The Economist
Lexington
Enough to make you veep
Mitt Romney is about to discover how hard it is to choose a running-mate
“OH MY God, what have we done?” is one of the memorable lines from the HBO docudrama, “Game Change”, as John McCain’s presidential campaign team comes to see at last that it should have spent rather more time vetting Sarah Palin, the then governor of Alaska, before picking her as the senator’s presidential running-mate in 2008. Now that he has more or less tidied away his own nomination, the methodical Mitt Romney is not likely to make a similar mistake. But even for methodical candidates, choosing a running-mate is anything but simple.
At a minimum a potential vice-president needs to look capable of taking over as president. This was the test Mrs Palin is deemed to have failed, despite all the knowledge of Russia she gleaned by being able to see it from Alaska. Beyond that, nothing is clear. Should a nominee pick a running-mate to appeal to the sort of voters he finds it hard to reach himself? In that case Mr Romney would be advised to go for a Hispanic (Senator Marco Rubio of Florida?) or a woman (Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire?), or perhaps a Hispanic woman (Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico?). Since he is seen by voters in general as a little square, and by social conservatives as not enough of a social conservative, should he be in the market for a non-square ultraconservative (Mike Huckabee is a mean hand with a guitar)?
For the rest of the article:
http://www.economist.com/node/21553025
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