JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The 2024 edition of “The Apprentice” is finally hurtling towards its season finale.
No, this is not a TV show. Rather, it’s the long and winding road to finding out who Donald Trump’s running mate will be in 2024.
As prophetic statements from leading Republican candidates continue, in-depth reporting on the ground is providing some clarity.
Has at least one option been considered?
A total “Florida Man” ticket.
From 6-row stem winder NBC NewsMarco Rubio, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum are also being considered.
If the reports are true, and NBC has been accurate in reporting most of the vice presidential selection process, it marks a necessary narrowing of the list of candidates that has been under discussion since the beginning of the Republican primary season.
The NBC report also suggests that of the three candidates, Rubio faces some handicaps that the others don’t, including a lack of enthusiasm for the job and a thorny constitutional issue that arises because both candidates come from the same state.
Rubio’s lack of enthusiasm is actually debatable.
While the senator provides canned answers to questions like “Would you take the job?” and “Where would you move if offered?”, he has also taken some pains to portray himself as a staunch defender of President Trump.
The prime example that springs to my mind are Rubio’s comments at the Trump 47 event at Mar-a-Lago this month, when he clumsily and blatantly plagiarized talking points that Trump has made at countless rallies over the years to defend the former president.
“He makes a lot of money. He has a lot to enjoy. He has a great family,” Rubio said. “Sometimes I think, ‘Why is this guy doing this? He’s had a great life.’ There’s only one reason why a guy like him would be in politics with all of this going on, and that’s because he loves our country and he wants to protect it from people who want to destroy it.”
Does Trump really need someone to describe him in the third person? Where is the added value? Will a headliner go on tour with his own cover band?
Rubio is open to pivoting his campaign at any time, as he has done in the past, including in 2016 when he blamed the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando for his actions and fended off contenders including his successor in the Senate, Ron DeSantis, before returning to the campaign.
But Rubio is not Dick Cheney, who set the precedent for such behavior as George W. Bush’s running mate in 2000. Cheney was one of the most influential vice presidents in American history and a skilled executive. No one seriously believes Rubio can do the same.
Perhaps Rubio’s most foolish claim was in a recent tweet by The The New York TimesThe theory is that only he can “carve out a Pennsylvania mold from the so-called Blue Wall of Rust Belt states.”
I don’t know what that’s based on. Senators have never proven to be particularly good coalition builders.
In 2010, Kendrick Meek and independent Charlie Crist split the left and won with a majority. In 2016, he beat a weak Patrick Murphy who barely made it north of Orlando. And in 2022, he rode the Ron DeSantis wave to beat Val Demings, but didn’t perform nearly as well as the other candidates.
Simply put, Trump doesn’t need Rubio. It’s Rubio, who has been craving the White House for a decade, who needs Trump.
Ron DeSantis may be the only real Floridian on the list of candidates, but he has said he doesn’t want the job as he looks to promote his own brand in 2028.
Not only do Burgum and Vance lack the residency issue that Rubio presents, giving them plenty of reason not to be on the Florida-only list, but they have also shown more genuine enthusiasm for Trump than Rubio.
And both will give you better results.
Burgum has a calm confidence and cool personality that Rubio will never learn.
Though Vance is a newcomer to the political world, he comes across as a natural successor to MAGA, and as the author of the once-ubiquitous “Hillbilly Elegy,” it’s clear he understands story.
