No, it isn’t!
Sorry. I was ignoring all the dueling posts so yours seemed totally out of the blue.
Kind of a side note but it’s been 40 years (1976) when a President running for reelection has dumped the incumbent Vice President. AndFord/Rockefeller is probably a special case since both got into office by nomination of the President/approval by the Senate. Since then we’ve had six election where the incumbets ran for reelection. There were two before that with the 1944 Democratic convention having all kinds of drama: FDR publicly saying if he was a delegate, he’d vote for incumbent Henry Wallace, massive delegate support for Wallace, very few and tepid speeches for Truman, a fire hazard when Wallace looked like he would win the vote. Roosevelt was in the Pacific meeting with General MacArthur and the more conservative party leaders prevailed.
For whatever reason, nowadays Presidents and Vice Presidents don't split up. I suppose a President feels he will look weak if he drops the Veep for relection and at some level a Veep has to they he is only a heartbeat away and the job isn't too hard.Since we’ve wandered a little…
Funny thing about Ford dumping Rocky in 1976 was that it really pissed Reagan off. Rockefeller was not ideologically a match for Reagan, but they’d become personal friends through the Republican Governors Association. Dole was much more conservative than Rocky (and Ford), but was a weird choice made because for some reason Ford’s people thought there was a danger he’d lose some plains states. Reagan also did a strange thing by announcing his VP choice before the convention–Lowell Weicker, a liberal Republican, which may have been part of what helped Ford keep the conservative Mississippi delegation in line and thus guaranteed his nomination.
In conclusion, Vice Presidential history is more interesting than you thought.
Actually Reagan’s choice was Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania, who was from the liberal wing. But the names are surprisingly similar. Reagan was behind in the delegate count and thought he might as well try to reassure liberals and moderates by naming Schweiker.
Carter beat Ford by 4.5% in New York and one wonders if Rockefeller, four times elected New York Governor, could have helped Ford win the state, and therefore the election (assuming all the other states turned out the same way).
Rather interesting a year later George Gallup Jr came to my college for a speech and Q & A. I asked him if Vice Presidential candidates have much of an impact on. elections. He replied that while he thought Dole hurt Ford's campaign, in general who the Vice President nominee is matters very little to most voters. One thing he did say was he thought there was a religious resurgence brewing that would play a big part in 1980s politics, and I guess you could say the moral majority did.
Thanks for the name correction. :smack:
Actually, both Houses of Congress get to vote. See Sec. 2: Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution - Wikipedia