Is it permitted by the convention rules?
Both were named as “rumored on the list” by PBS news last night.
Isn’t it too late to change parties after the primaries?
If you ever vote in a primary, you’ll notice that nobody runs for vice president. Yes, the delegates at the convention have to approve their candidate’s choice of running mate. Still, it is pretty much a cat’s paw type of procedure, and I don’t think any presidential front-runner in living memory has ever had his nomination rescinded by the party because he chose the wrong running mate. As to whether a Gore-Ventura or a Gore-Nader ticket will ever appear, the real decision is actually up to Al and Ralph or Jesse. Personally, I doubt that either man would accept the offer.
Constitutionally, as long as Ventura or Nader met the qualifications, they could be the VP. However, I am pretty sure that RNC and DNC rules require party membership to get the nomination for veep. If that weren’t the case, I doubt the Republicans and Democrats would have been complaining about California’s open primary (which has been declared unconstitutional).
Unlikely that either will take the nod. Especially Jesse, who can win the presidency on his own due to his unequalled oratory skills and his personality.
BobT,
could you elaborate on the California open primary? why was it declared unconstitutional? does the ruling apply to other open primaries in other states, where McCain did well?
Nader is running against Gore as a protest against Gore’s perceived lack of concern for American jobs. Basically he’s doing what Perot did to George Bush. Given that, it’s not likely he would join sides with Gore.
The California open primary allowed anyone to vote for one candidate in each primary regardless of how they were registered (Dem, Rep, Ref, Lib, Ind, et al.). Whoever had the most votes in each party then moved on to the general election.
The idea was that instead of having the more extreme parts of each party choosing the candidates, the more moderate parts of the parties could crossover and choose more centrist candidates. (Especially since independents called “decline to state” in California would also get to vote.)
The Dems and Reps hated the idea. Both parties felt that Democrats should choose Democratic candidates and Republicans should choose Republicans.
The Supreme Court agreed. I believe the decision was 7-2 in favor of getting rid of the open primary (technically this is a blanket primary). The Court ruled that when someone joins a political party, s/he does it for the purpose of associating with other like-minded people who want to support candidates of their choice. The open (blanket) primary prevents that from happening as people from other parties can choose another party’s candidate.
The ruling was supposed to strike down primaries of the same type in Alaska and Washington I believe. Louisiana has a somewhat similar system, but it has a mechanism where if one candidate gets a majority of the total votes cast in the primary, there is no general election.
It is unclear whether presidential primaries like Michigan’s are still constitutional.
I’ve heard Ventura believes in the Right to keep & Bear Arms while Gore believes in the right to arm bears. They differ on too many issues. Gore choosing Ventura would be avery stupid move politically. Kind of like, oh…I don’t know…maybe like Bush choosing Tom Ridge!
Vote Libertarian! 
Well then what about Independents? (Like yours truly.) Are we not allowed to vote in primaries?
Personally I think the two party system should be abolished.
I agree with Micro Furry.
Hey, Kaylasdad99 wrote:
“If you ever vote in a primary you’ll notice that nobody runs for vice president.”
I think that’s mistaken. Apparently in (at least) two states there are VP lines on the GOP or Dem (I forget which)primary ballot. I know this because someone in a local weekly, here in NYC, wrote an article about how – as a prank – he entered the VP primary in one of those states (the one with the cheaper registration fee) and won. He didn’t get many votes, of course, and his “opponents” were one or two nut-job cases running on the Easter Bunny Lives platform, or something like that.
It was all very meaningless in real terms, but it made for a great read. (It also made me a little sad that the winning presidential candidate did not so much as send a tongue-in-cheek congrats to the VP victor.)
I saw on Leno that “George” from Seinfeld is going to run.
Could be like Pat Paulson, where he gets a lot of camera time to tell jokes.
It’s not unprecedented for the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates on the same ticket to be of different parties. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican and his second Vice President, Andrew Johnson, was a Democrat. They ran together on the Union Party ticket in 1864. The Republicans didn’t call themselves Republicans in that election, but called themselves Unionists and invited pro-war Democrats and independents to support them.
Fortunately since we are not having a Civil War, we won’t have that excuse of a president choosing an incompetent vice president.
It will just be a different excuse.
Certainly unequalled by the two major party boobs…who have neither.