One person I didn’t mention yesterday in the Trump VP veepstakes was Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. There are various boxes Sanders doesn’t check. But the thing with Sanders is that she’s a bully, and a good bully, by which I mean she’s an effective bully. She’s nasty. She’s not nice. These are all major pluses for a Trump VP.
That may seem like in effect a backhanded attack rather than a positive evaluation. And in a way it is. It’s not a good sign that those are critical attributes. But they ARE critical attributes. Trump’s whole way of approaching the world and politics is to be on offense and dominate. You never apologize. Sanders showed that approach in her lengthy tenure as Trump’s press secretary -— never apologize, never explain, always attack. She’s continued that course as Governor of Arkansas. She’s already gotten caught up in a series of scandals, LecternGate being the most high profile. But so far she’s basically weathered them and weathered them with the standard posture of FU to whoever’s questioning me, and pound sand to whoever is asking for documents and generally, this is all the fault of our Angry Democratic/Fake News enemies.
In other words, SHS is really the worst American politics has to offer: crooked, a big liar and an enemy of all accountability. But that’s what Trump likes. So maybe we can’t rule her out. I still think the central casting thing will be huge for Trump. But he apparently really does want a female running mate for a lot of good reasons. So maybe we can’t rule her out.
