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Excited about VP picks? In November, they rarely matter
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Aug 02, 2008 10:34am |
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| Category | General |
| News Date | Friday, August 1, 2008 04:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Despite all the hyperventilating about whom they're likely to be, vice presidential candidates rarely make much of a difference in the fall elections.
"They can only make a small difference at the margins," said James Riddlesperger, an associate professor of political science at Texas Christian University, in Fort Worth.
They don't get much news coverage after an initial burst when they're selected, and they often lose their own states.
Yet every four years _especially this one, when two people are about to be rocketed into the spotlight — a frenzy of speculation builds about whom it's going to be.
There are reasons for that:
* The choice is the presumptive nominee's first big president-like decision, so it reveals something about the nominee.
* There are potential intangible electoral advantages.
* And it's summer, when speculating about presidential ticket mates becomes a national pastime.
Only twice in recent history, however, did a number-two pick arguably make an obvious difference, in 1960 and 1976.
Democrat Lyndon Johnson, then a Texas senator, "probably delivered the state for (John) Kennedy," Riddlesperger said. Kennedy won the state's 24 electoral votes in 1960 with 50.5 percent of the popular vote.
In 1976, Democrat Walter Mondale, then a veteran U.S. senator, was invaluable to little-known presidential nominee Jimmy Carter, said Joel Goldstein, a vice-presidential expert at St. Louis University. |
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