GOP's Pence for President? Answer due by end January - photo Think Progress.com
According to Politico GOP Conservatives are pushing Indiana Congressional Representative, Mike Pence, to run in 2012. Named in the article are Dick Armey, Chairman of Freedom Works’ Tea Party and the Chris Chocola , President and CEO of the Club for Growth. This puts Pence in the position of choosing between a run for the Indiana Governor’s seat or a run for the GOP Presidential Nomination.
In terms of “conservative red meat”, Pence fits the bill, as he is a fiscal and social conservative, who Armey believes could best the current pack of those speculated as possible contenders including Palin, Romney and Huckabee. Armey, bluntly called the pack, “old names” who he believes “don’t have much of a chance”. (Politico)
What is interesting in the choice of Pence is that the two organizations who back him differ slightly: although both grounded in fiscal conservatism, Club for Growth is more Washington Establishment, while Freedom Works is decidedly Tea Party.
Moreover, although the argument can be made that a Governor of a State or Commonwealth would make an excellent Presidential candidate due to having had executive experience, Congress is a stepping stone to the Presidency. The last, before Barack Obama, was President John F. Kennedy who went from the Senate to the White House in the election of 1960. (Barak Obama went from the Illinois State Senate to the Illinois Federal Senate Representative, to the White House in short order).
Pence is apparently gong to decide on which office he prefers to run for by the end of this month. Pence is, like a John Thune (R-CO), a virtual unknown to the Public, as the actual 2012 field begins to take shape in mid-2011, there may be other “unknowns” suddenly on the national radar – not unlike Arkansas Mike Huckabee, who was in that same position in 2007. He is now, along with Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney are currently the top three “polling” choices for those firms that deign to speculate – come February they may add Pence to the list, (along with Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum and possibly Rudy Giuliani, and yes, Donald Trump).
If the election of Obama was any sign of the attention span and voting habits of the American Public, the likely nominee will most likely be the individual who is the most media savvy and photogenic. Should a “straw man” be pushed into a run, in order to say, act as a block for another candidate, then the GOP will find themselves with another John McCain on their hands.
To learn more about Mike Pence and his stand on the issues visit: Mike Pence.house.gov
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