Ben Carson confirms that YES, boys and girls...the Donald IS considering Palin for VP. USA! USA!

[Miles Archer]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/is-ben-carson-the-worst-or-the-best-surrogate-of-all-time-yes/2016/05/13/0afc3c52-17ac-11e6-aa55-670cabef46e0_story.html?tid=sm_fb

Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon turned presidential candidate turned unfiltered pitchman for Donald Trump and now part of the presumptive nominee’s vice presidential search committee, sat in the back of a Town Car with his wife, Candy, on his way to a televised interview. He had just explained to the reporter riding along that he wanted no role in a Trump administration when news arrived of a new poll naming him as the best-liked of a list of potential running mates.

“Who else was on the list?” he asked quietly, maintaining his usual inscrutable calm. The most favorably regarded contenders after himself, he was told, were John Kasich, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin and Chris Christie.

“Those are all people on our list,” he said.

“Well, not you,” Candy reminded him sharply.

[BlueMTexpat]

1. LOVE the photo with

this article!

Unhinged 1 and Unhinged 2 - what a ticket!

[rurallib]

2. No real surprise

trump probably actually understands what she says.

[CTyankee]

3. they said on Morning Joe that Trumps people said this list is false and underscored Palin

in its denial. I wonder what's going on that her name is even being mentioned?

[Kaleva]

4. Ratings and exposure.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

7. She has 1.25mm followers on Twitter

[sofa king]

10. It's a "dangle."

We're in the awkward period before the conventions in which both parties have a presumptive nominee but the running mate has not been announced. It is traditionally assumed that the revelation of the running mate is the best way to refocus and reinvigorate a candidate's campaign, and the announcement is best made just before the convention.

Therefore, the identity of the running mate has to be a closely guarded secret, which is difficult to do when half of the damned press corps is trying to find out who your pick is.

So you feed them raw meat. You "dangle" it off of a hook so that the fools will take the bait and run with it to press.

Sometimes, the dangle is deliberate, like when an experientially weak candidate is paired with a former President, as Ronald Reagan did with his sworn enemy Gerry Ford in 1980, all the while circling in on the guy who had the second-most delegates, GHW Bush. (Trump's own campaign may playfully mention that GHW Bush is still available to be Vice President, again.)

Sometimes, the pick gets leaked so early that the candidate has to offer up other names for months just to keep things interesting. Hillary Clinton's camp is desperately swimming away from Julian Castro, but all the signs suggest he's going to be the guy.

And sometimes, the crazies do you the favor of offering themselves as bait, as Mrs. Palin is doing here.

Trump's options are pretty severely limited. He's got a credibility gap wider than the English Channel and continually underscores his own incompetence every day. The psychologists and pollsters seem to agree, and have agreed for over a century, that the way to fill this gap is to put an admiral or general on the ticket.

None of the chumps that Trump destroyed in the primaries will add anything to his campaign; some of them, like Christie and Cruz, are too ambitious and clever to trust in that office. They're probably all off the list. Ben Carson's efforts are probably just a dog-and-pony show designed to keep the press distracted, while a very short and brass-heavy list is examined. And it's not going to be a woman, either, because Donald Trump hates women.

But they will happily invite other fools like Sarah Palin to be laughed at by the press and public for the next ungodly long two months. Of course, by then Trump's own past will loom so large that the GOP may be scrambling about for two more candidates. But I doubt it!

[CTyankee]

13. good analysis! But now everyone is talking about gingrich...that's a winning ticket!

[auntpurl]

15. Excellent post. nt

[Miles Archer]

12. Trump's tweet:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/732019210185003009

Donald J. Trump Verified account
?@realDonaldTrump

The @washingtonpost report on potential VP candidates is wrong. Marco Rubio and most others mentioned are NOT under consideration.

Problem is that it's not so much "The @washingtonpost report on potential VP candidates" as it is Trump surrogate Ben Carson confirming the list to the WaPo.

BIG difference.

[UtahJosh]

5. No way no how...

Just watch the Palin speech with Trump standing in the background to know that he would *never* put her center-stage in any significant capacity.

If they're floating this, it's to divert attention for some (possibly stupid) reason.

No way, no how.

Whoever it is, it'll be someone sycophantic (so Christie and Carson are certainly on the list), and uninspiring (probably eliminates Christie), and unlikely to divert attention from the center ring.

[Dawgs]

6. If true, then it's clear he never wanted to win.

He's crazy but he's not dumb.

[gollygee]

8. What, is Ted Nugent not available? N/t

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

9. If he does, it's proof he wants to lose

God I hope does. I want all the handwringing posts of polls from fake Dems warning "Don't underestimate Palin" while they cry at their keyboard.

[66 dmhlt]

11. Great Photo!

[marmar]

14. Talk about sealing your fate!

The idiot vote in the US is large, but not that large.

[dembotoz]

16. all smoke and mirrors....no substance but still at the top of the news

he will run it like a season ending cliff hanger

like who shot jr

[Initech]

17. Yes please!! More word salad!!