RUSH: Scott in Davie, Florida. Great to have you, sir. You’re next on Open Line Friday on Thursday. Hi.
CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush, how are you?
RUSH: Very well, sir. Thank you.
CALLER: Good. I’ve been searching high and low for the answer to this, and I can’t find it anywhere. So I figured I would turn my attention to the Institute for the Advanced Conservative Studies.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: What I’m looking for, and like I said, I can’t find the answer. I don’t know if this precedent has been said yet or if it’s even legal. But we have a ton of nominees out there and what I’m wondering is, if you have any recollection if it’s been done, if a candidate before being nominated picks their vice presidential candidate. The reason I’m saying this, this could be a big thing for some of these candidates if they were to —
RUSH: Perot did it.
CALLER: Okay. Well, you’ve answered my question.
RUSH: He chose Admiral Stockdale.
CALLER: You have answered my question.
RUSH: And Admiral Stockdale showed up at the first vice presidential debate and said, “What am I doing here?” A couple others have done it. It has been done. It’s not unprecedented, but it’s never made a difference. It’s never mattered. Are you looking at some way for these guys to break out of the pack?
CALLER: Yeah, my feelings are this. A lot of people are saying that Jeb is going to be the nominee. And you’re not going to get to the White House unless you get Florida and Ohio. And tactically I’m thinking that Jeb may look at picking Kasich as his running mate before the nomination.
RUSH: Like who would you think he would pick?
CALLER: Kasich.
RUSH: Kasich. Kasich. Well, I think Kasich is on the way to announcing. I think Kasich is about to get in this thing.
CALLER: I’ve seen that too. But I was wondering tactically if that would be beneficial to try to shore up Florida and Ohio.
RUSH: Look, you’ve called the right place. But you won’t get the answer you’re looking for, I don’t think. In fact, I was going to mention this again today, because it happened again yesterday. I showed up someplace and immediately I get peppered with questions about who I think should be or I think will be the nominee. I don’t know quite the best way to explain this. I don’t want anybody to infer from my answer that I don’t think it’s important, obviously. But I think the questions, the issues, the challenges we face go so far beyond the question right now of who the nominee is going to be.
Now, I may be wrong when I assess the people asking me this question, but I get the impression — as I say, I could be wrong. It’s doubtful. But I have to acknowledge that those rare moments I am wrong, it happens. My perception is that the people that ask me this question or who are really, really focused on it are simply looking at the horse race aspect of this. Now, I understand the importance of winning. This is why I do not want to be misunderstood. It’s going to be tough for me to explain this. But our answer does not reside in the nominee, our solution. The nominee is part of the solution, but the nominee is not the solution, is the best way I can put this. And to look at it that way is to miss so much of what’s important out there.