It’s impractical to start talking about a Vice Presidential nominee before the first primary, but it’s 2016 and if this election has proven anything, it’s that all of the old rules are out the door. So, to keep with the strangeness, let’s look at the person we believe could be the Vice Presidential nominee for a slew of candidates.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has all of the makings for a Vice Presidential candidate. She’s well spoken, conservative, and seems to fair well in the spotlight. Perhaps most importantly, she’s not Sarah Palin, the 2008 Vice Presidential candidate who some say carried the ticket for John McCain to end up as close as he came to beating Barack Obama. To be fair, others say that she hurt the ticket, but we’re not going to discuss either possibility. What we will discuss is the difference between her and Haley.
The first difference is obvious. She’s in an important state. It’s not a swing state, but it’s definitely an important primary state with its voters going to the polls third after Iowa and New Hampshire. It’s exceedingly unlikely that a candidate would name a VP selection before the nomination is locked, but it’s not outside of the realm of possibility that they could discuss the option with her before the primary in order to gain her endorsement.
As we suggested earlier, that’s why we believe South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy endorsed Marco Rubio. If that’s the case, then we can assume Rubio won’t be talking to the Haley campaign any time before the primary. If we see an endorsement from Haley before the South Carolina primary, we can assume that she was tapped behind closed doors. The only candidate we could see doing this would be Ted Cruz.
The next difference is that Palin relies on her charisma while Haley relies more on substance. This is an important distinction since Palin came under attack for silly comments she made during interviews during the 2008 campaign. We would expect Haley to be more knowledgeable, particularly about foreign affairs, and that she would be able to hold her own against the Democratic VP nominee in a debate. Palin lost to Joe Biden in their interactions.
The final difference is that Haley is already in the spotlight. Palin had to be Googled once her name was released. Many Republicans and pretty much all of the news agencies know Haley because she was propelled into the national spotlight three times in 2015. First, she had to respond to the Charleston shootings. Then, she drew controversy (and handled it well) when she had the Confederate Flag lowered at the State House. Finally, the dramatic floods that caused so much turmoil in October needed quick action and Haley’s team was there to help solve the problems.
If 2015 is any indicator, Haley handles the spotlight well. Expect her name to be seriously considered by any of the candidates other than Rubio who already seems to have his VP nominee on retainer.
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