First Read makes an observation:
“By selecting Paul Ryan as his running mate on Saturday, Mitt Romney did something that Walter Mondale, Bob Dole, Al Gore, and John McCain did in previous presidential contests: They used their VP pick to try to shake things up. Trailing in the summer, they chose a running mate — be it Geraldine Ferraro, Jack Kemp, Joe Lieberman, or Sarah Palin — to change the fundamentals of the race. These picks all worked in the short run, but only once (with Lieberman) did it serve its purpose for the rest of the campaign. (Gore, after all, was able to battle back to where he actually won the popular vote.)”
Lieberman wasn’t selected to help Gore win Connecticut. He was picked to reassure big donors, to provide some moral cover for Bill Clinton’s peccadillo, and to boost turnout among the Jewish community in Florida. It not only helped Gore win the popular vote, it also helped him to win Florida, the Electoral College, and the election. If not for a confusing butterfly ballot in Palm Beach County that led to a ton of overvotes and a bunch of mistaken votes for Pat Buchanan, Gore would have been president.
Even with the butterfly ballot fiasco, an honest recount would have shown Gore and Lieberman to be the real victors. And, in that case, we might all be dealing with a President Lieberman today. That’s why selecting a vice-president matters. Think back to Eisenhower’s choice of Richard Nixon. When it comes to changing history, few things have as much potential influence as plucking someone out of obscurity and putting them on the presidential ticket. Other examples: Teddy Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson.
Also, Geraldine Ferraro, Dan Quayle, John Edwards, Sarah Palin, and Paul Ryan.
