John Kasich, the popular governor of Ohio, would have been a natural pick but doesn’t want to be in the same room as Trump, let alone on the same ticket.
.. Trump is going to need a wingman who can believe six impossible things before breakfast; who can defend the Muslim travel ban during those times when it is Trump’s position and skate away from it during those times when it’s not; who can take any new controversy of the hour, defend it and explain it away and look forward to the next one with relish; and who won’t ever let personal or philosophical standards get in the way.
.. he is as undisciplined as Bill Clinton, although without the roguish charm; and he’s not going to be liked by anyone who isn’t already a fan. As my colleague Jonah Goldberg points out, Gingrich would be able to defend Trump’s off-the-wall statements, but it’s not clear Trump would be able to defend Gingrich’s.
.. Not only would he defend Trump ably, he would put whatever Trump says in the most impressive light possible. You could shake Gingrich awake at 3 a.m., tell him Trump just came out for nationalizing the banks, and he would rattle off a five-minute riff on how it has always been the policy of the future and the country is lucky to have such a radical agent of change.
.. This wouldn’t ordinarily be a qualification for a VP pick, but Trump is running a media campaign, so he should pick the most compelling, deft media personality on offer, and that’s clearly Gingrich.
.. Besides, if the GOP is committed to a brash, unpredictable and divisive candidate at the top of the ticket, it might as well go all the way. Pick Newt, and let her rip.
Is It Newt?
But he also shares some things with Trump, including an unflagging and perhaps inflated sense of his own intellect, an propensity to say outlandish things, and three marriages.
.. Politics Twitter is, at the time of writing, consumed with face-palming by conservative political professionals, intense schadenfreude from liberals, and nearly frantic eagerness from journalists excited about the prospect of covering a Trump-Gingrich ticket, which would likely be the most free-wheeling and unpredictable duo in presidential-campaign history.
.. Frankly, Gingrich would bring quite a few weaknesses to the Trump ticket, including a checkered past and a propensity for unpredictable statements. Fundamentally, however, he’d serve many of the purposes Trump has asked for in a running mate. Picking Gingrich would be a high-risk approach, but it might also carry a large reward.
Trump’s performance raises hard question: Who’d want to be his VP?
‘I can’t imagine a truly credible person agreeing to be his running mate.’
John Weaver, who served as the campaign strategist for Kasich’s presidential bid, was more blunt: “I can’t imagine a truly credible person agreeing to be his running mate, because it would be the end of his or her political career.”
.. the short list is so short. Multiple high-level Republican sources said it is topped by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, with Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions a distant third and Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin also in the mix.
.. But there’s another, simpler reason why these two white men, both more representative of the Republican Party’s past than its future, have emerged as finalists: They actually want the job.
.. She’s expressed a willingness to join the ticket and could help the presumptive nominee with women, three-quarters of whom disapprove of him, according to an ABC News poll.
.. Trump has also courted a number of Southern governors, including Nathan Deal of Georgia, Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, Bill Haslam of Tennessee and Phil Bryant of Mississippi.
.. Tim Scott has also drawn some buzz as a potential pick. The first-term South Carolina senator is well respected in the chamber and would bring diversity to Trump’s ticket as the sole African-American GOP senator.
.. with U.S. allies and the country’s foreign policy overall, some Republicans are clamoring for names of potential secretaries of defense and state, too.
.. “Trump would be well served to identify a list of senior statesmen that he might appoint to those positions,” said one Republican senator who’s pledged to support the nominee.
Plus, it would give the media and the GOP something to talk about besides the latest Trump controversy.
.. Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is practically despondent over Trump these days, after visiting with the presumptive nominee
The Donald Trump Veepstakes: A Cheat Sheet
“I think Newt is lobbying to be the vice president, and I think their people are paying a lot of attention to him,” adding, somewhat dubiously, “It’d be a ticket with six former wives, kind of like a Henry VIII thing. They certainly understand women.”
.. Cons: “He offers a barking carnival act that can be best described as Trumpism: a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if pursued. Let no one be mistaken—Donald Trump’s candidacy is a cancer on conservatism, and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised, and discarded.” —Perry on July 22, 2015