Here is the second most important position in the country, and as Harry Truman demonstrated, they get their “finger on The Button”.
Also, about half of vice presidents end up in the white house eventually.
Yet they are still chosen in smoke-filled rooms, like cabinet heads.
A primary would let us sort out the Eagletons and Quailes.
That should be one of the first important decisions that the president has to make.
Peace,
mangeorge
Technically we do vote for vice president (12th amendment). It is just that we are not to split tickets.
The first three times a president was chosen, the one with the second most votes became vice-president. People choose two that they like. It was no problem for G. Washington; he was unanimously elected. John Adams had little problem the first time around. In 1800, Aaron Burr ran with Thomas Jeffrson, with the gentleman’s agreement that Aaron was to be vice-president if Jefferson wins. They ran vs John Adams and his designated vice-president, whose name escapes me at this time. Lo and behold, Burr and Jefferson got exactly the same amount of votes. As they weren’t by law weighted as to president and vice-president, it was decided by the House that Jefferson becomes president. Embarrased by this turn of events, they enacted an amendment to stop doulble-voting for pres, making the vote for prez the vote for vice prez as well.
As far as primaries are concerned, that is a good question. The problem becomes the same though, what if people pick John McCain or colin Powell, and neither of them won’t accept? Or what if the vice-prez gets more votes in the primary than the presidential candidate? would that not be fodder for the other party?
Before we start voting for the VP, maybe we should start voting for the Pres?
Peace,
mangeorge
I can only think of 5 VP’s who became President right off hand.
I like the current system. The president should have someone he likes and can work with for 4 years.
If only that were the main consideration.
Everything that I’ve read about the choices for the Veep has made no comment about the suitability of the candidates for the office, but on their appeal to voters. You get the feeling that the running mates will be chosen not on the basis of leadership ability, or ability to work with the President, but appeal to a few swing voters.
I seem to recall that on The West Wing, the Pres and VP do not get along well at all. I imagined it to be the result of a scenario like this.
Dr. J
DoctorJ said:
And this differs how, exactly, from the candidates for president?
The system we have works fine. The Vice-President position is only as important as the President allows it to be. Having them come from different parties would only estrange the relationship.
Further, imagine how bad the conspiracy theories would be if Nixon had been JFK’s VP (or course, in that case, Nixon might have actually done it. Ya know, for Checkers).
Considering that there are loonies out there willing to bomb abortion clinics, I can only imagine the horrible catastrophes that would result from a party that’s not in power being only one heartbeat away.