Posted by
JP on Thursday, May 08, 2008 9:47:42 AM
by John Mark Reynolds [author,
academic]
Theodore
Roosevelt was such a dynamic candidate that he towered over the
President who chose him as running mate. Even though the popular Rough
Rider may have helped William McKinley, there is little doubt that
McKinley would have won with just about anybody not criminally insane
(or at least known to be criminally insane) on the ticket.
I
cannot think of one vice-presidential pick that has won or lost a race
by him or Ferraro-self. A vice-presidential pick can do some harm even
to a winner (Quayle for Bush), help a loser (Bentson for Dukakis) or he
may do no harm, but not help much either (Kemp for Dole, Cheney for
Bush). It is even hard to think of a recent case where a vice
presidential pick “delivered” a state, unless one is ancient enough to
think of 1960 as recent (Johnson helped in Texas by hook and by crook).
Edwards could not do it for Kerry to cite on recent example of failure.
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