Guest Post Maddie on the VP choice

Last week in class, we talked about possible Vice Presidential candidates that Romney might choose. Interestingly, Marco Rubio, a potential candidate, went public in a CNN interview saying he will not be filling those shoes. In Tina Korbe's April 14th post on Hotair, she discusses some interesting ideas that came from the recent CNN interview with the Florida Senator. Perhaps, he does not think that Romney will be able to claim the victory over Obama and therefore, would rather wait to support, or be apart of, a winning ticket. With Rubio being young in his career, I think that this decision might be a very intelligent political move. No politician ever wants to jump the gun and ruin their chance for a long and lasting career. Furthermore, I do not think that Rubio is alone in this thought. There are many other rumored, potential VP candidates that might also need to make the same call. Who might else fall into this category?

Further, in Korbe's blog post, she brings to light another great point. In the CNN interview, Rubio points out that the by just adding a Hispanic to the presidential ticket, does not necessarily mean that that particular ticket will support "their own". While the minority votes are most of the time up for grabs, he asserts that this method will not work. Rather, he explains that the way to garner the support of Hispanics is through economic policies and stances. Korbe's made a great point saying:

"Republicans and Democrats alike fall into the trap of thinking that voters are reducible to a single characteristic — their gender, their race, their income. How long will it take polls to adopt the personalistic norm — to begin to see people not as a means to an end (i.e. a means to their own election) and instead as people, to whom the proper response is love in its fullest sense of wanting what is right and best?"

In light of our discussions on diversity in class, I thought it would be interesting to solicit feedback on Rubio's remarks. We discussed the need for Romney to choose wisely and perhaps go with a minority and not the traditional white man. However, Rubio and Korbe's make a strong assertion that going with the minority is not the right approach, but rather a change in policy is the way to go. Isn't this the way that both parties should be rallying support anyhow? When and how did this shift begin? Was it even more apparent when McCain chose Palin as his vice presidential candidate? It is clear, now more than ever, that we need to get our voting priorities straight and begin to vote according to policy. After all, it is government policy that will determine the fate of our beloved country, not necessarily gender or race.