The Trump cabinet rumor mill has gone into overdrive with major slots still to be filled. Among those are Secretary of State, perhaps considered the most important, Secretary of The Interior and Secretary of Veteran's Affairs.
Mitt Romney has all the buzz as the prime candidate (of five apparently) for State and, to the excitement of friend and, foe alike (actually more than excitement, mad frenzy would be a better description for the latter) Governor Palin for either Veteran's or Interior.
It is not my purpose here to dwell on the suitability of either Palin or Romney for the proposed roles but the political ramifications for the GOP.
The party was obviously sorely tested and fractured for the primaries and just held together for the election. Trump, in a Lincolnesque fashion, reached out to the opposition by naming Reince Priebus, the Chair of the Republican national Committee, as his Chief of Staff. He then named conservative senator Jeff Session's an early and loyal backer as his as his Attorney General.
Further appointments have come from the business community, the military, Governor Nikki Haley who opposed Trump, to the U.N. and Mitch McConnell's wife (and highly experienced administrator) Elaine Chao to Transport, balanced politically by close supporter Steve Bannon as Senior Counselor/Chief Strategist.
To completely bind the wounds and place his administration on a rock solid support footing Trump might consider nominating, preferably on the same day, his most strident critic and his most vocal and early supporter i.e. Romney for State and palin for Veteran's Affairs.
Appointing Romney without a major counterbalance would bring howls of outrage from Trump's most vociferous supporters who woudl (and have) call it "an act of betrayal" as Romney elicits little love from those quarters.
Palin on the other hand is near universally loved and admired as a loyal supporter of Trump and a paragon of conservative, Tea Party ethics and principles. But of course such virtues are not appreciated by the GOP Establishment and especially the media. What the left wing blogs woudl have to say I will leave to the imagination.
Announcing the two on the same day, or within a day or so would have the effect of pleasing all factions in the GOP as half would admire their choice and accept, grudgingly perhaps but accept, the other. The media would be befuddled between hailing Romney's appointment as an "act of statesmanship" on Romney's part and would not be able to spend much time attacking Palin-and vice versa with Trump loyalists.
Trump is known as the king of "The art of the deal" their would be a further impressive example of his deal-making if he did a Romney/Palin two for one deal
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