NO, VIVEK RAMASWAMY WILL NOT BE TRUMP'S RUNNING MATE

Sorry -- I know the Trump arrest is all anyone wants to talk about, but I really don't want to give it (and him) any more oxygen. I let myself get sucked into watching the O.J.-style coverage last night (Here's Trump's motorcade on the way to the courthouse!) and I feel dirty for having watched it. And now Fox News is grumbling because Joe Biden subtly alluded to the arrest in a fund-raising pitch ("Apropos of nothing, I think today's a great day to give to my campaign") -- which is apparently beyond the pale, even as Trump's campaign sells T-shirts of his mugshot. Enough. This was allowed to become a campaign event from Trump, and the day-after coverage seems to be a second event. I don't want to participate.

Instead, I want to talk about Margaret Sullivan's response to Vivek Ramaswamy's debate performance:

If Ramaswamy’s real aim – other than to bask in his own glorious reflection – is to get Trump to choose him as his running mate, he made progress toward that end.

This comes a day after Bill Scher published a Washington Monthly piece titled "Ramaswamy Aces the VP Interview."

Would Trump really pick Ramaswamy as his running mate? Nahhh.

Amanda Marcotte thinks Trump simply won't pick anyone other than a white guy:

There's a prevailing assumption in the mainstream media that Nikki Haley and fellow South Carolinian Sen. Tim Scott are both angling for a running mate spot on the Trump ticket. It's doubtful either of them is dim enough to believe Trump would deign to reach outside the white male community for that role.

I think Trump felt that way in 2016, but I think he might be willing to broaden his pool of potential running mates now, especially because he'll be looking for someone to match up against Kamala Harris. Haley might have burned her bridges to Trump by calling him "the most disliked politician in all of America," although Trump likes watching former critics crawl back to him and beg to be his friend (e.g., Lindsey Graham). But if Trump picks someone who's not of European descent, it will probably be the uncharismatic, unthreatening Tim Scott.

There are many women who'd love to run with him: Elise Stefanik, Kristi Noem, Kari Lake, Marjorie Taylor Greene, possibly Tulsi Gabbard. I think he'll reject Lake, Greene, and Ramaswamy (as well as Ron DeSantis) for the same reason: They're too ambitious. He's not going to pick someone who clearly wants his job. He'll want someone as servile and beta as Mike Pence, which might mean Stefanik or Scott. He'll joke that the others might poison his food (poisoning is a real fear of his, according to Michael Wolff).

Ramaswamy won't be the running mate, but I agree with Margaret Sullivan that he looks like the future of the GOP:

“If you have wondered what Trumpism after Trump looks like, ask no further,” suggested the magazine writer David Freedlander on the social media site formerly known as Twitter....

Certainly, he has the essentials covered. No, not foreign policy chops or a background in public service, but a mocking aversion to social justice and equality....

In case there was any doubt, now we know: [Republican voters] will always fall for the attention-seeking, the policy-unencumbered, the candidate quickest with a demeaning insult. That’s a “winner”, apparently....

“Ramaswamy is like Trump in the larva stage, molting toward the full Maga wingspan but not quite there yet,” wrote Frank Bruni in his New York Times newsletter. “His narcissism, though, is fully evolved.”

As the 2028 campaign approaches, there'll be a lot of chatter (yes, again) on the subject of reviving the pre-Trump Republican Party. Some of the same Establishment dullards who are running this time might run again, along with other dullards. Some may even be called the early favorites for the nomination.

But the race will actually be dominated by Trump wannabes -- Ramaswamy as well as (potentially) Greene, Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump Jr., Mike Flynn, Candace Owens, and (who knows?) possibly even Tucker Carlson. Whether or not we've had another four years of Trump, the rubes will feel persecuted and want more MAGA, more lib-bashing, more extremism. And the pundits who are dying to declare the crisis of the GOP over will be shocked yet again.