Written by Juliana Simone

Update:  “Indiana Governor Mike Pence, with no baggage behind him, is considered a safe choice who will appeal to social conservatives.”

There are many variables as to who a presidential candidate should pick for their Vice President on their ticket for the highest office in America. High paid campaign managers, political directors and analysts all spend hours/days/weeks determining just what the right fitting puzzle piece is to make sure they win on Election Day. Discussion over fine dinners and cocktails for those who imbibe, with rolled up sleeves on expensive dress shirts, and high heels eventually dropped to the floor, campaign staff will argue whether a gender, race, heritage, religion or political disposition will make the difference as to how voters decide to fill in their ballots.

Historically, that choice has rarely made a difference. This hotly contested election year may be different. With two candidates who can be considered as polarizing in views that they represent the far left and right, maybe the Vice President choice could make a difference with voters. The heavily saddled democrat presumptive nominee, former First Lady/U.S. New York State Senator/Secretary of State, has zero following with republicans, naturally, little among independents, and even scores low with the moderate democrats within her own party.

Scandal after scandal has plagued her career from the beginning and continues to be front stage on the day of this post. A sad day for America, where five fine Dallas policeman were gunned down unexpectedly by a former enlisted soldier who said his choice to shoot police in the back with no warning was in retribution to the recent kills of two black men while being arrested, has taken the glaring spotlight off of the Hillary Clinton email scandal for now. This topic was being largely discussed and dissected the day before – not only on conservative talk radio or blogs, but even in some of the most liberally considered mainstream media publications such as the associated press, Reuters, the New York Times and cable’s CNN.

In the background for the moment, Mrs. Clinton’s email scandal is still simmering on the stove. There is no get out of jail free card, just yet. She may hide behind the skirts of FBI’s James B. Comey and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, but the holes that still exist in terms of the many damaging details in the story, allow further investigation into this serious national security breach, which shows at best, she is too incompetent and reckless to ever even potentially be conceived as President of the United States.

Further, more information will continue to expose how the preceding Secretary of State lied to the people, American citizens who she now asks for their vote to make her executive-in-chief; lied on the tarmac about some unknown video no one in terms of volume had seen that instigated this attack on the embassy in Libya; lied to the family of the people killed in Benghazi under her watch despite the numerous cries from Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, who were both formerly Navy Seals, before being murdered; and has lied a multitude of times since her initial entry into politics from Washington to Arkansas.

More notably at this time, she will also be under scrutiny for how the Clinton Foundation has received millions of dollars from questionable donors over the years, since her first failed attempt to win the nomination as the democrat candidate for President. It is presumed by analysts that she has received these donations by telling these VIP’s she will be the next President of the United States, and therefore, if they want to do business with her going forward, they’ll need to pay to play.

Mrs. Clinton, who claims to be an advocate for women on her campaign stump, might have to explain during the debates or to any media not in her pocket, how she makes this assertion, when she allegedly took part in destroying the many fancies of her husband’s personal life once discovered. The former President, William Jefferson Clinton, is an awkward spouse to have as someone who is seeking this esteemed office, however delusional but ambitious. Long before the famed sex scandal that involved his young intern, Monica Lewinsky, there was quite a list of women who allegedly claimed to have had affairs with the former President and had non-consensual sex with him.

His old ways according to news agencies, have not changed, and he allegedly has frequented a private island owned by Jeffrey Epstein, where reportedly underage prostitutes service any visitors seeking this activity. There is no actual proof of what the 42^nd President did if and when he was on the island, or in the air on the private jet taking men to the Caribbean getaway, however. There are several accounts of these activities both in and out of the court rooms and many respectable publications for those inclined to form their own judgment.

For the many who don’t want to see Hillary Clinton ever elected, who wants to see her husband, if you will, as who knows how many years it was they last lived together as husband and wife, back in the White House, as well? One can’t even ponder the perspective scandals that would come from that potential situation. Good news for the tabloids, though, definitely, as the mainstream media will do their best to cover none of it.

Back to V.P. picks – any consultant could only objectively ask who would want to affiliate themselves with Hillary Clinton? It certainly doesn’t appear to be a foot up in one’s career. It would most likely be a tarnishing title that would lead one to ruin along with the upper tier they tied themselves to for whatever potential promotion.

The only other way to skew this as a democrat being considered by Clinton as the vice presidential nomination on her ticket, would be that in a larger scheme, as the continued scandals Clinton is involved with emerge, one could then assume office on default, or if Hillary once again remains above the law, and runs for a second term with even more public disgrace, the V.P. appears as the solution and not the problem – thus, a savior to a wart ridden POTUS to be schluffed off, and could oppose her for the presidential nomination and win.

For now, of course the man no one thought would have a chance since the day he announced, Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, has to have been promised something for him to sort of kind of endorse Clinton today, after basically humiliating her by winning so many states throughout the primaries, when he was supposed to not even show a beat in his pulse. Perhaps the pass given to her from FBI’s Comey the other day was what he finally needed to hear, before deciding to actually call it quits.

Massachusetts U.S. Senator, Elizabeth Warren, has also been said to have meetings with the former Secretary of State. Known to many as the woman who claimed to have a Native Indian Cherokee heritage, and reportedly has been found to have no such documented lineage, it’s now perceived she was actually related to the government soldiers who marched the Cherokee’s on the Trail of Tears from their homeland.

With polls today showing Trump gaining or tying Clinton in key states, her campaign will have to make an important choice to get this riddled candidate anywhere near electability beyond the female check mark on her paperwork.

 

As for Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican Party nominee, who certainly earned this status, but with the whisper campaign of overthrowing his nomination at the national convention in Ohio next week still at work, a few names are holding firm on the potential list of his VP choices:

New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, who assumed office in January 2010, and was appointed by President George W. Bush as the U.S. Attorney of the District of New Jersey in 2001, quickly became known for his brazen and outspoken style with the liberal media and their agenda, at each of his press conferences with his dismissal of their questions and forthright answers. Like Trump, he is a man who does not mince words, and makes it clear what his agenda for the future of America is as a true patriot.

For those who dismiss his party allegiance to a walk on the beach with current President Barack Obama, after Hurricane Sandy devastated much of the New Jersey shoreline and property, people should recognize he was truly concerned about his constituent’s losses, and thankful for any federal help he could bring them through his talks with Obama. This is a Governor’s job. If not Trump’s pick for Vice President, many believe Christie would be a great choice for U.S. Attorney General.

Fiftieth Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, for those who love him, he is intelligent, clever, learned, and experienced. For those who don’t, they see him as someone from the past whose previous associations with former administrations that won’t bring a new voice to the Trump ticket. Both are arguable. Voters should remember his record, in that he was the only House Leader to actually shut down the government, not once but twice, something conservatives and liberals always pine for and say is not done commonly enough in today’s politics. Time magazine voted him to be their choice for “Man of the Year” in 1995, for ending forty-years of democrat rule in the federal House. In 1998, he also passed the first balanced budget since 1969 and passed a capital gains tax cut.

“…the possession of great power necessarily implies great responsibility…” which was said in regards to the press, and the media still likes to bring up Gingrich’s failures in his personal life and with his ethics violation due to tax exemption violations and false information given to the House Ethics Committee in 1997. Does this matter today? When half of American’s marriages end in divorce or when his tax exemption issues are minuscule next to the magnitude of irregularities the Clinton’s will be facing with the donations made to their foundation among other things? It’s hard to say with voters in these times.

Senator Ted Cruz, (R-Texas), one of the only original seventeen candidates for the Republican nomination for President who gave him any competition during the primaries and state caucuses, is also on the short list. Conservatives and libertarians should love this news. Cross over unaffiliated voters, or independents, maybe not so much. If not the Vice President Choice, many admirers or even objective constitutionalists, agree Cruz would be the perfect choice for the United States Supreme Court. Cruz, is best known for his diligence in upholding The Constitution despite being born in Canada to an American mother and Cuban father. The Princeton University and Harvard Law School grad is well known for his excellent debate team skills.

This choice would also fend off the rumored “Never Trump” republicans who eschew his background as someone never previously elected to office and perhaps disapprove of how he made his money, his former off and on registration as a voter and contributor to the democrats over the decades, and any policies he upholds which are not conservative enough for them, or on the opposing end, too extreme.  This group still hopes to somehow stop his nomination as the party nominee in Ohio through the rules committee, bound delegate counts, and ballot rounds.

Indiana Governor Mike Pence, with no baggage behind him, is considered a safe choice who will appeal to social conservatives. Originally a Cruz supporter, he now stands behind Donald Trump as the people’s choice and presumptive party nominee. Said to be the favorite choice with Donald’s children, it remains to be seen if Trump will pick a Governor who does not represent a battleground state. Pence also served in the Congress from 2001 to 2012.

A retired Lieutenant General, Michael Flynn, is also on the short list. An advisor to the Trump campaign for months, the 57 year old does not get accolades from conservative republicans like Mike Huckabee. Pro-choice, Flynn does not pass the test of party colleagues who do not share his position.

Some analysts have even suggested Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama could be a possible pick, as well as Dr. Ben Carson, who was one of the original candidates seeking the nomination in fall of 2015. Most absurdly among the names being brandished about, is his brilliant and elegant daughter Ivanka, who like all of his children, is an impressive offspring, but who is there to support her father not to run with him.

Whoever Trump picks as his vice presidential candidate, they will be an asset to Trump. If Trump put all of the original seventeen candidates for the republican nomination for the President of the United States 2016 into cabinet positions, this country would be humming. It might take a term to undo so much damage done by the current administration after almost eight years, but sooner rather than later, we’d see America become great once again.