5 lessons for picking a running mate

[DeepModem Mom]

USA Today: 5 lessons for picking a running mate
By Susan Page, USA TODAY

....Based on interviews with those who have been involved in the process before, here are five lessons for picking a vice president:

1. A 'dream' may not be

They're called "dream tickets" because teaming top rivals is seen as a way to unite the party, and the Kennedy-Johnson ticket generally is cited as a model. This year, buzz centers on whether Obama will pick New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic rival who ended her primary campaign Saturday...."If Obama is this year's JFK, is Hillary Clinton this year's Lyndon Johnson?" asked Bill Galston, a top aide to Mondale in 1984. Like Obama, Kennedy ran on a message of generational change, Galston noted, and yet tapped the most powerful representative of the Democratic establishment as his running mate — and someone the Kennedy clan didn't particularly trust or like.

Still, presidential nominees tend to be wary of dream tickets — there hasn't been one in a generation — because of scars from old battles and qualms about loyalty....

2. Do no harm

Eagleton is the most dramatic example of a running-mate pick gone awry. In 1972, the Missouri senator failed to mention to Democratic nominee George McGovern's team that he twice had undergone electric-shock treatments for depression. After the story surfaced he dropped out, but the episode raised questions about McGovern's judgment and competence....

(Walter) Mondale and (Ford adviser Stuart) Spencer offered identical advice: Leak the name before you make your decision final....

3. Mind the gap

A running mate can help mollify a voter bloc, put a state in competition or fill a gap in experience....

4. Agree on the duties

When the talks with vice presidential prospects get serious, the nominee and the potential running mate need to agree on the job description, say those who have gone through the process....

Discussions between Obama and Hillary Clinton about a joint ticket could have an additional facet: What's the job description for her husband?

5. It's not 'a buddy film'

In the end, insiders say, the choice should turn on cold political calculations of how to get to the 270 electoral votes needed to win....

That's why Kennedy overruled his inner circle to tap Johnson and why Reagan swallowed his lingering resentment of the elder Bush to choose him in 1980...."At the end of the day, he wasn't mad at George Bush; he could select him," Spencer recalled. "He could live with him because he was going to help" him win in November, and that's what mattered.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-06-10-veeps_N.htm