Picking a Vice President may be one of the trickiest things a Presidential candidate may have to do. The tricky thing is, a good choice won't really sway many people to your cause, but a bad choice will send the voters running. Another thing the voter must consider is that the Vice president is only one heartbeat away from being the leader of our country. After seeing some of the recent picks(and our current VP that should scare the hell out of the voter).
What makes a good Vice president? Well, a good VP is smart and educated for starters. They should also compliment the Presidential candidate. The VP candidate should cover the Presidential candidates flaws. If the Presidential candidate has a reputation for being weak on foreign affairs, the VP candidate should have a very strong background in foreign affairs. The VP candidate should also not be a loudmouth or detract people away from your base. A good candidate will support the Presidential candidate without putting their foot in their mouth. A good example of putting your foot in your mouth is Joe Biden saying something to the effect of the Republicans wanting to put black people and minorities in chains. I believe they call that an oh sh*t moment. Obviously the Republicans do not want slavery or to put anyone other than terrorists in chains. Besides being flat out wrong it detracted voters from Obama's cause and in no way stated why we should vote for him. Dumb, dumb dumb!
Another bad example of a VP candidate is Sarah Palin. God bless her soul, she is obviously a nice person. She is a smart and successful person, but she is flat out annoying to listen to. Unfortunately speaking is a big part of being VP and no one wanted to hear what she had to say. She did a very good job of firing up the base but she drove away many more voters than she brought in.
In short I believe that the Vice Presidential candidate is an important person to look at when deciding to vote for. They cast a key swing vote when needed in the Senate and they are one heartbeat away from being President.
Until next time, inform your self of the facts and be prepared to make an informed decision in a little over a month. The future of our country is going to be decided then...no pressure or anything.
I wholeheartedly agree with you that the vice presidential pick can make or break a campaign, and it hurt McCain more than it hurt Obama in 2008 if you look at the end result.
ReplyDeleteBut your rationale for a pick is that the candidate must be smart. I agree. You then mention "foot-in-mouth" syndrome, of which we know Biden has on occasion. But then you later state that Palin is "obviously nice...smart" and I wonder, really? Are you sure? Did you see her lack of preparation and understanding of the bigger issues during the 2008 campaign season? Was that smart? I guess what I'm getting at is: are these issues (problems in VP presentation/preparation) equal in value?
You seem much harsher on foot-in-mouth than you do on preparation and intelligence. Why should foot-in-mouth scare the hell out of the voter? Which leads me to my main question here: you don't mention the current VP candidate for the Republicans at all. What are your views on Ryan? I am curious...Is he helping Romney or is he hurting the ticket? Why?
That would be interesting analysis!