Who
knows where this bizarre primary season of discontent in the Republican
party will lead. There were past flirtations with total madness, think
Michele Bachmann or Herman Cain, but these passed more quickly than
Trumpmania.
However, if the insanity dissipates, I would
suggest that the strongest Republican ticket could well be formed from
the two most critical swing states in the nation. John Kasich sounded
the alarm bells as the debate speak veered off into the fantasy land of
ripping up the Iran deal "on day one" and shutting down the government,
yet again, this time over Planned Parenthood funding. A seasoned
politician, popular enough in his home state of Ohio, Mr. Kasich is
still of an age to make the Democratic candidate ( Hillary or Bernie)
appear a generation too old.
And Marco Rubio, with the
background story of his family, the state of Florida in which he holds
office, the certainty (and more knowledge than most) of his thoughts on
foreign affairs, his deeply conservative beliefs and his youthful
image, provides what would seem to be a perfect partner for Mr. Kasich.
There
have been five open seat Presidential elections since 1960,when the
television era truly changed the dynamic with the Kennedy- Nixon
debates. While the younger candidate has not always been successful (the
victors were Kennedy in 1960, Nixon in 1968 and Obama in 2008 while the
older candidate George H. W. Bush in 1988 and George W. Bush in 2000
were winners, even as W. managed to lose the popular vote) history would
seem to indicate that youth is more likely to be served.
So,
even as I am a died in the wool Democrat and vehemently disagree with
the policy positions of both Mr. Kasich and Mr. Rubio, I would suggest
to the Republicans that they could do far worse than teaming these two
on their ticket next year.
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