The Natural VP Choice for Trump

Trump is almost surely the Republican Party nominee, which is why attention is turning to his VP choice. This is an extremely important decision for him. He could easily undo himself and hurt his chances by the wrong choice. He’s not the favorite to win right now, according to Predictit.

To make headway, his natural choice is Ron Paul. Choosing him sends a clear message that Trump intends to create different policies that break with the past. It’s a choice that defines Trump’s differences from the putative Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.

Other names being mentioned do nothing but undermine Trump’s own agenda by sending the opposite message. Among the Old Guard or ones with name recognition, the ones mentioned in the media that he definitely should avoid are Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Chris Cristie, Newt Gingrich, Tom Ridge, Ben Carson, Jeff Sessions, John Bolton, Kobe Bryant, Robert Gates, Mitch Daniels, and Ted Cruz. There is also a list of newbies whose images, names and ideas are less well-known and/or require definition. I won’t go into those other than to say that these are weak choices almost by definition, along the lines of Nixon choosing the unknown Agnew. These unknowns would have to be advertised and defined. They pale in comparison to Ron Paul. Ron Paul already has a great deal of national name recognition. He has tremendous integrity and consistency.

Choosing Ron Paul would not be a business-as-usual choice of a VP candidate. It would be a political act of enormous importance in and of itself. It would make a decisive break with the past, with progressivism, with fiscal and monetary recklessness, and with continual war. It would signal the end of an era and the beginning of a new era. It would define a clear choice for voting Americans.

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12:30 pm on May 4, 2016