Veepstakes: And The Winner Is Ordinary Times
So Trump went off the board (well, our board, anyway) and picked Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate.
I am pleased to announce that I have chosen Governor Mike Pence as my Vice Presidential running mate. News conference tomorrow at 11:00 A.M.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2016
Why wasn’t Pence on the list?
Well, for one, I put the list together the day after the Indiana primary, which was May 3, nearly ten weeks ago.
At the time, Pence had just endorsed Ted Cruz.
Pence is pretty pro-free trade (specifically pro-TPP), where Trump is basically a protectionist (specifically anti-TPP).
Trump doesn’t really need anyone’s help to win Indiana, and Pence looked like he would not have been all that much help keeping it in the GOP column anyway as he is not dominantly popular in his own state.
And most of all, Pence had gone on record (in Donald Trump’s favorite forum, natch) about one of Trump’s core campaign platforms:
Calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional.
— Governor Mike Pence (@GovPenceIN) December 8, 2015
So it seemed to me at the time that Pence was not a likely choice. But, ten weeks is a long time in politics. Here we are, now to be graced with one of the ugliest, clunkiest, most corporate-looking campaign logos since, well, Hillary Clinton’s:
https://twitter.com/JayCostTWS/status/753984373347737600
Anyway, on to the site’s business. Thank you, everyone, for playing and for your generous pledges. The time has come to collect them.
Per our original rules, 100% of pledges will go to the Ordinary Times operating fund.
Please send your pledges to me, by PayPal, burtlikko [at] gmail.
Here is the final pledge list. Several others made pledges or expressed desires to contribute to defray operating costs notwithstanding the contest, and we thank you, as well.
Thank you all again for your pledges and contributions; you’re helping keep the lights on around here.
TP is a great acronym for the pair.Report
That was what I immediately thought of too. Who can Hillary pick to match or exceed TP as an unfortunate acronym?Report
(Michelle) Obama.Report
HRCO? HRCMO? I’m missing it.Report
One’s first initial, the others last.Report
Yes, very fitting for this partnership.Report
Any chance of one of those lil Paypal tabs Eric or Rtod used? I don’t have a paypal account and I’ve always been able to just chuck it on the card before but a cursory review of the website keeps inveigling me to sign up.Report
For that, you’re going to have to give me a day or so to figure that out. Unless Our Tod is able to find some time to help out with his, and AFAIK he’s a bit busy with one of his writing gigs right now.Report
I’ll poke at it as time permits too.Report
Further confusion. I’ve created a bloody account and it still won’t send. Says “We can’t send your payment right now. If you keep running into this issue, please contact PayPal.”Report
Mine said that last night, but this morning it let me give Burt the money. There was a fee for doing so because I won’t attach anything but a credit card to my Paypal account.Report
I’m having the same problem. No paypal account. Feel free to contact my e-mail.Report
Is that [at] gmail, or [at] gmail.com?Report
The latter.Report
Money sent @burt-likkoReport
Sent! @burt-likko use it as OT wills.Report
Thank you both, and thank you to @joe-sal, for your donations!Report
😉Report
Why wasn’t Pence on the list?
For one thing, he’s only 33.Report
Twitter has responded to the new logo with an appropriate level of maturity: http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/twitter_explodes_into_mockery_and_memes_over_new_official_trump_pence_logoReport
…They actually made their campaign icon say TP? They couldn’t foresee the obvious jokes that set them up for?
It’s no Conservative Reform Alliance Party, but it’s in the same ballpark.
EDIT: Oh, I see other people already noticed this.Report
How do you make a crappy cocktail? Start with TP and add rum.Report
Reminds me of what people were saying about the xbone.Report
Donations now received from @aaron-david , @roland-dodds, @michael-cain , @joe-sal , @jaybird , and @ryan-noonan . Thank you all!
If you’re not on that list and pledged, we can certainly wait for your next payday to roll around.Report
And if anyone still has trouble going through paypal, please let me know, either privately at my email address or through a message on this board.Report
Did my payment not make it?Report
Oops. Yes, it did. I just omitted it from my note above, to my great embarrassment and due to clerical error by yours truly. Please accept my apologies, good sir, and thank you for your donation.Report
An otherwise wonderful trip to my sister’s wedding in New York has become somewhat frustrating in my inability to find a plane leaving this part of the state. In some future aeon I will return home, and when I do I will make good.Report
Wow. For some reason, I thought Pence was on the list. The good news is that OT wins.Report
Sent!Report
Thank you so much!Report
Since all midwestern governors are more or less the same person, Doc was the closest.Report