Gays are cool. 
Posted on 04/25/2012 2:49:24 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Which direction will Mitt Romney go in selecting his running mate? The Hill suggests that Romney will look for a “mini-me,” someone much like himself, as his track record as an executive in the private sector indicates:
Mitt Romney is on the hunt for a vice presidential candidate, and if his years running Bain Capital are any indication, he might be looking for a version of himself.
In his roughly 25 years at Bain, Romney tended to hire mini-Mitts — smart, ambitious, clean-cut and a little awkward, according to those who dealt closely with the men.
Romney built the private equity firm, a spinoff of the consulting firm Bain & Co., from the ground up in the mid-1980s, bringing on several people who would help him turn it into an investment giant.
“First-rate brain power, first-rate analytical power. These were sometimes kind of geeky people,” said Howard Anderson, a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s school of business who invested with Bain as an entrepreneur. “They were not often people who would be elected class president.”
That would tend to favor people with extensive executive experience, which leaves out the legislators on the short lists of the commentariat. However, that would tend to strengthen the hand of some of the governors on the GOP bench, including Tim Pawlenty, whose name has gotten more mention as of late. Allahpundit gave a good rundown of Pawlenty’s appeal to Romney last night, but the strongest argument for Pawlenty is that no one would doubt his readiness to assume the Presidency if disaster struck. He’s been a pretty good campaigner who had one bad moment in a debate last year, and Pawlenty also signed onto Team Romney quickly after getting out and has been working hard (if quietly) since for Romney’s nomination. Bobby Jindal also fits the profile suggested by The Hill, and has a little more connection to the conservative base, and Bob McDonnell in Virginia as well.
If Romney wanted to roll the dice a bit, perhaps he needs to look further west. In my column today for The Week, I present a case for Jan Brewer that would entail more risk, but perhaps more reward as well:
Brewer has a record of fighting the federal government and the media. After Brewer signed a bill from the state legislature requiring law-enforcement officers to check residency status when arresting or detaining criminal suspects, Obama’s Department of Justice filed suit against the state. To the cheers of conservatives, Brewer fought back, later writing a book to bolster her case, and squared off against open-borders advocates in the media.
Nor is that the only fight Brewer has picked with the Obama administration and the media. She called a special session of the legislature to get authorization to hire outside counsel to join the lawsuit against ObamaCare, after Goddard refused to do so. Brewer also pushed for gun-rights legislation that eventually removed the permit requirement to carry guns, making Arizona one of only three states in the nation to do so. Brewer also oversaw deep cuts in social programs in order to resolve a $4 billion budget deficit, although that also included increases in some taxes.
Given Romney’s vulnerabilities with the base on immigration, health-insurance mandates, and gun rights, Brewer might be just the kind of candidate that could get the Tea Party back on board. A Brewer nomination might also force the Obama campaign to retire the “war on women” attack line. It would also firm up Romney’s standing in Arizona, as one poll this week suggested that the Republican nominee wasn’t garnering much enthusiasm in this transitioning interior-West state.
There is some downside to Brewer, too. She has had to retract a couple of her arguments on border security in the past two years, but that’s probably not enough to make her a liability in and of itself. Brewer is a hardliner on immigration, though, and that could complicate Romney’s efforts to woo the Latino vote away from Obama. It might also provide him some cover to back Marco Rubio’s upcoming efforts on immigration reform by solidifying his credentials as a borders-first candidate.
The choice depends on whether Romney feels the need for a game-changer in late summer. If the winds are already blowing favorably, Romney’s not likely to take a risk in selecting a running mate, and will go with a candidate who matches up well with himself. If Romney needs more unity from the base, though, he may consider an outside-the-box choice of a candidate who has already been battle-tested against the administration — and that could put Brewer and Rick Perry in play.
There will be NO women considered as VP for mormon Romney. Count on it.
Even Palin as VP won’t bring me to vote for the RINO this time. I’ve had it. Romney will be every bit as bad for this country as Obama, he’ll just be slower to implement his totalitarian agenda. And what we need now is for people to FEEL the pain of the Obamunist regime to push the pendulum back toward a Constitutional order.
No blacks, no women.
Well now, all of you that participated in the evisceration of Gov Rick Perry, and to those of you who stood by and allowed it to happen to a true Family man who is staunchly pro-life, a man who served his country with honor, believes in a strong defense, states rights, energy independence, small government, a man who is a true ally to Israel (the best friend we had in the barbaric area called the Middle East) and a man who has a true love for this Nation and its people that had the experience to right this ship, all of you deserve whatever hell is coming. The thing is, you are dragging the rest of the reasonable, thinking people along with you.
Due to the absolute irrationality and unreasonable demands of perfection, we now have Romney. Thank you. I'm sure you were quite representative of the stiff necked, thick skulled people that scream they're conservative, until a true conservative runs then it's time to bring out faults from 20 years ago. Contempt doesn't even begin to describe what you deserve.
As far as Gov Perry putting differences aside, he will do what is right for the country and will support the nominee. He probably will not like it in this case, but he loves this country more and realizes that Barack Hussein Obama is the true enemy of this country and of her people.
Romney makes my skin crawl personally but I will vote. Unfortunately, if Free Republic is any indication, many will 'sit' out or vote 3rd party. Pity really, that those of you who pulled that stunt in 2008, are going to do it again. McCain part deux. And McCain was actually a stronger candidate than this thing that has bought his 'turn' in the procession. So I expect the same results only this time, it will finally slay the United States of America, that once great nation that will be a footnote in history one day. The commies thank you all.
We cant like her. Someone called her a RINO yesterday, so we need to remove her.
Gays are cool.
I think so. Arizona doesn’t even have local conservative talk radio anymore - just Barry Young and his female co-host making fun of Senator Russell Pearce and all things conservative.
Prolly be Portman. Ohio is a must win state.
If Obama gets a second term, we ALL go down!
2 or 3 SC Justices and however many other appointments, there will be NO going back.
Tucson has Jon Justice and JT Harris. There is more to AZ than Maricopa.
Why are you insulted? I’ve never heard of those people.
I’m not insulted....just letting you know we have some great conservative talk down in liberal Tucson... they have come to our Tea Parties and to our LD events...
BTW, are you going to be at the State Convention on the 12th?
Oh?
Sit around all day, doing nothing.
Appear in the background.
Wait by the phone for a man to call.
What's not good about a woman for VP?
Oh BOY!
Now: convert that to ACTION!
We'll need a solid, conservative Congress to assure 4 years of gridlock with the boy dictator; who will TRY to push his agenda thru with EOs and the like.
But remember folks; when O’s head explodes; we get Nit-Wit out of the VP office; into the Oval one!
Mirroring what the Ruling Class of MORMONism consists of.
That POS ain’t getting 4 more years!!!!
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