Day: April 27, 2020

Strategies For Joe Biden’s Vice Presidential Selection

Former Vice President Joe Biden is forming a committee to consider who should be his running mate for Vice President.

The choice of a future Vice President and possible President is crucial, so many of the proposed choices should not be seriously considered.

Any Vice President has to have the experience, the knowledge, the intelligence to take over on a moment’s notice.

That person needs to be much younger than Biden, who will reach 78 two weeks after the Presidential Election of 2020.

Such a person has to have the success of being an officeholder with state wide success.

Such a person should likely not be a Governor, as such a person should be kept busy dealing with the CoronaVirus Pandemic, not running for Vice President.

Such a person should not come from a state where if such person became Vice President, that state’s Senate seat might switch to the Republicans.

So already, just from what this author and blogger has stated, it is his belief that Elizabeth Warren, Stacey Abrams, Gretchen Whitmer, or Michelle Lujan Grisham, and any member of the House of Representatives should automatically be eliminated, such as Val Demings of Florida.

So who is on the list, and clearly stands out, and has already run for President, giving much needed extra national exposure?

Two US Senators are the finalists, with the reality that the Democratic Presidential nominee has always selected a US Senator as a running mate since 1944, except twice.

In 1972, it was George McGovern who chose Senator Thomas Eagleton, but he was forced out due to fears because he had undergone psychiatric treatment, and was replaced by Kennedy brother in law Sergeant Shriver.

And in 1984 ,Walter Mondale blundered in naming Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro as his Vice Presidential choice.

It should also be pointed out that those two times were the most disastrous for the Democrats, running against second term candidates Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and in both elections, McGovern and Mondale only won one state and Washington, DC in the Electoral College.

Those two US Senators are Kamala Harris of California and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, with California certain to have a Democratic replacement in the Senate.

But Minnesota is much more uncertain, although right now that state has a Democratic Governor, Tim Walz.

But in a followup election after a temporary appointment, Minnesota could not be guaranteed to elect a permanent Democratic replacement in the US Senate.

So while either Harris or Klobuchar (age 56 or 60) are the two best choices, Harris has a slight edge in the sense her Senate seat is safely Democratic, but either woman would make an excellent VP, and a potential President of the United States!