“My initial reflex is the guy’s got all the tools,” said Thomas Schaller, a political science professor at the University of Maryland. “I don’t think he’s presidential timber, obviously, but he’s an appealing vice presidential candidate. He has immediate name recognition, he’s a drawing card, he has a following of his own, and he has this symbolic branding that money can’t buy that he saved the GOP when they were at the bottom.”…
But the sudden Brown hysteria masks an uneasy truth: a lot of the more conservative voices cheering him on against Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley are fundamentally uncomfortable with some aspects of his record. And that could put the brakes on any interest Brown might have in rising beyond the U.S. Senate anytime soon.
Already one of Brown’s most prominent backers, RedState.com’s Erick Erickson, is throwing cold water on the idea, suggesting that the senator-elect’s moderate record on abortion and—ironically—health care reform could put a ceiling on his support among members of the GOP base.
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