Veepstakes

After a series of Google searches of gathering everyone’s opinions on who Mitt will pick from a torrent of names being tossed into the proverbial hat, from a portly New Jersey Executive to a controversial Arizona Gubernatorial, I began to ask myself, by what criteria are these names being judged? Is it how they look next to a candidate in a photo op? How easily their names follow one another on a banner? I decided to delve a little bit into what a presidential candidate looks for in a running mate.

To start off with, let’s establish a few necessary criteria. Since you are letting people know who you would have take over your job should something bad happen, the first and foremost requirement should be their capacity to do the job. This typically translates to someone with political or some form of executive experience. Looking at the list of VP candidates over the past several decades, the last one of them did not have an elected official position on their resume was Sargent Shriver, George McGovern’s VP choice in a failed campaign against Richard Nixon in ’72., and even he held several Government oriented positions such as ambassador and Director of the OEO.  The other duh obvious is to choose a candidate that is well vetted and not containing any ‘bombshells’ such as Spiro Agnew’s Money problems or perhaps even Sarah Palin’s Grandchild out of wedlock that can create easy fodder against one’s ticket.

The obvious out of the way, and assuming all is well with the above criteria, I would consider the Vice President to have the capacity to do one of three things;

1.) Carry their home state: The best example of this in recent times was Bill Clinton’s pick of Al Gore. Clinton, knowing that we could hold New England and the west coast well enough just with the (D) at the end of his name, so he took the battle to some of the lighter shaded red states with an additional southern democrat. And in ‘92 it proved very smart. Aided with a softening of Bush Sr. support from Ross Perot, The Bush/Gore ticket not only carried their home states of Arkansas and Tennessee, but also swung several surrounding, typically republican carried states as well. Perot having less of an impact in ’96 swung a couple back, but the southern impact still help carry Clinton to easy wins in both his elections.

If Mitt chose Portman from Ohio, or Rubio from Florida, or just about anyone from a decent sized swing state, this is probably a factor in his mentality.

2.) Shore up your weaknesses: Barrack Obama by many people was too young and too inexperienced to do the job, and even though he preached a message of hope and change from a relative outsider. He still took this very traditional route in choosing a career politician with decades of political experience as his running mate. Obviously not dissolving the argument again Barrack, but can you imagine the field day Republicans would have had if Barrack had gone with another youthful outsider like Edwards? The Biden pick definitely helped placate some of the concerns that Barrack just had no idea what he was getting into. Meanwhile, Edwards countered the old tired ‘Washington insider’ look that Kerry was trying to shed in a counter to a Bush Dynasty with Cheney puppet master image they were pushing against.

If we see Mitt as an outsider businessman, this thought mentality would lead us to a more established politician, perhaps with a strong military background. Or, perhaps he’ll be trying to address Obama’s push for Latino support has him concerned. A Gov. McDonnell or Representative Hunter from California could carry some military experience, or perhaps a Gov. Martinez for the latter.

3.) Rock Star: Typically the least successful of these three, when you need to make a splash with someone carrying a single resonating message or just to grab some attention to begin with. Imagine any one of the long shot candidates practically waving their arms in the air crying "Look at me! Look at me!". When your opponent seems to have such a good stride that you can’t seem to hold the people’s attention long enough to try and sway their vote. Geraldine Ferraro in ’84 or a Sarah Palin in’08 fit this bill well.

After this statement, you better believe I’d be scared if Mitt went with a Chris Christie or anyone who adds little more than controversy to his ticket.

Who do I think he will pick? Marco Rubio is almost too good to pass up. In his 2010 election bid, he ran an almost purely anti-Obama campaign citing the infamous hug between Crist and Obama. So despite having an ex-Republican run as an independent, Rubio won the state handedly. His Hispanic Background disarms much of the push Obama has been doing recently to woo their vote. He could also put Arizona and Nevada much more into play for the same reason, Though I hate having to lean on race as a reason to vote for anyone. Ultimately, I think this guy is fired up and ready to be a real weapon for the Romney camp.

So who is my pick after all this cogitating? In a perfect world I would like to see him pick Bobby Jindal. His reaction to Katrina shows him to be a no-nonsense type of leader. He could also use this experience to bring up Obama’s leadership during the work done by states in handling this crisis. His Indian roots could disarm some of the anti-immigrant fuel that Obama’s had recently. And aside from his reaction speech to Obama’s '09 State of the Union he is very well spoken. He could help firm up some support in southern states and maybe even give a sliver of an edge to Romney in Florida thanks to his handling of the BP oil spill.

Video: Jindal leaning into the Administration over their support of BP Oil Spill response. It was appearances like this that introduced me to Governor Jindel years ago, and I like what I saw.