Mitt Romney won’t be the first candidate confronted with the choice between “going safe” or “going long” in picking a VP. The problem for the imaginative among us is that the dramatic option tends to boomerang badly–think not just Palin, but Quayle in 88, who as laughable as it sounds to our ears, was initially viewed by the Bush team as a charismatic, fresh alternative; or Ferraro in 84, whose finances almost caused her to be replaced; or even the Reagan flirtation with picking Gerald Ford in 80, a forced marriage that might have made Reagan look quite dependent.
A campaign that has painted so carefully within the lines as Romney’s won’t risk joining that list, which means that Susanna Martinez, Bobby Jindal, and Marco Rubio need not apply. Not one of them, for all of their genuine talents, has ever been examined by the national press or subjected to a full background scrub–in fact, the one who has gotten some hint of scrutiny, Rubio, has already been tarnished by it. The risk aversion in the Romney camp will probably lead them to Rob Portman, a survivor of two federal confirmation processes and a politician from a state that Republicans have to have. As for the notion that he doesn’t help that much in Ohio, he certainly can’t hurt.
I will add one wishful note that actually combines the safe and the dramatic. Her name is Condoleeza Rice, a possibility who has endured the glare of ten years of attention, who exudes gravitas on an issue that will matter more this fall than we think today–defense cuts–and who has a record of seriousness on the other sleeper issue, the erosion of public education. Did I also mention that she ends in one fell swoop the narrative that this race is one between an inclusive, multicultural future and a lurch back to a whiter, duller past?
Read the rest of… The RPs Debate the 2012 GOP VP: Artur Davis Volleys
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Mar 23, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
At movies and ordered a medium Sprite and was asked “Would you like a large drink and popcorn?”
I then said, “No, I’ll take a cookie and no drink” To wich I was asked, “Would you like a large popcorn and drink?”
I chuckled, smiled empathetically and said, “Let me ask you something. If I ordered 10 of everyting, 10 large everythings, would you still have to ask me if I would like an extra popcorn and drink with that?”
The clerk smiled apologetically and answered. “Afraid so.”
He’s staying in the race for three reasons: 1) to get himself – and son Rand – decent speaking slots in Tampa, and 2) to keep building a fundraising list that he can bequeath to Rand; and 3) to build field lists in all 50 states that Rand can use in a 2016 or 2020 presidential run.
I bet no first time national candidate in history will start out with as many yard-sign locations than Rand – not even rock-star candidates like HRC and Obama in 2008.
Given the above, it’s kind of sad to watch all these middle and working-class small donors get fleeced, but hey, like Paul says, it’s a free country! (Just not quite free enough for his taste.)
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Mar 22, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Modern parents are often criticized for being too soft on their kids–with both advice and expectations.
Today I wrote and sent a letter to my son for his senior retreat. It was supposed to be full of wisdom and fond memories we have had together. And, I suppose, I took an admirable stab at both.
However, I keep chuckling about how telling my letter was.
The first paragraph was a long apology for sending him out into a rainy campground without electricity or running water for several days.
Followed by a second paragraph which apologized repeatedly for not having any new wisdom that I’d saved up just for this occasion– and that I was basically just recycling old wisdom and advice he’d already heard from me dozens of times.
Which makes me wonder if he’ll even bother getting to the third paragraph.
Which I forgot to apologize for and may catch him completely off guard.
Jamelle Bouie’s piece in the American Prospect on the glass ceiling for African American candidates is worth reading: it’s an interesting, and generally incisive, reminder that not a single African American has come within hailing distance of being elected to the Senate or governor (except the narrowly reelected incumbent, Deval Patrick) since Barack Obama’s election.
Bouie avoids the usual rhetorical trope about racism and white backlash and pays appropriate attention to the constraints posed by representing liberal, partisan districts that provide a limited donor base. It’s also to his credit that he focuses on institutional factors over vague claims that the system has simply failed to produce enough compelling black candidates.
Bouie’s one major omission, though, is a failure to dig more deeply into the failure of credible black Democratic contenders to command significant support within their own party in recent races: it’s a vexing truth for liberals and Democrats and is at odds with one of the central narratives in politics today, that it is liberals who are advancing the ambitions of ethnic minorities and conservative Republicans who are thwarting them through schemes like voter ID.
Read the rest of… Artur Davis: Do White Democrats Have a Race Problem?
By Michael Steele, on Wed Mar 21, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET
Reports The Huffington Post:
Former GOP Chairman Michael Steele told an MSNBC panel on Friday that he does not think Mitt Romney will be able to get the 1,144 delegates necessary to clinch the GOP presidential nomination before the Republican National Convention.
“If you take the most generous number of delegates that Romney would have at this point, whether it’s 419 or more, the RNC I think has fewer numbers, give him all of the remaining eight winner-take-all states, that’s about 382 delegates,” Steele said. “He still doesn’t get to 1,144 when the remaining states are proportional.”
Steele explained that Romney would have to win 50-60 percent of the vote in the remaining states where delegates are awarded proportionally in order to get to the magic number of 1,144 delegates. “Do you see Mitt taking 50-60 percent of those proportional delegates?” Steele asked. “No. So it’s going to be tough for him, at this point, to get there.”
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Mar 20, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
”You know it’s time to change your Facebook profile information when (fill in the blank).”
I just had a ski trip cancelled…which forced me to also reconsider my FB profile information.
I list skiing as my favorite sport. When I filled out my FB profile a couple of years ago, it seemed like a good idea. Skiing as my “favorite sport” made me sound sporty and interesting–and I even believed it at the time.
But today’s cancelled ski trip got me thinking. I’ve actually only been skiing twice in the past 28 years. I really don’t think that should qualify as a “favorite sport” —even for a person who has been deceased for 3 decades.
I’ve spent more time playing skeet ball the past 28 years!
So, in a flush of full disclosure, I’m getting brutally honest and changing my favorite sport from the cosmopolitan sounding “skiing” to the more mundane but factually correct “taking the stairs” –which I’ve done more than 3 times the past 28 years.
If you believe Reuters and Pew, Barack Obama is in a strong, improving position to win reelection, with a 50 percent approval rating and a double digit lead over his likely opponent, Mitt Romney.
If you believe CBS/New York Times and ABC/Washington Post, Obama has lost ground and has fallen back to even with Romney. It’s an unusual divergence, and a reminder that an electorate that has swung so wildly in the last two cycles remains cryptic.
But putting aside the horse-race, something seems to have been drained out of this presidency. Since the start of 2012, it has been curiously devoid of an economic agenda, preoccupied with interest group politics, deliberately unwilling to assert much of a long term priority list. The administration has spent inordinate time on two causes, mandating Catholic institutions to cover birth control in their employee insurance plans—an issue few Americans had stressed over prior to this year—and challenging state voter ID laws, which 70 percent of the country support.
Artur Davis’ Response
I will add one wishful note that actually combines the safe and the dramatic. Her name is Condoleeza Rice, a possibility who has endured the glare of ten years of attention, who exudes gravitas on an issue that will matter more this fall than we think today–defense cuts–and who has a record of seriousness on the other sleeper issue, the erosion of public education. Did I also mention that she ends in one fell swoop the narrative that this race is one between an inclusive, multicultural future and a lurch back to a whiter, duller past? 
He’s staying in the race for three reasons: 1) to get himself – and son Rand – decent speaking slots in Tampa, and 2) to keep building a fundraising list that he can bequeath to Rand; and 3) to build field lists in all 50 states that Rand can use in a 2016 or 2020 presidential run.
