SOUTH DAKOTA STRAIGHT TALK

The rubber is finally going to hit the road and Barack Obama and John Mc Cain are soon going to announce the selection of their Vice Presidential running mate. The Vice Presidential candidate usually makes little if any difference in getting votes but their candidacies do have certain predictable values in campaigning and garnering media attention with their announcement, acceptance speech, and the single Vice Presidential debate.

The Vice President should be someone that the President is comfortable with and hopefully ready and able to assume the Presidency in the event of a Presidential vacancy (death, impeachment, or resignation). It is worth remembering that when Harry Truman became President few expected he could fill the shoes of Franklin D. Roosevelt but President Truman proved more than up to the task of leading an America at War. Truman clearly outperformed expectations.

Otherwise Vice Presidential duties are 75 percent ceremonial, attending foreign state funerals, doing party fundraising, taking political pokes at the opposition party and perhaps if called upon breaking a tie vote in the U S Senate.

The almost Legendary, Vice President (during FDR’s first two terms) John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner described the Vice Presidency “as not worth a bucket of warm piss.”

Sidebar – Cactus Jack Garner who had served as Speaker of the U S House of Representatives is only one of two persons who served as both Speaker of the House and Vice President – thus being Presiding Officer of both Legislative Bodies. It is little remembered but in 1940 Garner challenged FDR for the Democrat Party Presidential nomination. Garner from Uvalde Texas when a member of the Texas Legislature led the fight to name the Texas State Flower the prickly pear cactus (thus the nick name Cactus Jack) lost that fight to the Texas Bluebonnet. Garner lived to be almost 99 years old. He was born on November 22, 1868. In 1963 President John Kennedy who was in Texas on that fateful day called Garner and wished him a happy 95^th birthday.

It is foolish to speculate who each of the Presidential nominees will select. The short lists are in the media daily and the campaigns and parties float names daily. What is happening is that both campaigns are positioning themselves in the political center.

John McCain is a conservative but ideologically unfettered. Suggestions from GOP activists are that he must shore up the Republican Party base. Barack Obama who is in overdrive flip flopping his way to the political center will try to find a centrist to make his candidacy more attractive. One other important factor that may come into play is that both campaigns are indicating that the important battleground States are Florida, Virginia, and Ohio. I would look for candidates that will play into both the Center and these States.

Interestingly, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been mentioned as a possibility in either major party ticket. He won’t be picked.

On the Democrat side, I have no idea. Recently mentioned Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia seems logical but I think Virginia Senator Jim Webb, a former Republican and Secretary of the Navy for Ronald Reagan would have made a better choice (Senator Webb now a Democrat recently took himself out of consideration.) For the same reason Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel would be an interesting pick.

For the GOP there are several that seem to make sense. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney who has moved from left to right, former Pennsylvania Congressman and Governor Tom Ridge (though he is pro choice could get through the GOP convention), and recently added House Chief Minority Whip, Eric Cantor of Richmond, Virginia all seem to be logical and in the running. Cantor who is little known outside Washington is conservative but respected by the moderate Republicans. Cantor also is Jewish and besides doing well in Virginia and would have appeal to many Florida voters.

Finally Senator Joe Liebermann would make sense but he could not get through the Republican Convention and in any event it is a fight the McCain camp would avoid.

It will be an interesting three or four weeks.