Nikki Haley echoes Sarah Palin: Allen West would be a “good” VP candidate
posted at 11:10 am on April 5, 2012 by Tina Korbe
While Paul Ryan’s plausibility as Mitt Romney’s running mate increases, two Mama Grizzlies push an equally attractive alternative — the irrepressible Allen West. Shortly after Sarah Palin issued generic advice to the eventual GOP nominee to “go rogue” in his selection of a vice presidential candidate, she backed that advice up with a specific mention of the Florida congressman. On Fox News Tuesday, Palin talked up West’s military experience and deep understanding of the U.S. Constitution and foreign policy.
Last night, South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley echoed Palin:
South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, a top surrogate for GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney, suggested Wednesday night that controversial Tea Party freshman Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) could be a “good” choice as the party’s vice presidential nominee.
“You’ve got great ones. You have heard Governor Palin talked about West, and he’s good,” Haley told Fox News. “Of course, Marco Rubio is great and Chris Christie. We know he can be the fighter, and I think there are so many really great ones out there. I think Romney is going to have a hard time picking.”
The vice presidential talent pool really is deep. West, Rubio, Ryan. Republican governors like Virginia’s Bob McDonnell, Nevada’s Brian Sandoval, New Mexico’s Susana Martinez, etc., etc.
Haley has counted herself out, and it’s hard to think Chris Christie or anybody who could have chased the presidential nomination himself would want to take part in a national campaign now anyway — but you never know.
West appeals to me less as a vice presidential candidate than Paul Ryan does, though. His fiery brand of rhetoric works where he is now, but it might not be as effective on the campaign trail, where it would be spliced into sound bites and tossed into attack ads. Conservatives are looking for an impassioned counterpart to Mitt Romney, but passion isn’t reducible to a willingness to speak frankly. Ryan’s deep commitment to bold ideas has been a powerful force in Congress and it would be a powerful force on the campaign trail, too.
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Former Club for Growth leader Pat Benedict Arnold Toomey..
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PappyD61 on April 10, 2013 at 6:45 PM
Facepalm…
KCB on April 10, 2013 at 6:46 PM
Pfffttt Entitlements, come on, like… You weren’t expecting us to do anything meaningful about that right? This is not the hill to die on. Immigration isn’t either. Time for Amnesty baby!!! Neither is health care. Obamacare is law of the land!!! Re-election though, that’s the hill to die on fo’ sure! -RNC/Country Club Establishment Class
Raquel Pinkbullet on April 10, 2013 at 6:48 PM
Hey Justin Greene –F-U! I did not have much fun in the 60s like many other veterans. I contributed over half a million dollars (pv) to social security. I has three children, all hard working professionals. You have insulted me and many of my generation with your putrid generalizations.
Old Country Boy on April 10, 2013 at 6:50 PM
No wonder why we can’t have anything nice.
rbj on April 10, 2013 at 6:50 PM
Seriously what’s the new playbook ?? Run to Obama’s LEFT? Heck in 2016 we may run that MSNBC communist nut Harris-Perry…And the RINOs will all be circling the wagons but so what about principles, she’s the MOST ELECTABLE!!!!
Raquel Pinkbullet on April 10, 2013 at 6:50 PM
It’s important that we help the GOP regain power at any cost though. #winning
Kataklysmic on April 10, 2013 at 6:56 PM
Idiot.
Not to mention is one perfect example as to why I don’t give to political parties nor associations…
…individual politicians only, if ever….
ladyingray on April 10, 2013 at 7:03 PM
They will sell their souls and lose anyway.
VorDaj on April 10, 2013 at 7:03 PM
All the arguments against the Federal Reserve’s money printing to facilitate our government’s overspending have been countered by the types like Krugman with “look at how low our inflation is, see printing/digitizing money doesn’t have negative consequences!’
And republicans want to facilitate more of this with lowering the cpi standard even more? If obama had to contend with an inflation measurement as measured when Carter was in office, he would not have been re-elected. The malaise we are in would not be sugar coated with rigged statistics. (see what they did to CPI in the nineties to take out food and energy.) THIS IS BS! And it will just go to screw over the prudent in the middle class who saves their money and won’t be able to find a good interest rate. Get your head out of your behinds, republicans.
Chubbs65 on April 10, 2013 at 7:04 PM
Really, am I really supposed to keep voting Republican because if I go third party it is a sure win for the DEMS? Looks to me like I’ll gets Dems for all practical purposes regardless of if it is an R or D following their name on the ballot. Screw that.
flyfishingdad on April 10, 2013 at 7:07 PM
Is it too late to become a Whig?
KS Rex on April 10, 2013 at 7:08 PM
SHADDUP!!!!!!
Resist We Much on April 10, 2013 at 7:11 PM
Ugh. Hard for the GOP to remain credible on entitlement reform when they attack Obama for offering a tiny step in that direction.
Moron.
changer1701 on April 10, 2013 at 7:11 PM
The party could always be resurrected. The name’s not a sure fire attraction though.
hawkeye54 on April 10, 2013 at 7:12 PM
Apparently Obama isn’t so liberal after all. He’s proposing social security reform without any significant deal from Boehner on the table. If the GOP is serious about deep entitlement reform, Obama is your man. You can’t say the same about Reid and many other Dems. Hopefully this opportunity won’t be wasted. In any case, the true colors the GOP will soon become clear.
Bernie Sanders and others on the left are going ballistic also, but I don’t think anyone saw this attack coming from the right.
bayam on April 10, 2013 at 7:13 PM
What state is he from, and where is his district?
INC on April 10, 2013 at 7:14 PM
I’ll just add this to my list of “Why I’m NOT a Republican” reasons.
Maybe I can wedge it in there somewhere between Toomey’s fold on firearm background checks and the latest immigration “reform” backroom deal.
Socratease on April 10, 2013 at 7:14 PM
Absolutely embarrassing. May as well be done with the GOP.
Raquel Pinkbullet on April 10, 2013 at 7:17 PM
Tell a big lie, Herr Goebbels.
tom daschle concerned on April 10, 2013 at 7:17 PM
Right on Waldo!
Obama is already working on killing old people via Obamacare.
This merely supplements his push to ‘carousel’ us so he can INVEST more in the children (and solar panels).
I say….demogogue it all the way to a Senate majority in 2014.
Then we can get down to serious and moderate reduction of the rate of growth of entitlements.
KirknBurker on April 10, 2013 at 7:21 PM
Shocked by the discussions of reducing inflationary payments to Social Security beneficiaries? Well, TIME TO WAKE UP! For DECADES, we’ve sat there while they gave that money away on Social Security expansion into dependent and disability benefits, knowing all the time we were all living longer on the benefits than the system was designed for. And we kept ELECTING the people who did this.
THE MONEY HAS BEEN SPENT! On our watch. Do we older folks take the hit, or do we simply crush the following generations under unrecoverable debt? Those are our ONLY choices; deal with it!
michaelo on April 10, 2013 at 7:29 PM
We find ourselves in a sad state of affairs. I mean, politics, like everything else around us, is based on optics and emotion. Hey whatever feels good and looks good – do it. El Presidente wants to “show” he is doing something meaningless on entitlement reform which really amounts to nothing and both the left and the right are up in arms. Shees – we are $16 trillion in debt and this budget does nothing to address the deficit.
All these political moves are for optics and emotion. We can’t count on any politicians – Repubs or Dimwits to provide solutions to real world problems. And we just keep on bending over and taking it dry.
We don’t even get a cursory, hey you may feel a little discomfort. We just constantly get the rug pulled out from under us from leaders we thought represented us. We are screwed – pun intended.
rsherwd65 on April 10, 2013 at 7:30 PM
Last straw number 643
motionview on April 10, 2013 at 7:32 PM
Agree 100%. My Mom raised three kids, for part of the time as a single mother, through no fault of her own, and when it was hardly fashionable. Most of that generation worked hard, and contributed mightily to the post WWII miracle that was the U.S. economy. Justin Greene needs to shut his pie hole.
Mr. Arkadin on April 10, 2013 at 7:37 PM
Up to this point, we right-wingers have been told that we need to vote GOP no matter what because the Democrats are even more leftist and destructive. Greg Walden had better be one hell of an aberration, because if he isn’t, we’ll be told that we have to vote GOP because the Democrats are too right-wing-socon for the country in 2016 at the rate that things are going.
OK, maybe not, but having the ever-more-moderate GOP suddenly running to Obama’s left is a little shocking.
Aitch748 on April 10, 2013 at 7:43 PM
Thank you for that, but my generation (Gen X) knows we’re going to get the brunt of it, and I think most of us have pretty much resigned ourselves to it. I don’t know a soul in my age group who thinks they’re going to collect SS or Medicare, or who thinks we’ll get to retire as our parents are doing now. I’d rather get slammed than throw my mother under the bus, or see my daughter’s generation get hit.
Laura on April 10, 2013 at 7:45 PM
Why do I suspect that Obama’s proposals to “reform” entitlements involves severe means testing of “wealthy” seniors.
Doing this turns them into pure socialist wealth redistribution programs. They were originally sold to voters as “everyone pays in and everyone get benefits from” programs.
So if people who pay in may now not qualify for benefits these programs become socialist soak the “rich” redistribution schemes. Which is what the socialists would have liked them to be from the beginning. It took many decades but Mission Accomplished.
Forward, comrades!
farsighted on April 10, 2013 at 7:54 PM
What a joke of an organization
WisCon on April 10, 2013 at 8:22 PM
Seriously, bro?
cdog0613 on April 10, 2013 at 8:38 PM
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
just priceless!
#Obamaproposedweopposed will be the catch line for 2014/2016..
Are you guys really that stupid? Can we do mental health ck before qualifying to run for office? /
lol..just don’t know how to say yes. I wonder some days who is the real threat to America.
Can.I.be.in.the.middle on April 10, 2013 at 9:51 PM
I say….demogogue it all the way to a Senate majority in 2014.
Then we can get down to serious and moderate reduction of the rate of growth of entitlements.
KirknBurker on April 10, 2013 at 7:21 PM
Yes, I’m sure after the GOP takes back the Senate with mediscare, the first thing they’ll get to work on is entitlement reform.
To put it somewhat bluntly, you are the problem here.
RINO in Name Only on April 11, 2013 at 3:24 AM
There won’t be one word against the 1300 Federal entitlement agencies. I guess we are not suppose to know about these.
mixplix on April 11, 2013 at 2:09 PM