[Hoot Gibson]

You might be right that Newt gets picked, but I just can't see it happening. I don't see Cotton being picked either. Newt would challenge Trump in a lot of areas, and I just don't see Trump picking somebody that wouldn't be a "yes man" toward him.

Not necessarily, about Cotton's career being over should Trump lose. Cotton was elected in 2014 to the Senate. I know that John McCain went back to the Senate and Paul Ryan ran concurrently for both The House of Representatives and the VP position at the same time. So should Trump run and lose, I'm not sure if Cotton would be able to return to the Senate. If he does, then it wouldn't impact him that much.

Franklin Roosevelt ran for VP in 1920 when he was around the same age as Tom Cotton, just under 40. James Cox ended up losing and Roosevelt still won the presidency years later. I'm not sure of Cotton's presidential ambitions, but I think he would be okay if they lost.

We might be able to agree on Cotton's youth being a factor. I don't think there are any senators younger than him at this point. That can be a good or a bad thing, but in this scenario I think it might hurt.

Me personally, if I were Cotton, I would give it a shot. You just never know what would happen. If Chris Christie had run in 2012, he probably would have won it. However, he went down the tubes fast. Thus, it's best for people to push for it whenever they have the opportunity.

I don't see Trump losing. I don't think the general public is passionate about either candidate, but I just don't see Hillary pulling this out.

I also think whoever wins will have a major struggle on their hands. I have felt for the past 2-3 years that this next president, regardless of who it is, will likely serve one term. Trump will likely have a Democratic controlled Senate, but even if he doesn't he will still have Republican obstacles in Collins, Kirk, and sometimes Portman and a couple others that lean to the left on some issues.

We disagree about Trump's chances of winning. To me, it seems like Trump is determined to lose. Selecting Newt as his VP candidate would help him achieve that goal. Newt is not a good campaigner. With Newt, potential voters would be treated to one candidate who speaks mostly in sentence fragments and prefers to communicate with voters in 140 character bits. Newt is the exact opposite. He is very intelligent but will bore the kind of people who might support Trump to tears with his long winded speeches.

The only thing that Cotton might bring to a Trump ticket would be to appeal to conservatives - but most people vote based on the top of the ticket and don't give much thought to the VP. And if Trump needs help winning Arkansas or any other state in the deep south, then no VP pick is going to enable him to avoid a massive loss.

The smart money is on Hillary. If members of Congress believed that Trump had a better than even chance of winning in November, there would not be so many holdouts. I don't think Trump won over many new converts during his recent visit with Republican House and Senate members.

I hope that no young conservative risks his or her career by accepting a spot on Trump's ticket. Newt, a political has-been, would be the perfect running mate for a candidate who will probably lose anyway. If circumstances required Newt to replace Trump, then he is very qualified to be president, unlike the top of the ticket.

Trump did invite Ted Cruz to speak at the convention and Cruz accepted the invitation (without endorsing Trump). That was a step in the right direction.

BTW, I have always respected Newt. He was the most outstanding Speaker of the House of my lifetime and he has a great understanding of what has made this country great. I thoroughly enjoyed a controversial U.S. History class that he taught while he served in the House.