Presidential nominees usually wait until a few days before their party’s national convention before choosing a running mate. Because former president Trump is tied up in court in criminal prosecutions that probably will last until or beyond Election Day, Trump needs to pick his running mate right now and get that person out on the campaign trail.
Trump enjoys breaking political rules. He can now break another and greatly benefit from it.
There are four cases against Trump brought by Democrat activist prosecutors who, by pressing their cases to trial this year, are preventing Trump from campaigning. It’s the most successful election interference in U.S. history. (READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Republicans Being Stupid)
Let’s not get into the weeds on each of these cases except to answer which of them may — and probably will — be limited by the coming Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. No president can be hobbled in his decision making by the threat of future prosecutions, so the Supreme Court is probably going to rule that presidents have immunity for official acts within the broad powers of the presidency. How they outline that immunity will determine how the cases are affected.
The case brought by Alvin Bragg in New York won’t thus be limited but the Fani Willis case in Georgia and the two Jack Smith cases — in DC and Florida — may both be. The Florida case, as I have written before, is the biggest danger for Trump. Smith reportedly has recordings of Trump talking about highly classified matters with people who had no security clearances.
Judges demand Trump’s personal attendance every day of these trials and gag orders on Trump are already a commonplace. He may not even be able to be present at the convention. What all that adds up to is that Trump is effectively barred from campaigning until the trials are over.
Trump can defeat this election interference strategy by picking his running mate this week — or, at latest, in about two weeks — and getting him or her out on the campaign trail to bash Biden and his policies that are wrecking America.
The choice has to be made with the qualifications of the candidate — and his or her toughness — in mind. As the great American philosopher Leo Durocher once said, nice guys finish last. That goes for nice gals, too.
There are a lot of good people to choose from. Trump probably has all of them on a list that resides in his mind and changes every day. We can guess that none of his former opponents — DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy and the rest — are on that list. Nor should the list include Gov. Kristi Noem, whose new book reportedly contains an incident in which she intentionally killed a puppy.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and others come to mind. And there are very good people — such as Sen. Tim Scott — who don’t pass the Leo Durocher test.
This year, politics is a full-contact sport. Whoever is Trump’s pick, or whoever he chooses for the “run-off,” needs to keep that in mind.
If Trump really wanted to have fun with this, he could tell the world that he’s narrowed it down to two or three choices and he wants each of them to get out on the campaign trail to see how they do before he makes a final pick within a week or two. He can’t wait longer than that.
We — and the competitors — could have an enormous amount of fun with this sort of horserace. The common political wisdom is that a vice president can’t help the presidential candidate, only hurt him. This year, the veep pick could make the critical difference.
The selectee or the two or three competing for the job would be able to go out and do what Trump now can’t. They could — and should — campaign with a hard-nosed edge. (READ MORE: Congress Blows It on FISA)
Inflation, the border crisis Biden created, crime, and national security are all disasters of different severities because of Biden’s policies. The media would try to ignore the veep “runoff,” but coverage will be had and it will spread because Biden and Harris are so unpopular.
The veep competitor(s) could go to the border, visit the Border Patrol people and see thousands of illegals come across the Rio Grande. They can say what everyone thinks: that illegals shouldn’t be let in and it’s Biden’s fault that they are. They can say the obvious truth that a nation that doesn’t enforce its borders isn’t a nation. And they could make it a monthly event and make speeches every time they go there.
They could visit crime-ridden cities and throw the crime rates — and specific examples of horrific crimes — in the face of the Democrat mayors, prosecutors, and governors who have made our nation unsafe. They could rail against the soft-on-crime Soros prosecutors who would rather prosecute Trump than real criminals.
Inflation would be an easy campaign topic because every American feels it. The competitors (and the eventual selectee) could talk about how Biden’s radical, reckless spending has forced inflation on us. They should say that old, slow, incoherent Joe is disobeying a Supreme Court ruling that he has no authority to “forgive” student loans.
And while they’re at it, they can condemn the “student” riots at colleges such as Columbia where Jewish students have to hide from pro-terrorist protesters. They should praise the colleges that don’t put up with that crap from their students or employees. (I don’t refer to them as “professors” or “faculty” because they don’t deserve those titles.)
At the same time they could reiterate Trump’s strong support for Israel against the terrorists of Hamas. Biden’s continued attempts to thwart Israel’s strategy to kill the Hamas terrorists would be a good topic.
The veep nominee (or the two-week competitors in the “runoff”) could hold massive rallies with Trump appearing by video to make speeches to big crowds around the country.
He, she, or they could make Joe’s failures the biggest topic in American politics. And they should.
That sort of campaign — begun now, not in July — is what the American people want. They don’t want to wait until July or after Trump’s trials are over. (READ MORE: Biden Is Morally Bankrupt)
Trump enjoys breaking political rules. He can now break another and greatly benefit from it.
Let’s get on with it, Mr. Trump. Choose now and let’s have the fun — and political damage to Joe — that comes with that choice.
