Along about now in a presidential-election year, we become increasingly focused on vice-presidential scenarios. Along with the usual speculation about the usual suspects, we’ve also been hearing about how the veep slot is too often a ticket to nowhere. As in veep candidates on losing tickets don’t become president unless their name is Franklin Roosevelt (James M. Cox’s running mate in 1920). Indeed, we all know about the “Administrations” of Presidents Edwards, Lieberman, Kemp, Bentsen, Ferraro, Dole, Muskie and more.
Granted. But isn’t it also fair to say that those second-slotted on a ticket often find themselves at the top of the ticket later on? And then it’s up to them, their party, the political zeitgeist and sheer fate as to which one is actually elected president?
No, there was never a President Kefauver. But there has been, of course, a President Richard Nixon, President Lyndon Johnson, President Gerald Ford, President George H.W. Bush and, except for some supreme subplots, would have been a President Al Gore. And VP Walter Mondale did get his shot at the world’s brassiest ring.
For the right candidate, however defined, at the right time, the VP slot–and all the accompanying exposure–can be a step up to the only rung left in the ultimate political ladder. Another reason, besides all the manifestly obvious ones, to hope Mitt Romney doesn’t choose Marco Rubio for his running mate.