Despite the fact that Nikki Haley won’t quit the 2024 Presidential Race, most of have moved on. We are playing the next portion of our quadrennial parlor game, “Who’s gonna be the Vice-Presidential candidate? Who will Trump pick? This week’s contestant is Tulsi Gabbard. We say “Lovely lady but no”. The contestant from Hawaii wins Miss Congentiality.

We’ve talked about the Trump Veepstakes before, and I have taken on board your comments. Y’all are almost all right.

Let us now discuss the former Congresswoman from Hawaii, Miss Tulsi Gabbard. She seems like such a smart choice, especially as an Independent and a woman, but we’ll take a pass.

Newsweek has gone all in with: “Donald Trump Shortlist: Tulsi Gabbard’s VP Chances Soar”:

Tulsi Gabbard’s odds of becoming the 2024 Republican vice-presidential candidate surged with a leading bookmaker after Donald Trump said she was on his short list during a Fox News town hall on Tuesday.

Gabbard is a former Democratic House of Representatives member though she left the party in October 2022 describing it as under the control of “an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness” and accusing it of promoting “anti-white racism.” She has since become a frequent Fox News contributor and addressed the influential Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2022 and 2023.

I was at CPAC in 2022 and Tulsi was a rock star. She gives great speech. And, she was 14K, solid gold right about the Democrat Party of warmongers and cowards. Tulsi is going to headline an event for Trump at Mar-a-Lago celebrating The Constitution on March 7, 2024. Ed Kilgore has written a column for The Intelligencer about Tulsi’s Veep chances: “Could Tulsi Gabbard Become Trump’s Very Weird VP Choice?”:

Today, though, Gabbard is scheduled be the keynote speaker at a Mar-a-Lago fundraising dinner for the 917 Society — a nonprofit best known for distributing pocket-size copies of the Constitution, The Daily Beast reports.

I don’t know if this is Gabbard’s first trip to Trump’s Florida lair, but it has been reported that he and his advisers have met with her during the last year to discuss her favorite subject, notes the Washington Post:

The talks with Gabbard — who has staked out a role as an outspoken critic of aid to Ukraine and U.S. military interventions overseas — are part of a broader conversation about how Trump would manage the Pentagon differently if voters award him a second term. Trump has repeatedly told advisers and donors in recent months that one of his biggest mistakes was his personnel choices at the Pentagon, where he says he was stymied by officials with diverging opinions.

Gabbard hasn’t endorsed Trump for president just yet, but she’s definitely been on a sojourn toward MAGA-land for a while now. Her strongly anti-interventionist views (including hostility to any aid to Ukraine) has been a constant.

Trust me, we truly do appreciate that Tulsi is not a warmonger, like Nikki. Tulsi could be a great help riding herd on the Perfumed Princes of the Pentagon. We love her service in the Hawaii National Guard. She is in the medical corps and has gone from enlisted to commissioned. She currently holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Her service in the National Guard helps to explain her commanding voice and speaking style, she doesn’t cackle, as she obliterates Kamala Harris:

A woman like Kamala should never utter the phrase “When I was in the position.” That’s all I am going to say about that, but Tulsi’s face showed that she knew too.

I really like Tulsi Gabbard, as a woman and as a leader. BUT. As a Veep? As a leader in the Republican Party? As the frontrunner for the 2028 Presidential Race? Hale NO.

Just wanted to go on record that I am completely against Tulsi Gabbard being Trump’s VP

We don’t need a Hawaiian Democrat in charge of the country (and Republican party) if something were to happen to President Trump

Insane that she is even being discussed pic.twitter.com/bvX42a4a4t

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) February 23, 2024

During her elected life, Tulsi was a Conservative Democrat, which means that she is not insane. One of her bills in Congress was to ensure medical care for children born alive in abortion attempts. That’s not enough. Not to be our standard bearer for 2028.

The UK Guardian is even more skeptical after her CPAC speech this year:

Tara Setmayer, a senior adviser to the Lincoln Project, a pro-democracy and anti-Trump group, said: “Tulsi Gabbard was on the fringe as a Democrat and, when she flamed out there, in order to find relevance, she recognised an opening in the Republican party that was pro-Putin friendly.

If I was a Senior Adviser to the Lincoln Project I wouldn’t mention finding relevance.

We like Tulsi, we really do. We are gonna have to pass on her for Veep. We have an amazingly deep bench in the Republican Party. Tulsi has not been on it. Don’t forget she was a Bernie Girl in 2016. A couple good CPAC speeches, burying Kamala Harris and getting Donald Trump’s blessing doesn’t do it for me. I need Tulsi to tell me why she now embraces Conservative, Individual, Free-Market principles.

Miss Congeniality.

Featured Image: Gage Skidmore/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons