Who does Rubio pick for VP ?

[Selene]

Cruz desperately needs a woman.  therefore his short list has:

Fiorina as an Evita attack dog would be fun to watch;

SC Governor Nikki Indian Haley - fills 2 quotas;

Both are geographically balanced enough and they both have administrative experience.

Past that I do not see a solid perspective VP at this time.

A...

[Selene]

On 2/7/2016 at 7:12 PM, Marc said:

I agree that those folks are result oriented movers and shakers are not happy . Their happiness will exist on Tuesday .

Rubio is being groomed to wear the crown , its his turn . Obama had a turn , now it Rubio's turn .

I would rather that Rubio learns his lessons here - against a very soft field - than against HC and her machine .

As for Reagan . he did not win the election that night . It was a good line , no doubt . Just like Rubio was a deer in the headlights , thats all !

I want my President to be real ,

OK Marc...

What have you done with Marco Rubio?  No one has seen him.

A...

[Robert Campbell]

On March 21, 2016 at 7:43 PM, Selene said:

Cruz desperately needs a woman.  therefore his short list has:

Fiorina as an Evita attack dog would be fun to watch;

SC Governor Nikki Indian Haley - fills 2 quotas;

Both are geographically balanced enough and they both have administrative experience.

Adam,

Your first line is capable of multiple interpretations.

We'll move right along, though, won't we?

Carly Florina would be a pretty good complement to Ted Cruz.  She can rip Hillary Clinton all day and all night without being denounceable as sexist.

See the Cruz Nuz thread for Nimrata's record as governor.   She's been what Trump wants everyone to think Scott Walker has been—basically a nice person, and thoroughly ineffectual.  Republicans' enthusiasm for Nikki Haley is inversely proportional to their distance from Columbia, South Carolina.

If Cruz wants an Indian running mate, he should go with Piyush.

Robert

[Selene]

1 hour ago, Robert Campbell said:

...Republicans' enthusiasm for Nikki Haley is inversely proportional to their distance from Columbia, South Carolina.

If Cruz wants an Indian running mate, he should go with Piyush.

Robert

Piyush?

Geez, Robert, for a moment, I thought you were going to advise him to pick the Lying Squaw from Massachusetts.

A...

[Robert Campbell]

Bobby Jindal.

[Selene]

7 minutes ago, Robert Campbell said:

Bobby Jindal.

That's what I thought. 

No, he does not work. 

He has gotten much better as a speaker after that horrendous response to the State of the Union a few years ago.

Too narrow a national appeal and the wrong sex for this cycle.

A...

[Robert Campbell]

Adam,

I agree, actually.  Bobby Jindal's appeal is too narrow.

Go Carly.

Robert

[Peter]

Carly seems to be a good choice for either candidate even if Hillary is out of the race.

Peter 

 

mash up From The (Wiffenpoof) Washington Post. Here’s exactly how a brokered Republican convention would work, By Chris Cillizza April 5 at 8:51 AM, some guy called FIX interviewing some guy named Putnam about after Wisconsin:

 

FIX: How much does California on June 7 matter in this delegate chase? Is it the only race now that really matters?

 

Putnam: California is a big delegate prize on the back end of a calendar with relatively few delegate-rich states left. The Golden state offers 172 delegates -- the most of any state -- but that is a chunk of delegates that is at the end of a sequence. Campaigns can miss the forest for the trees by focusing too much on California and not enough on continuing to accrue delegates in even the remaining small and medium sized states. One thing is true about California's place in the 2016 process. If a candidate is going to get to or over 1,237 -- and Trump is likely the only candidate who can do so before Cleveland -- that cannot mathematically occur until June 7. There are important contests before June 7, but none looms over the process more than California does.  . . . . The biggest thing at this point in time is that there is a very definite sequence to this process and most folks are giving in to the temptation to jump to literally the last order of business on the national convention delegates' agenda: the presidential nomination roll call vote. Standing in the way of that endpoint to the process are a number of very important steps. First, who are the delegates? We are only now getting an answer to that question and will continue to gather more information as the selection process picks up steam in April and into May. The delegates selected -- or rather the delegations selected -- choose who among them will represent the 56 states and territories on the various convention committees. Each state or territory delegation, once chosen, selects two members from among their ranks to represent them on the Convention Rules Committee, two others for the Convention Credentials Committee and so on and so forth. We need to know the delegates to know who is on the Convention Rules Committee in particular. It is that committee that will consider and pass any rules changes that will then go to the floor of the convention for ratification (or a broader floor fight over rules) before all 2,472 delegates. 

 

It is that step that is most important and perhaps most shrouded in mystery. Until those pieces are in place, though, we really have nothing to go on except the temporary rules that are currently in place as holdovers from the Tampa convention in 2012. Without knowing the 2016 rules, it is difficult to assess how any roll call vote, first or 101st, will go. 

 

However, the one thing that perhaps works in our favor is that the campaigns currently vying for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination have been operating as if the 2012 rules -- temporary or not -- are the rules of the game. Candidates are racing toward 1,237 delegates during primary season or at the convention. The campaigns are also behaving as if the oft-discussed Rule 40(b) -- the rule setting a majority of delegates in eight states as the threshold [for a candidate] to be placed in nomination -- is and will be a rule at the 2016 convention. Acting like those are the rules and actually getting close to or over either of those thresholds means that there will be a campaign or two that will have an interest in defending those rules. 

 

As Trump and Cruz are likely the only two candidates to surpass the Rule 40 barrier -- Trump already has and Cruz stands a good chance of getting there too with likely wins in a handful of interior western contests ahead (Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana and South Dakota) -- they have a potential interest in maintaining the current rules as a means of keeping other candidates off a first ballot vote. 

 

A first ballot vote with just two candidates, neither of whom is north of 1,237, and something relatively close to the current rules would likely mean an inconclusive outcome. That depends on how many unbound delegates there are. And that may depend on whether the candidates who have suspended their campaigns have released their remaining delegates. [The rules vary, but in most states that have allocated delegates thus far, suspension of a campaign is not a sufficient enough action to release bound delegates.] Only the unbound delegates would be free agents on the first ballot to help either Trump or Cruz over 1,237. 

 

If those former candidate delegates are not released, their votes will be called out as bound by the state delegation chair, but not recorded by the secretary of the convention because those candidates did not qualify under Rule 40(b). Only the bound and pledged (from unbound delegates) votes are counted. And if no one gets to 1,237, then the process goes to a second ballot. 

 

After the first ballot, a little less than 60 percent of the delegates will become unbound and free agents on a subsequent vote. Either they can join up with one of the two qualifying candidates -- Trump and Cruz in this scenario -- or if there is enough support (a majority of delegates in at least eight states) for another candidate, then they can join that effort to produce another Rule 40 qualifier; another name placed in nomination. If Cruz is as organized elsewhere as his campaign has been in states currently selecting delegates though, he would be greatly advantaged on that second ballot and reduce the likelihood of it going beyond that point. If Trump gets to 1,237: It will take one ballot to choose Donald Trump as the Republican nominee. That seems pretty self explanatory. A majority of delegates means a nominee. If Trump fails to get to 1,237: It will take two ballots (and perhaps just one) to choose Ted Cruz as the Republican nominee. Trump has done well at the allocation game. Cruz, though, is off to a good start in the delegate selection game. If he has more loyal delegates -- those that would stick with him even after they become unbound -- then he likely has sufficient power over the Convention Rules Committee to either change the rules to unbind the delegates or to just wait out an inconclusive first ballot for a clarifying second ballot vote.

[Peter]

We watched, “Being the Ricardos,” with Nicole Kidman as Lucy and Javier Bardem as Ricky Ricardo.  It is a bit unconventional in the beginning but settles down after the first half hour or so. I say there will be an Oscar nomination for Nicole Kidman, but my wife wasn’t so sure.

[Marc]

Lucyyyyyyyyyyy you got some splaining to do!