Veep choices

[Mori Chu]

So Trump chose Pence and Hillary sounds like she's choosing Kaine.

Pence seems to be chosen to appeal to traditional conservative Republican base voters. Man of faith, very socially conservative, etc. Trump's people strongly encouraged him to pick Pence to shore up his base in the party. Seems like the right choice in that regard because he needs his base to turn out for the election. If he had picked a "loose cannon" or "radical" candidate it probably would have made his ticket seem too extreme or questionable for the office.

Kaine is kind of safe and boring, but that sounds right in this case. I've read online that veep choices usually don't help the candidate much but can hurt the candidate (e.g. Palin probably hurt McCain in 2008). Kaine is less risky than, say, Tom Perez or Elizabeth Warren, both ideologically and demographically (since sadly some voters might not want a two-non-white-male ticket). And Kaine is less polarizing than Bernie Sanders, who wouldn't get the veep nod anyway due to bad blood between him and Clinton.

Thoughts on these two veeps?

[carey]

I could see a scenario where Trump wins and walks away leaving the country in control of the tea party. That would be devastating.

[Indy]

So Trump chose Pence and Hillary sounds like she's choosing Kaine.

Pence seems to be chosen to appeal to traditional conservative Republican base voters. Man of faith, very socially conservative, etc. Trump's people strongly encouraged him to pick Pence to shore up his base in the party. Seems like the right choice in that regard because he needs his base to turn out for the election. If he had picked a "loose cannon" or "radical" candidate it probably would have made his ticket seem too extreme or questionable for the office.

Kaine is kind of safe and boring, but that sounds right in this case. I've read online that veep choices usually don't help the candidate much but can hurt the candidate (e.g. Palin probably hurt McCain in 2008). Kaine is less risky than, say, Tom Perez or Elizabeth Warren, both ideologically and demographically (since sadly some voters might not want a two-non-white-male ticket). And Kaine is less polarizing than Bernie Sanders, who wouldn't get the veep nod anyway due to bad blood between him and Clinton.

Thoughts on these two veeps?

It really says a lot about the GOP nowadays when words like "socially conservative" are used to described a very bigoted and discriminatory man, and "radical" would mean all-inclusive.

[Indy]

I could see a scenario where Trump wins and walks away leaving the country in control of the tea party. That would be devastating.

More or less devastating than having an openly racist, misogynist, and whatever the word is for anti-non-rich? We are pretty screwed either way.

[Mori Chu]

It really says a lot about the GOP nowadays when words like "socially conservative" are used to described a very bigoted and discriminatory man, and "radical" would mean all-inclusive.

I know what you mean. It's crazy that in such a diverse country, you can have a party whose policies literally only appeal to white males, and still get elected. The power of the two-party system at work.

[Indy]

This explains a lot in very dispassionate terms. Well worth the read.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-la ... 44938.html