Seems The Donald has created buzz just about weekly over who his Vice President pick will be heading into this month’s GOP convention in Cleveland. First it was New Jersey Governor Chris Christie; then it was former House Speaker and FOX News regular, Newt Gingrich; then it was Indiana Governor Mike Pence; and now the newest Maybe-It’ll-Be is Iowa’s junior senator, Joni Ernst, whom Mr. Trump spent part of our Independence Day chatting up. You may remember the infamous campaign ad that propelled Senator Ernst into the daily lexicon of GOP voters back in 2014:

I look forward to meeting @joniernst today in New Jersey. She has done a great job as Senator of Iowa!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2016

Now most of you know, if you read my blogs regularly, that I’m no fan of Donald Trump. I find him utterly without principles, a man who’ll say just about anything to attract (or repel, as it were) voters, and I have about as much of an idea about what we’d be getting with a Trump presidency as I do with Taco Tuesday’s at the neighborhood TexMex food-truck. That said, I’m firmly in the Never Hillary camp and could never, ever, not with a Glock 26 aimed at my left temple, vote for her to be Commander-in-Chief. So what might a Vice President Ernst bring to a potential Trump presidency? Let’s take a quick peak at Ernst’s resume and a few of her core positions:

• First woman ever elected to Congress from the state of Iowa
• First female combat veteran ever to serve in the United States Senate
• Lt. Col., U.S. Army National Guard, retired
• Served as a company commander in Iraq and Kuwait in 2003
• Previously served as a Republican member of the Iowa Senate from 2011 to 2014 where she was a member of the Education, Appropriations, Veterans Affairs, Rules and Administration and Health and Human Services committees
• Earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Iowa State University, and her Master of Public Administration degree from Columbus College
• Received an “A” rating from the NRA for her support of gun-rights issues
• Opposes the federal minimum wage, and believes states should have sole authority to set their own minimum wages
• Supports the nullification of Obamacare
• Has said she believes marriage is a “state issue”
• Has proposed eliminating the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Education, and the Environmental Protection Agency as a means of cutting federal spending

You can read more about Senator Ernst here, here, and here (and, yes, it’s a mixed bag depending on who you ask).

Here’s a quick report on the confer between Trump and Ernst:

So, does Hillary’s VP potential, Elizabeth “I’m a Real Cherokee!” Warren, hold a candle to Senator Ernst? Hardly. Nor do the likes of the La Raza-loving Julian Castro, or Tim Kaine, the senator no one’s ever heard of outside of his home state of Virginia or within the statist political circles of Washington, D.C.

And what does social media think about a possible Vice President Ernst? Well, as is typical, she’s former military, and a conservative woman, so naturally she’s the bane of liberals in the Twittersphere. Exhibit A:

Meanwhile Back @ #CirqueDuToupee…LMFAO#Joni #BreadbagShoes #Ernst – #Trump scraping the bottom
of the #GOP barrel https://t.co/r7PnVmFngG

— Miss Myrtle (@MissMyrtle2) July 4, 2016

Nice jab at the poor, Miss Myrtle. But try again. Senator Ernst’s resume wipes the floor with anything the felon-who-would-be-POTUS could ever dream of seeing grace her own ticket. And some agree:

#Joni @SenJoniErnst is best for #Trump #VP! @realDonaldTrump #GOP #EU #CNN #NYTimes #US #ABC #Guardian #NYTimes #UK pic.twitter.com/qkr0iUzXz4

— Mary Herman (@MaryHerman2) July 4, 2016

@realDonaldTrump praises for #JONI She will seal the deal #IowaState Need a #strong #Women for #WomenForTrump

— LIPSTICK STUDIOS (@fashionchaos) July 5, 2016

Perhaps. But what Senator Ernst would bring to the table is not her gender and her last name, but a bonafide resume that counterbalances the vast holes in the less-than-adequate qualifications of Donald Trump. But…given the millions of GOP voters who find Mr. Trump detestable and have vowed never to pull the lever in his favor, would Senator Ernst accept a proposed Vice Presidency from said leper? That’s the nineteen-trillion-dollar question given that so many other potentials have shown him the backs of their hands.

While I’m not one to vote for the bottom of the ticket, this year has proven to be vastly different that any election year in recent memory. And while the two choices staring us in the face are bad, and down-right horrible in a Cthulhu for America kind of way (believe me, you don’t want that guy!), I’d find Senator Ernst a welcome addition to a ticket I’ll find myself forced to vote “for” whilst holding my nose closed with a wooden clothes pin. Let’s hope this is a serious move by Mr. Trump and not a mere pander for the women’s vote of which he is desperately lacking. Senator Ernst’s gender is incidental; it’s her accomplishments and her service to our great nation, not her ovaries and her hammering of the “glass ceiling,” that she brings to the table. And that is a refreshing possibility in a year when the potential for the First Woman President Ever is also the first presidential candidate to be questioned by the FBI in an ongoing investigation of her intentional mishandling of top-secret information. Unlike Hillary Clinton, something tells me Senator Ernst would take that 3 a.m. phone call and competently handle any situation she faced.