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Thingish Things

Nikki Haley, the Right Pick for VP

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Aug• 03•12

It’s getting toward betting time on who Mitt Romney will choose to be his presidential running mate.

The clear favorites for veep: Ohio Sen. Rob Portman; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio;Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal; formerMinnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.

Any one of them would make perfect sense — so I’m going to call it for South CarolinaGov. Nikki Haley. My reasoning may be obscured by two personal weaknesses: I’m a long-shot bettor and I have an irreversible crush on the South Carolinian. Who wouldn’t? She’s lovely — and she gives me hope for the future of my political party.

Three things weigh against Haley being the choice: 1.) The governor has removed her name from consideration; 2.) she isn’t from a swing state; and 3.) Haley would have to readdress an old, unfounded charge by an aesthetically challenged former press secretary of Gov. Mark Sanford that she once had a steamy liaison with him. The general consensus among South Carolina voters? He wishes.

All that aside, Gov. Haley would be a smart VP pick, and here’s why:

The rest of this column is available at Newsday or Newsday Westchester.  Thanks for reading!

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One Comment

  1. Bill, unfortunately, there are questions as to whether Governor Haley would draw votes from the Indian community mainly because she left the sikh religion.

    I happen to be around a lot of Indian Americans and my girlfriend’s sister-in-law is sikh and not a fan of Ms. Haley. She left her religion. Many sikhs hold a resentment for this and think it was mainly done for political reasons (aspirations and success). She can deny that she left sikhism as an adult for political reasons or whatever, but it’ll be hard to convince people it wasn’t strategic.

    Bobby Jindal maybe able to break through on his religious conversion because he did it at the age of sixteen and you cannot say that a sixteen year old is doing it for political reasons. That is not to say there won’t be resentment for him leaving the Hindu faith.

    Susana Martinez or Luis Fortunato seem to be better options for Mitt Romney

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