Whether it’s political pandering or an actual statement of intent, but Newt Gingrich has decided to start floating names for his possible VP pick if he possible ends up winning the GOP nomination. According to The Shark Tank a political blog based out of Florida Newt oh-so-subtly mentioned that he’d love to have Marco Rubio or Allen West as his running mates should he finally put the sleeper hold on Romney and win the nomination.
Newt figures he can somehow shore up a half-baked Black or Latino base by simply picking faces of color. The problem is that, beyond Florida, neither have as much name recognition among average voters as first thought. Plus, the big question that comes along with that decision is: what’s their track record in the communities Newt obviously wants them to represent? Do people in their communities actually like these guys enough to start bolting from Barack and Joe and heading in the “right” direction? Are they doing anything in their respective communities beyond just making history by being the first or second at something? The problem with Republicans is that they talk all day about being color-blind and bash everyone else for “race baiting,” but they are some of the slickest race-card players in modern politics. I don’t get that.
As sexy as these two names are to mention, especially when he was in Florida, I actually don’t think either Rubio or West would be great picks for Gingrich or even necessary ones. The VP pick isn’t really about winning or losing, if anything the VP pick has harmed more candidates than it’s helped (ex: Palin, and Quayle).
The pick is about balancing your ticket for independent-minded voters within your own party. Newt has no problem proving his conservative track-record – so why does he need to pick an even more conservative guy to be on his ticket?
For now, let’s chalk this up to local political baby-kissing on the part of this week’s new GOP frontrunner. Besides, he has to actually win something before he can start waxing poetic about picking his VP anyway.
This article originally appeared online at Politic365.com.