COMMENTARY | Michelle Bachmann made news over at CNN for naming her potential vice presidents and including the always-controversial Donald Trump. Other possibilities she included were fellow presidential candidate Rick Santorum and Republican senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Jim DeMint of South Carolina. She also discussed Rick Santorum as a potential attorney general, praising his grasp of legal issues.
Having presidential candidates declare their cabinet teams is a good idea that should be encouraged. Here is why:
1) The United States president, as chief executive, gets to pick his or her cabinet. Shouldn't the voting public have some input? By encouraging candidates to declare their leadership team early on, the public can offer feedback and make more informed decisions.
2) The success of a presidential candidate in picking a good team indicates good leadership, communication, and political skills. A candidate who cannot pick a good cabinet team, or get good people to commit to being in his or her cabinet, is unlikely to be a good president.
3) A tradition of "bundling" and "team-building" during presidential campaign primaries could shorten lengthy campaigns by encouraging candidates to team up on tickets. America wouldn't need a multi-year presidential election process if there were fewer candidates to mull through. Reducing eight independent candidates to four president/veep tickets would mean fewer debates, fewer scandals, and less day-in-day-out campaigning and polling.
In 2008, I thought that one of Hillary Clinton's smartest moves was when she offered to name challenger Barack Obama as her vice president. While the attempt failed, according to an article on swamppolitics.com, I thought it was a savvy show -- Hillary, the experienced politician, made the upstart young challenger look arrogant.
This election cycle has seen Republican candidates ride a veritable roller coaster of popularity shifts. Perhaps the doubling up of two candidates on a ticket, such as Gingrich/Perry or Paul/Santorum, would simplify things and help stabilize the roller coaster.
Going further, having candidates publicly reveal their choices for cabinet nominees could thin the field by forcing minor candidates, unable to get politicians to pledge to accept a nomination, to drop out of the race. If minor candidates cannot get a full cabinet team they become too weak and unpopular to continue. Only candidates with support from other big names in Washington, the same people they must work with while in office, can easily continue.
Who wants a president of the United States who cannot muster the respect of Congress and state governors? If, as a candidate, a person cannot get enough congressmen to acknowledge that they would join his or her Cabinet team, that could be a sign of a big problem ahead.
It's certainly food for thought!
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