weakest VP choice?

[WalterMitty]

excluding james stockdale, who has been the weakest  VP choice in recent history (post 1952)?

id say jack kemp.  he really didnt add anything, save annoying football metaphors.  he wasnt picked to deliver a state.  dole didnt need someone to bring 'experience' to the ticket.  i suppose the reasoning of the kemp choice was to get the supply-siders lined up behind the dole candidacy.  sure, the supply siders viewed dole as suspect, but im certain they would have voted for him over clinton without kemp being on the ticket.

as a republican, i can still remember how bad i felt when dole selected kemp.

[Brutus]

Kemp?  What about Quayle?

[migrendel]

Dan Quayle. Had he not been born rich, he probably could have worked his way up to dishwasher, garbage collector, or dustman.

[ilikeverin]

Dan Quayle. Had he not been born rich, he probably could have worked his way up to dishwasher, garbage collector, or dustman.

Perhaps a potatoe farmer

[WalterMitty]

im sure many folks will say quayle, but give him some credit, he was actually elected VP.  ive never seen any evidence that he HURT bush's electoral chances.

dole was running a long shot campaign, he needed a home run (or at least a triple) with his VP choice, instead he struck out.

[YRABNNRM]

Geraldine Ferraro

[Dave from Michigan]

what was Kemp's home state

[WalterMitty]

new york was where he served in congress from.  i think he moved to california after serving in the bush administration.

[nclib]

He certainly didn't help in New York--I think Clinton won every single congressional district in New York state in '96.

[elcorazon]

Lieberman was a very poor choice politically.  Quayle was a horrible choice to actually be the veep.  Kemp was also a poor selection.  Cheney was the scariest.  Dubya would be wise to dump him.  I still think he will dump him around the time of the convention, claiming health reasons.

[12th Doctor]

Ferraro.  She just wasn't ready for prime-time yet.  Same with Quayle.

[WalterMitty]

im surprised that only one person mentioned eagleton.  perhaps people overlook him because mcgovern himself was a weak candidate.

im not sure if i agree witht eh spiro agnew assessment.  he did turn out to be a failure while he was in office.  as governor of maryland, however, he had a very moderate, pro civil rights record.  it was only while he was VP that he turned into a right wing nut, for lack of a better term.

[Huckleberry Finn]

Ferraro, Quayle, Kemp, Lieberman all bad!
George Bush was last good choice.

[elcorazon]

Ferraro, Quayle, Kemp, Lieberman all bad!
George Bush was last good choice.

You left out Gore.  He was a decent choice because Clinton was at the head of the ticket, although he'd be a horrible choice for a Kerry type at the top of the ticket, politically anyway.  I do agree that Bush Sr. was a good choice.

[Nym90]

Kemp's home state was still New York at the time of the 1996 election.

[12th Doctor]

I don't think that Liebermann was a poor chioce.  HELL  I would have rather have seen him at the top of the ticket in 2000.  Cheney was not a horrible chioce.  The media kept complaining that Bush nedded 'gravitas' (funny, my Poli Sci professor Dr. Kozac has been studying politics for 35 years, he's been to 8 conventions, was a congressional fellow, personaly knows Dick Cheney, Sen. Fred Harris and several other, co-authored a book with Ken Duberstien (Reagan's chief of staff) and taught at the National War College (he taught Wes Clark), West Point and the Air Force Achademy (he was a Col. in the Air force) and he said that he had never even heard of 'gravitas before the 2000 election) so Cheney was almost a nessesity.  I think that it would be a bad idea ot keep him on for '04 however.

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Back up the train a moment, Kemp was the best Vice-Presidential choice EVER.  The ticket should have been reversed and should have been a Kemp-Dole ticket but with Liddy as the VP.  Jack Kemp is one of the few white Republicans who can get a decent audience with African-Americans.  He is one of my favorite politicians and one whom I most admire and respect.  There would be no better President or Vice-President than Jack Kemp.

[© Tweed the Younger]

Ferraro, Quayle, Kemp, and Stockdale all bad.

[Michael Z]

Ferraro or Quayle.

[Huckleberry Finn]

Ferraro, Quayle, Kemp, Lieberman all bad!
George Bush was last good choice.

You left out Gore.  He was a decent choice because Clinton was at the head of the ticket, although he'd be a horrible choice for a Kerry type at the top of the ticket, politically anyway.  I do agree that Bush Sr. was a good choice.

You're right. I forgot Gore. He was good one.

[Gustaf]

So many names, so many names...I guess I agree with all the above, basically. What about Lloyd Bentsen in 1988? I don't know much about the guy, other than that he failed MISERABLY in his presidential bid in 1976 and did NOT deliver Texas to Dukakis!

[Kghadial]

I think the worst to VP choices would probably be the two who cost the ticket the election.

Bob Dole probably cost Ford the election because mondale beat him soundly in the debate (at least that is what i heard). People were kinda uncomfortable with him being the number two guy during a time when the republican party was so scandal filled (Agnew and Nixon had to resign FOR COMPLETELY DIFFERENT REASONS).

A slightly better choice but still bad would be Lieberman. If Gore had picked Graham of Florida, we would be currently picking a republican challenger to president gore.  I personally think that the 'confederate flag flyers' that Dean talked about probably couldn't swallow a Jewish man as Vice-President and most of them who might have though about voting for Gore did not. And if just 1000 of such souls voting for Gore in Florida would make him president.

[Gustaf]

I think the worst to VP choices would probably be the two who cost the ticket the election.

Bob Dole probably cost Ford the election because mondale beat him soundly in the debate (at least that is what i heard). People were kinda uncomfortable with him being the number two guy during a time when the republican party was so scandal filled (Agnew and Nixon had to resign FOR COMPLETELY DIFFERENT REASONS).

A slightly better choice but still bad would be Lieberman. If Gore had picked Graham of Florida, we would be currently picking a republican challenger to president gore.  I personally think that the 'confederate flag flyers' that Dean talked about probably couldn't swallow a Jewish man as Vice-President and most of them who might have though about voting for Gore did not. And if just 1000 of such souls voting for Gore in Florida would make him president.

The guy who's name begins with an 'E', the original McGovern pick, was prettu bad....even though McGovern would probably have lost anyway...

[Kghadial]

I think the worst to VP choices would probably be the two who cost the ticket the election.

Bob Dole probably cost Ford the election because mondale beat him soundly in the debate (at least that is what i heard). People were kinda uncomfortable with him being the number two guy during a time when the republican party was so scandal filled (Agnew and Nixon had to resign FOR COMPLETELY DIFFERENT REASONS).

A slightly better choice but still bad would be Lieberman. If Gore had picked Graham of Florida, we would be currently picking a republican challenger to president gore.  I personally think that the 'confederate flag flyers' that Dean talked about probably couldn't swallow a Jewish man as Vice-President and most of them who might have though about voting for Gore did not. And if just 1000 of such souls voting for Gore in Florida would make him president.

The guy who's name begins with an 'E', the original McGovern pick, was prettu bad....even though McGovern would probably have lost anyway...

There are worse men picked to be vice president; men that should never be president. However when the man at the top doesn't have a chance it doesn't matter, to a degree, who he picks as his running mate. No one cares who Nader's running mate was in 2000 or who it will be in 2004 since there is no chance that Nader will become president. But Ford and Gore as stand alone men had over a 50% of election. So it context their choice of a running mate who is much much worse because the running mate hurt them enough to cause them to lose.

[Gustaf]

I think the worst to VP choices would probably be the two who cost the ticket the election.

Bob Dole probably cost Ford the election because mondale beat him soundly in the debate (at least that is what i heard). People were kinda uncomfortable with him being the number two guy during a time when the republican party was so scandal filled (Agnew and Nixon had to resign FOR COMPLETELY DIFFERENT REASONS).

A slightly better choice but still bad would be Lieberman. If Gore had picked Graham of Florida, we would be currently picking a republican challenger to president gore.  I personally think that the 'confederate flag flyers' that Dean talked about probably couldn't swallow a Jewish man as Vice-President and most of them who might have though about voting for Gore did not. And if just 1000 of such souls voting for Gore in Florida would make him president.

The guy who's name begins with an 'E', the original McGovern pick, was prettu bad....even though McGovern would probably have lost anyway...

There are worse men picked to be vice president; men that should never be president. However when the man at the top doesn't have a chance it doesn't matter, to a degree, who he picks as his running mate. No one cares who Nader's running mate was in 2000 or who it will be in 2004 since there is no chance that Nader will become president. But Ford and Gore as stand alone men had over a 50% of election. So it context their choice of a running mate who is much much worse because the running mate hurt them enough to cause them to lose.

Yeah, I realize that, I just felt the need to say something original on this thread...