Thoughts on VP selection

[Politico]

Unless he can convince Petraeus, Romney needs to pick somebody with no ties to Washington or else he runs the risk of Obama successfully tying him to "the do-nothing Congress."

Governor McDonnell has never served in Washington, and has been Governor of Virginia for about as long as Spiro Agnew was Governor of Maryland when Nixon picked him to be his running mate in '68 (And Nixon was, more than anybody else, an ardent believer in the philosophy that a running mate is only good for not doing harm to the ticket; no more or less). Unless the vetting shows otherwise, McDonnell is the ultra safe choice who helps seal the deal in two states pretty early on (i.e., native Virginia and neighboring North Carolina).

We can only hope Romney's Nixonian Do No Harm philosophy leads him to pick the next Spiro Agnew.

Yeah, Nixon's vetting team did not do that great of a job on Agnew after all, huh? Then again, it took over two presidential elections for the dirt to surface...

[Lincoln Republican]

Ironically, there was a time, a smoke-filled room time, when selecting a presidential nominee was far less open process than selecting a vice presidential one, which was left, on many occasion, to the delegates. Now, in order to become a nominee, one must face a nationwide primary. But there's no such transparency in selecting a running-mate: basically nominee says he want that guy and it's over.

I think establishing separate primaries for President and Vice President (as we have many separate primaries for future ticket-mates on statewide level) would be a great idea.

What do you think, guys?

We do not need another set of confusing, monotonous, and expensive primaries to pick a VP nominee.  The Presidential nominee has to be comfortable with the VP pick, as they have to work with them.

The VP can of course be, but need not necessarily be a U.S. Senator.  Any VP can quickly learn their responsibilities as President of the Senate.

Main criteria, the VP must be capable of becoming President, regardless of their background.

[ShadowRocket]

I agree. I think its more likely that picks somebody like Thune, Daniels, or Portman instead of Rubio or Christie.