on a national scale. I could see Romney going with him as a Game Change pick. I think Scott Walker shores him up on some of the problems Romney's had with the the base, and has a few advantages of his own. Evangelicals would be appeased by the son of a Baptist preacher who thinks God has plans for him; hardcore fiscal conservatives will love his severe austerity and trickle-down tax cuts. I think that helps moderate some of Romney's weakness. He's got name recognition and fundraising ability on a national scale. He gets to play it as a Washington outsider. We know Romney's going to need someone to fire up the right, because he's not quite doing it himself. Walker might just be his best bet to do that, much as I hate to think it.
I'd also consider Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, who traveled the state campaigning with Romney and it looked as if they have a mutual mancrush. (Walker did not officially endorse nor make any public appearances with any of the presidential candidates.)
I doubt it will be Santorum. I don't think they like one another so well. I think he's going to lie in wait for a possible 2016 run.
NJ Gov. Chris Christie should probably be included in any speculation. He could flip a sizable state and he's been a prominent Romney surrogate.
I'd personally think Jon Huntsman was the best of the lot this time around, but I highly doubt he would be the pick.
We can all agree that it's not going to be Sarah Palin, right?
Post by Longtime and Frequent Poster on Apr 13, 2012 8:51:07 GMT -5
I've always wondered how many people will vote based on Vice President. I mean, I totally understand and agree with you when you say Walker would shore up many of Romney's "problems" or whatever you would like to call them. I know a ton of conservatives who LOVE Walker. Hell, driving through my suburban neighborhood every other yard has one of those Recall Walker, and let him know he's doing a great job signs. The thing is, if Romney chose a VP that didn't appeal to the groups that you mentioned, are conservatives going to suddenly vote for Obama? Or would they vote for a third party candidate? Conversely, I don't really know a single moderate who likes Walker. You pretty much have to be hardcore Republican to like him. At least that's what I've seen.
Post by RadioSpirit on Apr 13, 2012 15:14:37 GMT -5
Huntsman - by far my favorite candidate in years, but Romney would not put another Mormon on the ticket, that would be suicide. Hopefully he becomes someone's Secretary of State. (This could happen either way, I hear Clinton is retiring, and Huntsman has worked for the Obama State Department before).
Christie - A lot of positive, but a lot of potential negatives. They don't want someone who will draw all of the attention away from Romney and upstage him, and Christie would upstage Romney by just standing quietly. And there's no way you would ever convince Christie to stand around quietly, so he's high-risk and very volatile.
Paul Ryan - I don't really think this would be a good pick, but they seem to like each other a lot, and his Wisconsin campaigning almost felt like a VP try-out, and it went well. I don't like choosing someone from the House, and Ryan would tie Romney to his budget, which would become a focal point of the campaign, and I don't think that's what Romney wants.
Walker - Hadn't really thought of this, but would he really want a governor under recall on his ticket?
I think they will not go with a "Game Change" pick, they'll play it safer with someone like Rubio or Pawlenty. They saw what happened to McCain with his GameChanger
Very good choice. His potential has been touched upon by others on this board. Hispanic vote, Florida Swing State, and the Tea Party vote all are favorable factors for him.
The only other real contender I find is Gov. Christie. He won a state that was traditionally Democratic and it will continue to strengthen Romney's Northeast base which they will try to contest with Obama. And yes Christie is vocally volatile, but that makes him a great "guard dog" that allows him to say more controversial things about Obama while Romney continues to look clean and moderate on his campaign.
As far as the candidates from Wisconsin. Both Ryan and Walker are just too polarizing to be veep. Walker with his recall and Ryan with his controversial healthcare plan will scare away the moderates.
I've heard it for a while now. I don't think it'll actually happen though. Has anything like that ever happened before? Where and incumbent ran with a different vp nominee?
I doubt it will get me to Charlotte, but I signed a statement of intent & pledge of support to be a delegate at the Democratic convention this fall. It will be the Wisconsin delegation which formally renominates Obama for a second term.
There's two preliminary steps before one can be considered: participating in a county caucus today and participating in a congressional district caucus next month. Only myself and the county chair filled out the requisite forms in my county. It's going to be a quick caucus.
I don't know what my odds will be at the congressional district level, but there's only one way to find out... so I'm giving it a try.
I doubt it will get me to Charlotte, but I signed a statement of intent & pledge of support to be a delegate at the Democratic convention this fall. It will be the Wisconsin delegation which formally renominates Obama for a second term.
I'm thinking of going down there to protest. If you are there, and I'm not among the Occupy bands herded into protest pens and blasted with LRAD, I might buy ya a beer.
Of course the herding, the LRADs, and just brutal nature of cops might keep me away from that one. I know people who are going to the NATO summit in Chicago or the G8 in Maryland... I'll pass. Ditto the RNC in Tampa.
I am my county's only representative at the congressional district level. My county is in the position of containing three congressional districts - I'm in the far north of my county, but far south of my congressional district. On May 6th, I have to caucus on that level if I want a chance to be a delegate. I believe there are 21 people vying for 7 delegate slots. Four men, three women get to go. I think ten men advanced out of county caucuses to this level. Theoretically I have a 40% chance, then, but nothing more will come from this without a bit of work on my part these next couple weeks.
Thursday night myself and a woman from ONew Haven crashed the Republican Senate debate here.
In a nutshell: Linda McMahon, of wrestling fame, is trying to buy a US Senate seat again. Nearly bought the Republican nomination already.
So Jen is in my car, we're waiting for 7 pm to come around. But we see a giant tan Denali roll up, and Linda Mc1% sticks her head out the window waving at her "supporters".
Jen jumps out of my car, sign in hand, screaming "vote for nobody, vote for nobody!" Everyone, even Linda, is staring our direction. Some of them are puzzled by what Jen is saying, some heckle her and tell her to get a job, the Denali drives off, and I'm embarrased hoping the Republican assholes stay away from me and my car.
It's going to be an interesting year in New England. We're gonna be all over some races.
So on Sunday, I went to the caucus on the congressional district level to select Democratic national convention delegates. Ten men for four spots, seven women for three spots; eligible county winners who could vote in the low sixties.
It was held up in Fond du Lac - I won't get into specifics, but my city is the geographic outlier in my district and my commute was a little more than an hour. Getting home from work at 3am hoping to arrive early enough to campaign, I only got 4-5 hours of sleep before I got up and went.
I had made it through the county level no problem - my city is the only part of the county included in Wisconsin's 6th Congressional district. I lived further from the major population centers than just about anyone.
Save for one person, I really only know one person who attended: Amy. She's about my age, single mother, her county's Dems secretary, done/doing the recall thing, know through a mutual friend, and I've only met her twice - both times at Madison rallies. Granted, I do know the former state Attorney General, an Assembly representative, and the state senator I helped get elected last summer. Just not that well, and nowhere near as reciprocal.
So I'm competing for one of four men's spots. One is a foregone conclusion that it's going to going to be area Assembly Rep. Gordon. The only other name from that list I'd heard anyone mention was Tom, a teacher from Fond du Lac. The only advice I got from my county chair was "He's the guy that's got the coalition." When arrived, everyone was already wearing a "Tom for Barack Obama" button and/or took them on the way in. Upon arrival, those four spots were already down to two.
I got to the junior high cafeteria in which it was held about 45 minutes beforehand (registration officially began two hours beforehand.) Chatted with Amy to get some feel for things before I got going. Met a handful she knew from her county party & recall team. Awkwardly hung out near the registration table trying to shake some hands as people trickled in, but everyone coming in seemed to know Tom. I made sure to greet Tom and get one of his buttons myself, heeding that advice, but he was too busy meeting & greeting to speak with much.
As I said, it was in a junior high cafeteria. Maybe some of that rubbed off. It was half-full when I arrived, and it seemed like some of the tables had broken off into cliques with their own conversations going on. Time was short and I didn't want to be rude and interrupt, so I didn't get to do much schmoozing. Not when those 8-10 people are a fraction there.
A couple random things worth noting: Fairly certain it was 100% Caucasian. Of the 47 who showed, you could count the under-40s on one hand. (No wonder the DNC qualifies under-36 as "Youth" on the application... that put a smile on my face.)
I did what I could introducing myself until the last minute, when Amy & I scrambled to take seats. I just scrambled to what table she went to, which was furthest from the podium. Turns out I had sat next to Rep. Gordon. I sneaked a peek at his paper while he was having a side talk, and I actually saw he had me in his top four (thanks, Twitter!) That must have lasted a whole minute, because it seemed teacher Tom talked him into another choice. (Oh, and I've also got the former AG sitting across the table. Felt a bit out of my league, but luckily Amy's in Gordon's party.)
Pretty much screwed at that point. Everybody else seems to know each other, I'm the geographic outlying new kid on the block, and it seems there's a few other guys with better chances than I. They got done with the rules and some business and it was go time.
Instead of low sixties, there were 47 present. Between withdrawals and absentees, there were three women for three slots. That made that part easy. That made the only real caucusing to do on the male part. One guy wasn't there when doors were locked and two of my male counterparts withdrew once proceedings began. That made (technically) seven men for four spots.
At this point, the caucus chair opened the floor to the men who wanted to exercise the option of giving a speech. Now, I was never told to write a speech for this, but just in case I thought about what I'd say on the drive up to the tune of Titus Andronicus' The Monitor. I had some good ideas in mind, but nothing really structured.
At least three of the other guys gave speeches, not counting the two who had locked it up already, and it was... well, what we said around last summer's recall office was "Nuts on the table." Now or never, do or die, nuts on the table. It was that time.
I'm not much of a public speaker. Put me in front of a mic, and I usually have a "deer in the headlights" moment followed by a few minutes of "Uh... what happened?" and subsequent recollection attempts not unlike the morning after an epic night of drinking.
...and the thing was, I did that there too...
It wasn't really the speech I had been thinking about on the drive up. I wanted to talk about why I'd provide some balance in age, geographic, income and qualifications like that and put some more focus on the capitol and reigning Person of the Year and how a Forward Cheesehead represents Wisconsin Democrats as good as anything.
I don't think any of that actually came out.
I said something about how I felt a need to introduce myself as the new kid on the block in a room full of unfamiliar faces. I don't know where the hell it came from, but I wound up going off from there back to Mom voting for Carter with 2 1/2 month-old me in her arms - and that's about where the "What happened?" started to kick in. I know I was embarrassed in the early part of my quick rant about how many times I said "Um" trying to figure out where the hell I was going with it. I know I'd mentioned interning in Russ Feingold's office and volunteering with his final campaign, and I'm pretty sure I neglected to mention that Barack Obama wasn't the candidate for whom I volunteered in Iowa & New Hampshire, I mentioned the protests but don't think I even mentioned sleeping in the capitol or a lot of the like... somewhere in there I mentioned working with the state senate candidate in my district, the mention of her name drawing the most applause in the room of the entire caucus... coming in for a landing, I thanked them for their consideration and opportunity to represent the state and our values and (this is where I ad-libbed some Kool-Aid BS) actually ended it with the phrase "move the Obama agenda Forward." My internal monologue pretty much immediately heckled, "Really? You said that?" And that was that.
In the end, when everyone got to vote for four men and it was all tabulated: Teacher Tom - 47 (unanimous) Rep. Gordon - 42 ME - 33 Next guy - 24
I couldn't believe it. That speech I gave was maybe more what they wanted to hear than what I exactly what I wanted to say, but it must have worked. I went in with the expectation level of "please, not last place." I had to calm down a minute or two to even be able to write with a steady hand as I filled out the national delegate paperwork.
So... I am Democratic national convention delegate in Charlotte this September, in a year such as this.
I have no idea what the hell I'll be doing there any more than I did going into the caucus. I certainly didn't plan for it, but it's too late now. I have a lot to figure out these next four months.
But I do know this: There is a good chance that I may be the only Wisconsin delegate who slept in that occupied capitol. There is a good chance that I will be the delegate closest to the poverty level - of either major party - and I think this might come with responsibilities.
I wonder what I'd say to the President in person if I have the opportunity. I like to think that I'd say he's done a good job in many respects and that while I have may have some disagreements none of them would be solved by voting for the alternative... ...but especially, I would want to note how he seems to have picked up "Forward" as a campaign theme and let him know that there were people in those capitol crowds carrying signs wondering when he'd fulfill his campaign pledge to be there in his "comfortable shoes" to march with workers whose rights were threatened.
If it comes down to it, though, I'm not sure what would come out of my mouth if/when that chance presents itself...
Post by RadioSpirit on May 8, 2012 10:55:58 GMT -5
Congrats!!!
In other news, I was recently chosen for an internship position with the US House representative from my home district in Savannah, Jack Kingston. I'll be in DC working in his office in July and August, which will be a very exciting time to be in DC, so close to the election.
Can someone tell me if having the VP come to your town warrants traffic coming to a standstill for over two hours?
Joe Biden is in Charleston and upon traveling through Mt. Pleasant (suburb of Charleston) he had a police escort of motorcycles and cop cars. Anyway traffic many adjacent roads were blocked off with traffic literally not moving for over an hour and then barely inching along for another hour.
For you guys that are more prone to visits from people high up the political ladder, is it normal for traffic to halt for this long? or is Biden milking the teet?
Can someone tell me if having the VP come to your town warrants traffic coming to a standstill for over two hours?
Joe Biden is in Charleston and upon traveling through Mt. Pleasant (suburb of Charleston) he had a police escort of motorcycles and cop cars. Anyway traffic many adjacent roads were blocked off with traffic literally not moving for over an hour and then barely inching along for another hour.
For you guys that are more prone to visits from people high up the political ladder, is it normal for traffic to halt for this long? or is Biden milking the teet?
That is milking it. I live in Chicago and it is pretty smooth but traffic is rough here anyways. I have seen Biden milk it before though when I was in the Virgin Islands 2 years ago. Closed down the roads for over an hour and a half, and when there is only road across, it is brutal.
When I was in Portland ME for a protest of an Obama fundraiser, there was only one road closure - of a side street next to the building. Another road in front of the building remained open, but cops were stationed outside. The roadblocks were minimal along the motorcade route, certainly no hour delays.
Sounds like a local jurisdiction call to me since everyone has different experiences. Here in DC, we have motorcades every day and traffic is only held up for the length of time it takes for the motorcade to pass by. Same deal when I was in Denver for the last convention. The longer closures are when a speech is involved.
On a side note, last week I was heading in to work and saw an especially long motorcade going the other way, in the direction of Andrews AFB and thought "huh, wonder where Obama is going?" And then he had the surprise speech from Afghanistan that same night. 'course, I don't know if it actually WAS Obama or if it would even have allowed enough time for him to get over there.
Am I the only one who thinks the entire world would laugh if Christie was VP? I mean, most foreign countries have this picture of your average American being this balding, morbidly obese, Big Mac inhaling a-hole with a high sense of self who complains about everything. So...
Post by RadioSpirit on May 8, 2012 19:56:49 GMT -5
Well Jersey seems to love him. A poll was just released today showing his approval there had reached 56%, his highest yet, and pretty impressive for any governor from a state minority party.
Of course, this is a New Jersey opinion we're talking about...