WASHINGTON, 15 April 2004 — Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry is hoping to wrap up the vice presidential nomination in seven weeks, well in time for the convention that will take place in Boston on July 26.
Kerry has selected James A. Johnson, who will probably be his chief-of-staff if he is elected, to vet the prospective nominees. Everyone is aware that sometimes the vice presidential candidate is selected early without careful thought. The results have sometimes been catastrophic.
Few remember Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton, (D-MO), the running mate of George S. McGovern, who ran for president in 1972. Eagleton turned out to have been under psychiatric treatment for some time and had kept it hushed up. He was disinvited from the prospective ticket but severe damage was done to the ticket. Less catastrophic but nevertheless damaging was George H.W. Bush who did not realize that Republican Sen. Dan Quayle was not ready for prime time. It showed over and over again and although Bush Senior kept him on for the possible second term, there were many who felt Quayle was a drag on the ticket.
Perhaps the biggest political embarrassment happened in 1984 when unsuccessful candidate Walter Mondale selected Geraldine Ferraro as his presidential running mate. Only after she was chosen did it turn out that Ferraro’s husband, Fred Zaccaro, had come under investigation for his financial dealings.
Even more recently presidential nominee Al Gore’s deliberations for a vice president became public. When he rejected those candidates and chose Sen. Joseph Lieberman, he was left with hurt feelings from those who thought they were about to be selected and were not. All of these missteps of the past are being considered by Johnson, who is famous for keeping his own counsel and giving no hint to anyone but his long-time friend Kerry.
Perhaps the biggest decision for Kerry and Johnson is whether the ticket should include Republican Sen. John McCain. McCain is a rebel who makes up his own mind and tends to be relatively non-partisan. Note his insistence, along with Democratic Sen. Russell Feingold, of trying to get campaign finance under control. He is used to having his own way, and as a prospective vice presidential nominee he’d have to be reined in. But it wouldn’t be easy.
By putting McCain, a Republican, on the ticket with Kerry some advisers say that it would almost certainly result in the defeat of George W. Bush. McCain, of course, would have to think twice about losing his party affiliation. At this point it seems like a good gamble for McCain, who probably would never be a nominee in his own right. Presumably, some trusted adviser who knows both McCain and Kerry has already broached the subject. It’s likely that if Kerry wants him on the ticket McCain would be agreeable.
Wrote Adam Nagourney of The New York Times in late March: “McCain told The Boston Herald that the Republican Party ‘has gone astray’ on issues that deal with the environment and minority groups and that the Democratic Party was ‘a fine party.’”
Three other likely candidates are: Sen. John Edwards (NC), Rep. Richard Gephardt (MO), and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico. Edwards was a proven vote getter during the primaries and is photogenic and might help in several southern states.
Gephardt has a lot of labor union support, not only in the key state of Missouri but in the industrial heartland of America. There are others who might feel that he is too protectionist and not open to the new economic forces that inexorably are changing the face of America. Some feel that another democratic senator on the ticket is one too many and that they have to defend their many different controversial votes over the years.
One nominee who would not have to worry about this is Bill Richardson who has not been in either the Senate or the House. He was Clinton’s secretary of energy and was US ambassador to the United Nations and he proved himself diplomatically in sensitive missions.
Presumably Kerry has learned that surprise nominations often have a downside and that they are not so carefully vetted. There are some other possibilities that cannot be totally ignored. One is Rep. Robert Menendez (NJ), who is a Spanish speaker. There is also House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, who has urged Kerry to select a candidate as early as possible.
Of course there is Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY). A dark horse candidate is Gov. Thomas J. Vilsack of Iowa. Others include Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Gov. Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania and Mark Warner of Virginia. Apparently Sen. Bob Graham of Florida is not under consideration, at least so far.
Another possible running mate is former None of this bodes well for people concerned about dealing with the Israel problem and stopping Israelis who are still planning to keep all or most of the West Bank. Just as many people thought George W. Bush would deal with this issue decisively he suddenly fell into the hands of the neoconservatives who sent him off on wild goose chases and such expressions of “Sharon is a man of peace.”
Clearly, Bush has never recovered from this strange diversion which has made him so unpopular with the rest of the world. Perhaps the only possible ray of light is the fact that Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont has made it clear that the Israel problem festers and worsens the longer it is postponed. Perhaps Dean will be given a special mandate to do this. That is precisely what members of the Israel lobby do not want to happen. But of course it is perhaps the most important thing that must be done and the sooner the better.
In the Clinton administration a Republican secretary of defense was named. Because it was such an important position most people agreed that it was prudent to keep one Republican as a Cabinet member. The same thing could happen again if Kerry looks for a member of the opposing party for a crucial position, as he might just do with McCain. By putting McCain in a similar position it seems almost certain that Kerry and McCain would be a ticket that would end any possibility of a second term for Bush.
—Richard H. Curtiss is the executive editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Magazine.
