The short answer is: I hope so. One way or another, 2024 will be a vitally important election. If President Trump is re-elected, as I think he probably will be, the presidency will be open in 2024. If Trump loses, a senile Joe Biden will be ripe for the plucking in 2024, assuming he is still alive and functioning by then.
It isn’t too early to think about the Republican ticket four years from now. It’s no secret that I would like to see Tom Cotton running for the presidency, but we have other excellent potential candidates, like Marco Rubio, to name just one. And in the V-P slot, or possibly the presidency, my favorite choice is South Dakota’s Kristi Noem.
Noem grew up on a farm near my home town. She served four terms in Congress as South Dakota’s lone representative in the House, and then returned to her home state to run for Governor. In her first term, she faced the COVID issue and pursued a course different from almost all other governors: she went on television and said that Americans are free people, not subject to arbitrary orders from politicians. What’s more, South Dakotans are smart. They are better qualified to look after their own health than government can ever be. Therefore, she said, her administration would compile data, constantly put out information, issue recommendations based on the best knowledge available. But she would not order anyone to do anything. Freedom, she said, works.
In a sane world, that makes sense. But it caused the roof to fall in. The Washington Post, the Associated Press, and the entire phalanx of left-wing media denounced Noem for refusing to toe the line of liberal, dictatorial orthodoxy. I wrote about the Post’s pathetically stupid smear here.
In short, I would like to see Governor Noem on the GOP’s national ticket in 2024. Cotton/Noem would be the solidest ticket since the days of Calvin Coolidge. Or, who knows, maybe it’s Noem/Cotton.
If you want to get an up-close look at one of America’s hottest conservative politicians, I will interview her live, for free on Zoom, on Wednesday, day after tomorrow, at noon Central time, sponsored by Center of the American Experiment. I will ask her about her freedom-based response to the COVID epidemic, about her experience last Friday at Mount Rushmore with President Trump, and about the Democrats’ threats to destroy that famous monument. To which she has responded unequivocally:
Not on my watch. https://t.co/U6gGap5Ib6
— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) June 23, 2020
It will be a fun conversation with a woman who may become a major figure in national politics over the next few years. I certainly hope so. To register for Wednesday’s event (for free), go here.
We have more than 1,500 people signed up for Wednesday’s program. I would love to add another 1,000 Power Line readers.
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