Today we go for our 2nd choice on the list of possible running mates for Donald Trump. To remind everyone there are two things that any person who wants to make this list needs to qualify.
Can’t be from the same state I’m going to be slightly loose with this because “can’t be from the same state” can mean either:
Not born in the same state OR
Not living in the same state at the time of the election
Must be hated by the left almost if not more than him because if he was to take a “deep state” running mate or a person like Nikki Haley he might as well, as I’ve noted before hang a target on his back with the words “assassinate me” in bright luminescent paint.
Today we have Choice 2: Senator Ted Cruz of Texas
Ted Cruz back in the days before the beard when I was covering Presidential Elections in person
Senator Ted Cruz brings all kinds of things to a Trump ticket.
He brings one of the most brilliant minds in conservatism
He is one of greatest debaters conservatives have having argued before SCOTUS
He brings one of the best records when it comes to conservatism over the last 10 years
He was one of the original Tea Party Candidates who came out of nowhere after being endorsed by Sarah Palin
He like Trump is a fighter who is fearless and had a long record of fighting for conservatism before Trump ever considered running.
All of these things weigh big but here is one thing that to me is huge and frankly should appeal to Donald Trump.
During the 2016 campaign Ted Cruz was hit hard by Trump in such a way that if it had been me I’d have found it hard, in fact almost impossible to support him while in office. Ted however saw how Donald Trump governed and decided that in the end he was doing good in fact great for the country and the world. He put aside his feelings and backed him becoming in the end one of his staunchest supporters.
He put the country ahead of himself there and that speaks volumes.
And he of course meets our top two requirements, being from Texas qualifies and it hated by the left almost as much as Trump, and even the most fanatical Trump hater would hold his fire to prevent Ted Cruz from being the 1st Latino vice president.
Just think how much that would piss off the left. If that’s not the crowning argument I’d like to know what is?
It’s been a while since I’ve done a post that were pure wild speculation but as I’ve been thinking about who Trump will choose as his running mate I thought I’d put one together.
This list will consist of three “A” list choices along with one dark horse. I will cover one each day.
In choosing a running mate there is one constitutional consideration and one non-constitutional consideration that have to be made in doing so.
Can’t be from the same state I’m going to be slightly loose with this because “can’t be from the same state” can mean either:
Not born in the same state OR
Not living in the same state at the time of the election
Must be hated by the left almost if not more than him because if he was to take a “deep state” running mate or a person like Nikki Haley he might as well, as I’ve noted before hang a target on his back with the words “assassinate me” in bright luminescent paint.
For the purpose of this pieces I’m going to assume the former as the choice and all of my choices are going to confirm with the 2nd choice.
Choice 1: Ron DeSantis Governor of Florida
If there was ever a person who would be the natural choice for a Trump Ticket this time around it’s the governor of Florida:
Ron DeSantis is the governor of the single most successful state in the country. He has successfully resisted every single one of the Biden administration’s attempts to curtail said success.
He is part of the highly successful move to export illegal aliens to blue cities and states
He has cracked down on the “death to jews” protestors when they have violated law
He has (and this is huge) cracked down on cheating by the left in elections to the point where his state which was once a swing state is now as solidly red as they come.
He has crippled the DEI industry and taken on woke corporations like Disney and won.
There are also two considerations that would appeal specifically to Trump.
He is likely the only person more feared by the left then Trump himself, in fact Trump recognized this and leveraged this fear to get himself back on social media platforms for the purpose of attacking him during and even before the primaries.
Unlike Nikki Haley DeSantis recognized the situation on the ground early and pulled out of the primary race after Iowa and endorsed Trump recognizing that the voters had decided on Trump and accepting their choice.
He also has one other quality that Trump likes in people. Trump is a doer, he all about getting things done. DeSantis is the same, from handling natural disasters to getting people from Florida out of Israel who were stranded there at the start of the war he has ignored the naysayers and focused on what he could do rather than what others said couldn’t be done.
And while I think this election is all about Trump so a running mate doesn’t add a lot to a ticket a vet who has won the Bronze Star certainly doesn’t hurt.
Bottom line he has all of the positive characteristics of Trump from being a doer to being unafraid of the left with absolutely none of the baggage, furthermore he is not only hated and feared by the left as much if not more than Trump which is the best insurance against assassination but because he is so hated by the left Trump by picking him would be able to stick another finger in the eye of said left by having him as a successor.
I suspect President Trump would find that rather sweet.
The only real question is can he pass constitutional muster? (born vs living in). It goes without saying that if he’s chosen the left will go to court on that basis. If there is any doubt or if Trump wants to avoid one more court battle he can always move to choice #2 who we will cover tomorrow
If you only have a minute and you want to know, in a nutshell, what the Netflix adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s novel from 1998, A Man in Full, is all about, here it is: The lead character, Atlanta businessman Charlie Croker, is Donald Trump–orange hair and all. Then throw in elements of the George Floyd and Rodney King stories and add an even more shocking ending than the one in Boogie Nights.
Earlier this month, Netflix started streaming the six-episode series, which stars Jeff Daniels and Diane Lane.
Wolfe, who is my favorite writer, after a two-decade career in journalism, made a smooth transition into fiction with his first novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities. It encapsulates the boom years of 1980s–along with the mayhem of pre-Rudy Giuliani New York City. Three years later, the film version was released. It is godawful, starting with the miscasting of Tom Hanks in the lead role as “the Master of the Universe,” Sylvester McCoy. After I suffered through the movie, I said to myself, Vanities is a mini-series not a two-hour movie.
I had hopes, misguided ones it turns out, that A Man in Full would be better, because it is a mini-series. Adding to my anticipation was Netflix streaming last year the insightful documentary, Radical Wolfe.
As A Man in Full begins, Charlie Croker (Daniels) is celebrating his 60th birthday at a party with Shania Twain entertaining his friends, family, and business associates. Two of those guests are executives from PlannersBanc, his principal lender, Raymond Peepgrass (Tom Pelphrey) and Harry Zale (Bill Camp). While it appears that Croker is an Atlanta version of a Master of the Universe, he’s broke–Charlie owes PlannersBanc $600 million. He’s overextended with other lenders too. Peepgrass and Zale want to carve up Croker’s empire, starting with his quail hunting plantation and his corporate jet. A rescue is offered by the mayor of Atlanta, Wes Jordan (William Jackson Harper), who is campaigning for reelection, and Croker’s attorney, Roger White (Aml Ameen). But to save his neck, Croker will have to betray his former Georgia Tech football teammate, Norman Bagovitch (John Lacy), who is running against Jordan.
Bagovitch–wait for it–decries the status of the white male in his campaign. Jordan is Black.
David E. Kelley wrote the script, and he should be ashamed. No serious candidate for public office would campaign on such bigoted idiocy. And in Atlanta?!? Why does Kelley insult his audience?
Oh yeah, he wants to demonize Trump. Orange Croker Bad. Oops, I mean Orange Man Bad.
Joyce Newman (Lucy Liu) is an alleged victim of a sexual assault from Bagovitch. In the book, well, let’s just say there is fear of a race riot because of the racial angle of that alleged rape.
Wolfe, brilliantly in my opinion, centered much of his plot on racial contrast and conflict, but also on Croker being an anachronism. The series is set in 2024, but events in the book take place a quarter of a century earlier. Croker, nicknamed the 60 Minute Man because he starred on offense and defense for Georgia Tech, played a lead role for a national championship Yellowjackets team, at a time when major college sports teams in the South were not integrated. Croker came of age just as the civil rights protests were picking up steam, and when Jim Crow laws were still in force in Georgia and other southern states. The world changed, but Croker, not so much. Sure, of course Croker in the novel knew blacks had equal rights, but they still belonged– and I’m not endorsing his sentiment–“in their place.”
Kelley, and the directors, eliminates that angle by turning Croker into Trump. He even does away with Charlie’s redemption in Wolfe’s novel.
There’s even a climate change dig included in the series. I mean, why not?
As Croker, Daniels, who is usually very good, is an embarrassment, beginning with his overwrought Foghorn Leghorn southern accent and his Trump-sized abdominal paunch. On the other hand, Diane Lane, as Charlie’s first wife, shines. I had the pleasure of seeing her at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth a decade ago.
Wolfe’s novel is over 700 pages long, so it’s understandable that some storylines are condensed.
For instance, Conrad Hensley in the book is the child of worthless white hippies who, in spite of them, still manages to develop a strong moral compass. He works for Croker Foods in the East Bay area of California Hensley’s life, like Charlie’s, collapses. He ends up on the wrong side of the law after he violently tries to retrieve his towed car. By the way, anyone who has had his car towed and is forced to pay usurious fees to retrieve it, will sympathize with Hensley. In the series Hensley (Jan Michael Hill) is Black, and well, I already mentioned Rodney King and George Floyd.
The subplot with Peepgrass and Martha Croker remains, with the Boogie Nights twist added. If you crave more details on that, click on this Daily Mail link.
Oh, the Crokers’ son, Wally (Evan Roe), sure looks a lot like Barron Trump in the series.
Astonishingly, Trump-hating Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis doesn’t appear here. Maybe she was on a cruise with Nathan Wade during filming.
I guess I needed to suffer for some forgotten sins, because I endured all six episodes of A Man in Full. Of the other Netflix series that I punished myself with, in full, only The Pentaverate and Vikings: Valhalla were worse.
On the flipside, the cinematography for A Man in Full is sharp–Atlanta never looked so good. The soundtrack, compiled by Craig DeLeon, is spectacular, it’s as splendid as the best work of T-Bone Burnett. Keep an eye on DeLeon.
Wolfe, who died in 2018, didn’t like The Bonfire of the Vanities film. I don’t think he’d care for the series based on A Man in Full either.
I hated it.
A Man in Full is currently streaming on Netflix. It is rated TV-MA for violence, foul language, sex, and nudity.
Other than the Professional activists who are being paid to upend universities I would be real money that the girls at the “Free Palestine” protests are there for status and self esteem and the guys are there in the hopes of getting laid.
In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if more than one guy at these “camps” are taking liberties that they shouldn’t and the ladies who are being taken advantage of are told not to talk about it, complain about it or report it for the sake of the cause.
I don’t care what Radio host he said it to does anyone really believe Joe Biden circa 2024 is going to take a stage opposite of Donald Trump?
Cripes they don’t even let him walk to the airplane or helicopter without being surrounded for fear of people seeing how fragile he is and you’re going to put him in front of Trump who will ask Biden before millions of eyes how heavily did they have to drug you up to get you to this podium?
If they thought Biden could stand up to Trump they wouldn’t have spent the last year trying to jail him.
The White House Correspondents dinner is going on as I type. The folks at the Lincoln Project are suggesting it’s going to be a big win for Biden. Given the hundreds of protestors outside making trouble, all leftists btw, I think this is another example of redefining words.
The real irony is just about all the journalists in their spend most of their time whitewashing the crimes both of Hamas and the protestors themselves, but every revolution eventually eats their own allies.
As you might have heard Bill Barr who did his level best to ignore and enable the steal of 2020 by inaction endorsed Donald Trump for 2024 on the grounds that whatever he might think of Trump, Joe Biden and the Democrats are an actual threat to freedom.
Trump being Trump accepted the endorsement listing all the names that he has called Barr and stated from now on the label “lethargic” will be removed from the list.
CNN hoped to pounce on this but Barr just laughed and when pressed listed all the ways that freedoms are being threatened by the Biden Administration rules that were not being done under Trump.
Finally I was out with a devout young friend of mine who was once my boss. He was part of the layoff at my place but because he is a hard worker and very talented he quickly found another job at a better pay and has by that hard work advanced himself admirably.
We went to Buffalo Wild wins and caught the Celtics vs Heat game and the end of the Red Sox Cubs game while we were at it. As I watched the finish of the Redsox game which carried into the 2nd quarter of the Celtics playoff game I saw something I had never seen before.
The Celtics have a spectacular defense and put on a show during the first quarter of the game. How much of a show? It took the NBA’s Miami heat until 2-3 minutes into the 2nd quarter before they managed to outscore the Boston Red Sox who put up 17 against the Cubs today.
If the Celtics play this kind of defense during the rest of this playoff run I don’t see how any team beat them. Bill Russell would have been proud of them.
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