(05-25-2020 03:05 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(05-25-2020 02:34 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  

(05-25-2020 02:29 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  I tend to think a VP candidate should be based on how it balances out the ticket best. That's nothing new - why else would Kennedy have picked LBJ?

Perhaps because LBJ blackmailed him for the spot.

John Kennedy told his close friend Hy Raskin: "You know we had never considered Lyndon, but I was left with no choice. He and Sam Rayburn made it damn clear to me that Lyndon had to be the candidate. Those bastards were trying to frame me. They threatened me with problems and I don't need more problems. I'm going to have enough problems with Nixon." Evelyn Lincoln, JFK's secretary for 11+ years, also confirms that Lyndon Johnson used sexual blackmail combined with other threats to force JFK to put LBJ on the 1960 Democratic ticket.

None the less, it used to be that tickets were balanced geographically. Now they are balanced by race and gender. I personally think that is wrong. A person's race or gender should not be a consideration in hiring or voting. When I was hiring, I hired on merit. I promoted on merit. I fired on lack of merit. I see no reason for hiring a President or VP to be any different. Two of my branch managers were female. But they were not hired or promoted on gender, but on capability.

Klobuchar had been running a good race till she abruptly quit on the eve of Super Tuesday. In quitting, she immediately endorsed Biden. I wonder why she would quit and endorse at that time, unless she was offered a quid pro quo. Maybe that was the VP slot, or maybe something else. Can't be SCOTUS - that is promised to a black woman. Klobuchar is not qualified, by her race. Too white.

Klobuchar didn’t run that great of a race. She finished 5th in Iowa, a state that shares a border with Minnesota. She never finished higher than 3rd in any state. She had no pull at all with people of color. She raised very little money before New Hampshire and, even then, did not raise nearly enough to catapult her surprising 3rd place finish in New Hampshire. Her dropping out barely moved the needle for Biden because her polling in almost every Super Tuesday state was negligible.

OO - it is great that you promote and hire based on merit. I think there are easily 50 democrats, probably more, that would qualify for VP based on merit. They all have different pros and cons to weigh. Some voters are more motivated to vote if the presidential or VP nominee looks like them or sounds like them or comes from their state. It doesn’t make it right or wrong, but it is reality. And that reality should be considered in making a VP pick.