Veep choices
Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2016 1:29 pm
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?
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?