Personally, I wouldn’t mind a Clinton/Clinton ticket… 
The last sitting VP to win the Presidency was George HW Bush. The one before him was Martin Van Buren.
Chelesea’s too young and Bill’s ineligable.
Hey, Roger’s available! Or, as I’ve suggested before, George. He’d need to change the group name, though, and Congress Funkadelic isn’t very euphonious…
“The past is the past.” “Let’s just move on.” The Republicans are master of this.
Why not both? I’m sure it would never happen, but I wonder…
Is he? Ah well. I thought he was just prevented from being elected into the presidency again. Shows what I know.
The vice-president has to meet the same requirements that the president does, one of which is being eligible for election to the presidency.
I predicted 6 months ago the Romney would beat Edwards in November, so sticking to that:
If Edwards were to pick Obama, then Obama would be a fool for not taking it. He would be the highest black official ever and is a heartbeat for the Presidency. It would gain him the experience he needs to be considered a leading candidate in 2016. However, I don’t think he will offer it to fellow senator Obama. Richardson is a good choice but it’s 50/50 as to if he’d rather be a guarantied Senator or potential Vice-President. I’m leaning towards Senator. My prediction is Governor Ted Strickland (D-Ohio). He has a good reputation for education and economy reform and is as moderate as anyone could be on abortion. The fact that he is extremely popular in a swing-state doesn’t hurt.
If Romney listens to the RNC, he’s going to feel that he need the support of the religious right to take the Southern state. Governor Huckabee has also shown a following outside of the South by picking up Iowa and 11% of NH (McCain and Romney strongholds). Assuming a decent showing in Michigan, we will have Romney/Huckabee defeating Edwards/Strickland
I think that McCain would want to run for the Vice Presidency for a few reasons. First, if he wins, it’s a promotion, a cushy job, and an impressive way to round out a distinguished career, even if it isn’t a stepping stone to being elected president (though he would be one heartbeat away, as the cliche goes). Second, if he loses he’ll just remain in his Senate seat, with some additional recognition and reputation (assuming he doesn’t piss it away like Lieberman). Third, if he stays in the Senate and the Republicans win the Presidency, it remains unlikely that they will gain control of the Senate given the way the seats up for election are breaking by party and security of seats (see this analysis), so he will be a senior Senator but likely in the minority party.
I think the VP slot would be great for Obama. He’ll be in the spotlight and not have to make votes that can be used against him, and running as a first term Senator as the second to a more senior Senator and former First Lady is no disgrace. At age 46, he’d be well positioned to make a presidential run up to 24 years from now (6 election cycles) assuming he remains healthy and politically involved, so a “you won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore” scenario shouldn’t be frightening to him if the electoral sands shift in the medium term. And, besides, there’s that one heartbeat thing.
Clinton running as Obama’s VP nominee, on the other hand, would be a bit more awkward. I can’t see her playing second fiddle to him, particularly if she loses in a hard-fought primary campaign. I think he’d want someone with more foreign policy background to fight the “inexperience” claim. At 60, she’d pretty much be limited to running in '08 or '12 (perhaps '16, though she’d be older than McCain is now), and a VP slot would prevent her from an '08 run (though an Obama victory without her on the ticket would pretty much prevent her in '08 as well, unless he screws up big time). It’s still possible, though.
Even if Rice wants to get out of Washington, I can’t imagine she’d give up the chance to run for VP. Even if she loses, those $50k speaking engagements turn into $100k gigs.
It’s not automatically a stepping-stone, but it does let him stay in the public eye, and spares him from having to rack up votes on various issues in the Senate (except, I guess, the occasional tie-breaker) which is used as ammunition against, well, everyone in the Senate, I guess.
Anyway, since Truman (when it became fairly obvious that the office of Veep should to be taken more seriously than it had been), about half the Veeps have either run for the big office or made serious bids for their party’s nomination, so it’s by no means a dead-end. Obama would get to keep making speeches without being burdened by any major responsibilities and if the post was offered, I think he’d be a fool not to consider it. Being the first black vice-president has got to make a satisfying legacy, if he never gets the main gig.
Hm. Well, her husband’s moving back to Texas, right?
I don’t know what to add to this; I’d rather see candidates run with a cabinet slate rather than a [del]bucket of warm spit[/del] VP candidate. If there were a promise to let Edwards or Hillary be Health-Care Czar, that would mean more to me.
Bubba can’t run for VP, it’s in the Constitution. Not only is he her husband from the same state–they both live in NY–but he’s a former Prez & term-limited.
Therefore, I assume you mean George Clinton, which I support, but I doubt he will leave his duties in the Parliament[sup]*[/sup] for the VP job.
Yeah, Presidents tend to go eight years & it’s hard to get the populace to sign on to four more of the same party.
[sub][sup]*[/sup]Funkadelic[/sub]
On the Democratic side, Obama and Clinton have probably gotten too big to be a VP candidate. They’d overshadow the front runner, even if it was the other. Edwards won’t take it because a second VP run would be a dead end to his career.
Richardson is a strong contender; he’s running a respectable campaign, he’s Hispanic and a westerner so he’s got good balance for most of the candidates. He probably wouldn’t get chosen by Obama though - a Black/Hispanic ticket would trigger too much anxiety.
Biden’s a possibility. He brings “experience” to the ticket, especially on foreign policy. But they might want to save him for Secretary of State.
Wesley Clark’s another contender. Ironically he’s supported Clinton but he’d be a better VP match for Obama much like Richardson’s supported Obama but would be a better match with Clinton.
On the Republican side, I’d have said Huckabee was angling for a VP job earlier in the campaign. He’d shore up conservative credentials for a candidate that might seem to have shaky support from that base. But in the last few weeks, he’s become convinced he can get the nomination himself and he’s burned some bridges. So if he falls back down (and I think he will) the eventual nominee might look elsewhere for a conservative running mate now.
I don’t think any of the main Republican candidates will go for VP. Romney would see it as a failure after being front runner, Guiliani has too much ego to be VP, and McCain is too old to wait eight years. The one exception might be Thompson; his campaign stalled so quickly he may have realized he’s not ready for the lead role yet and accept a VP run to bolster his resume.
Nobody’s going to pick Rice. It’s basically saying “Four More Years of Bush’s Foreign Policy” - not a winning strategy. Allen’s another non-starter; his public image now is “racist throwback”.
I once put forth Alan Keyes as a long shot possibility. The conservatives would love him. And assuming Obama doesn’t win the nomination, Keyes would be a major threat to the Democratic hold on black voters. They might not vote for him but they might decide not to vote against him. And if the Republicans can drive down the Black vote, they have a much stronger shot at winning the election.
Other candidates like Kucinich, Paul, Tancredo, Gravel, Hunter, and Dodd aren’t going to be considered. They didn’t do well enough to bring any major support to the ticket and all of them have got some negatives.
I think I’ve already mentioned (though I’ve been posting the same thing on DailyKos, so I don’t remember if I mentioned it here) that I really hope that Richardson decides to run for Domenici’s open Senate seat in New Mexico. He’s practically a shoo-in and he’s probably the best chance to block Rep. Heather Wilson from slithering in her mentor’s footsteps.
edit: Never mind…forgot about Udall.
This just in: Richardson to End Presidential Bid.
He’s been in the race long enough to get his name out there, but dropped out early enough not to piss anyone off. I think he’s got the choice before him to run for Senate, where he’ll have really strong shot at winning the open NM seat, or sitting tight and being in a leading position to get the VP slot on the Democratic ticket.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s calling Clinton and Obama and asking their “advice” on whether he should run for the Senate.
Yup. My Father who is a Republican in NM and works up in Santa Fe thinks that he’s got that Senate seat if he wants it. He’d probably be smart to take it, increase the Democratic seats in the Senate and he can work alongside Jeff Binghaman.
It’s funny that people squeak about experience and then a candidate like Richardson doesn’t get any traction.
If Richardson wants the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat, it’s his. Tom Udall will just go back and run for the House seat he’d vacate to run for the Senate. I don’t think Udall would be too upset, even, because it would a tough fight for him to fill Domenici’s shoes.
That’s because he’s a terrible public speaker and is unable to suavely hide his own naked ambition. I was all about Richardson a while back, but he just doesn’t have what it takes to be President. Experience is important, but so is force of personality. Remember, the ability to get voters to vote for you is the same ability that gets people to do what you want them to when you are actually filling the office.
Eligible to serve as president, I think. Thus, if Bush was to come across a pretzel that even the Secret Service couldn’t save him from, and Cheney got ergotism (because it was a rye flour pretzel), Cheney could successfully elevate Bill to the vice-presidency.
Admittedly, a bizarre sequence, but not constitutionally prohibited.