Donald Trump's Vice President

And for the latest scoop on Donald Trump.  This article has been quite revealing and attracted a great deal of attention.  Apparently Trump asked John Kasich to be his Vice President, promising to put him in charge of "domestic and foreign policy" while Trump handled "making America great again."

I suppose it should be encouraging that Trump recognizes that he is utterly unqualified to handle "domestic and foreign policy."  Or, more likely, he simply doesn't much care about domestic or foreign policy, but at least recognizes that someone will have to handle them.  Presumably the plan would be for Kasich to actually run things, while Trump served as a figurehead who ran around shooting his mouth off.  Presumably Pence will now hold the same role.

It might seem almost reasonable -- someone competent will actually run things, while Trump's more rabid fans will never notice the difference.  But I can't see it quite working.  A Trump who simply basks in glamour and makes speeches will no doubt promise a lot of things that simply are not doable in the real world.  And, most likely, he will promise any number of mutually exclusive and contradictory things.  And when he fails to deliver, guess who will get the blame.  No wonder Kasich declined the role of administration scapegoat!

And presumably Trump will want to make the big, general decisions, including what to do in a crisis. I suppose there are things that can be done about that.  One would be to let Trump blather incoherently while his Vice President makes the actual decision.  A less subtle version of the same would be to handcuff Trump, stuff something in his mouth and lock him up in the closet until the crisis passes.  Or put him on Air Force One and have it take off somewhere out of radio range.  A more subtle version would be to let Trump spout several mutual exclusive answers and then manipulate him into doing whatever makes actual sense.

Then there is the account by Trump's ghostwriter breaking the shocking news about Trump that everyone who has been paying attention noticed a long time ago.  He has an extremely short attention span.  In fact, it is just about impossible to keep him focused on any topic other than his own self-aggrandizement for more than a few minutes.  “If he had to be briefed on a crisis in the Situation Room, it’s impossible to imagine him paying attention over a long period of time.”  How disastrous this would be, I suppose, would depend on how well his Vice President could distract, manipulate and usurp.  But if Trump ever caught on what was happening -- well, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of it.

And besides, even if Trump's Vice President could manipulate him out of making any actual policy decisions, presumably he would not be so easily distracted from two goals -- using the power of the Federal Government to punish his domestic critics and to advance his personal business interests. Some poor sucker would have to present legal caveats to him.  Presumably, that poor sucker would be his Vice President.  Once again, I can see why Kasich didn't want the job.  What is harder to understand is why anybody at all would accept it.