Choosing a Vice Presidential Debater

By CQ Staff | August 5, 2008 5:07 PM | | Comments (0)

Alan Schroeder, who wrote a book on the history of presidential debates, says on the Columbia University Press Blog that one of the criteria for selecting a running-mate needs to be how the chosen candidate would do in the vice-presidential debate held during the campaign. Here are the factors that Schroeder said Barack Obama and John McCain need to take into consideration in their selection of a "vice presidential debater":

  • The candidate must understand that the role of a vice presidential debater is to make the negative case against an opponent "even at the expense of one's own affability."
  • A running-mate must use the debate to come across as a plausible President. "Dan Quayle's inability to make that case - "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" - stands as an object lesson for all veep debaters."
  • McCain's debater needs to have "first-rate television chops" to offset McCain's lack of them.
  • Obama needs someone folksy to offset the efforts to paint him as aloof .

The Democratic National Committee has kindly offered McCain a little help vetting potential choice with a page called "The Next Cheney." There, McCain can "learn more about Tim Pawlenty's ethics violations ... Charlie Crist's admiration for Bush ... Mitt Romney's position changes ... John Thune's desire to privatize Social Security ... why Carly Fiorina got tossed out as head of Hewlett-Packard ... "

Citing disasters of vice-presidential disasters past, Walter Shapiro writes in Salon that waiting till the conventions "both Obama and McCain will face nearly irresistible pressures to pick nominees who are safe, secure and a trifle soporific." Of course, the prime example of an announcement that was tightly-held until the convention was George Bush's selection of Dan Quayle. Shapiro said that left Republican leaders with no talking points about Quayle to counter the surprise and questions immediately raised about him in the hothouse atmosphere of a convention. An earlier-rather-than-later announcement, Shapiro argues, lets the candidate be more adventurous with time to build the case for his choice.

MSNBC's "First Read" takes note of a Lifetime poll that 55 percent of women said it would make no difference to them if Obama picks a demale running mater and 62 percent said the same of McCain.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on "Fox & Friends": "You know, I'm not going to be the vice president. I look forward to helping Senator McCain as governor. He and I do talk about policy, but we don't talk about that other thing."

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