Unhelpful Presidential Running Mates
When a Presidential nominee chooses a running mate, the candidate has every intention of picking someone who’s going to help them win the election. It used to be based on geography and who could bring in votes from another part of the country. Or a balance of age and experience with youth and energy. No matter what the reason, the running mate has one job, to help. That’s not always going to happen. There are times when the running mate has screw up or worse a scandal where the nominee ends up having to put out the fire. The Candidate – Running Mate relationship is never easy. Especially with these kind of “You’re Not Helping” moments.
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Spiro Agnew – Richard Nixon’s Running Mate 1968 and 1972
Bribes. Tax Fraud. Racism. You know you have a bad running mate when he has to resign the Vice-Presidency a year before you have to resign the Presidency. Richard Nixon picked Spiro Agnew as his running mate in 1968. Eventually, Agnew would face charges of taking bribes, tax fraud and extortion from his days in Maryland all the way to the Vice President’s office. But what really didn’t help on the campaign trail was Agnew’s outright racism that he chalked up to joking around. Agnew’s “jokes” included calling Polish-Americans “Polacks” and referring to a Japanese American reporter as “That Fat Jap”. Funny stuff Spiro, but it’s not helping.
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Dan Quayle – George H.W. Bush’s Running Mate 1988 and 1992
Just plain dumb. Dan Quayle was such a horrible running mate that it’s hard to believe George HW Bush picked him after considering Republican mayor at the time, Clint Eastwood. Dan Quayle had one job to do. Not to lose his VP debate to Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas who was running with Michael Dukakis in 1988. It was a disaster. Sen. Bentsen schooled him by letting him know that he was “No John Kennedy”. Apparently Quayle was the last person to not know this. Quayle would also attack the popular TV show “Murphy Brown” and had spelling problems. You know what would have helped. Not putting an “E” on the end vegetable names where they don’t belong.
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Sarah Palin – John McCain’s Running Mate 2008
Oh Hi Girl Dan Quayle! Sarah Palin will have Presidential candidates second and third guessing their VP picks for generations to come. Sarah’s unhelpful moment came with two words. Katie Couric. Somehow the sweetest, perkiest person in the media took down a Mama Grizzly. And it wasn’t all that hard. What did you use for ammo Katie!? The question “What newspapers do you read?” And that was it. The game was on. Sarah became an SNL target like no other running mate in history. At least the first President Bush was able to able to take some attention off of Dan Quayle, but in the 2008 race, it all became about Sarah.
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John Edwards – John Kerry’s Running Mate 2004
John Edwards’ “You’re Not Helping” moment was something that happened behind the scenes. He was weirding John Kerry out in the 2004 campaign. Kerry wanted John McCain as his running mate, creating a ticket that crossed party lines. McCain said he was out. So did New Mexico’s Bill Richardson who was another John Kerry choice. That took the nominee to John Edwards. Kerry went to talk to Edwards and Edwards told him a story he had never shared with anyone before. The story was about how when Edward’s son Wade was killed, Sen. Edwards climbed on to the funeral home slab with the body and held it, swearing he would make life better for the American people. The only problem was Edwards had told this “never told” story to Kerry years earlier with the same set up. Kerry said he gave him the creeps. And John Kerry is possibly the only Presidential candidate to go on the record saying that he regretted picking his running mate.
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Geraldine Ferraro – Walter Mondale’s Running Mate 1984
Baggage. In 1984, Presidential candidate Walter Mondale was getting desperate to try to beat Ronald Reagan. He chose the first woman and Italian -American to ever be on a Presidential ticket, Geraldine Ferraro congresswoman from New York. This pick is the reason why you hear the word “vetting” so often now when a running mate is chosen. Even though her convention speech had people crying, Ferraro came with a lot of baggage. Her husband, John Zaccaro was being accused of shady business practices and candidate Ferraro wouldn’t release his tax returns. This looked bad enough for the Mondale ticket, but what didn’t help was when Ferraro announced “You people who are married to Italian men, you know what it’s like”. This immediately pissed off Italian-Americans. Mondale and Ferraro got beat in one of the biggest landslides in Presidential election history. Thanks for the help Geraldine.
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Thomas Eagleton – George McGovern’s Running Mate – 1972
Thomas Eagleton seemed to have everything that George McGovern would want in a running mate in 1972. He was from Missouri, the show me state. He had a very patriotic sounding name. But there was one more thing. Eagleton also had a history of being crazy and had been treated for depression and had undergone shock therapy. Once this leaked out in the press, he quick the ticket days after being announced as the running mate. Forty years later, a candidate probably still couldn’t make this kind of disclosure. Since Ted Kennedy had turned him down, McGovern grabbed the next best thing to a Kennedy and got Kennedy in-law Sargent Shriver to run with him. Nothing helped though after mental illness had become a campaign issue.
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Joe Lieberman – Al Gore’s Running Mate 2000
Against his consultants’ advice, Al Gore went with Joe Lieberman as his running mate in 2000. Lieberman had a couple of moments that didn’t help the Gore campaign. Even though in the same party, Lieberman went after Bill Clinton over the Monica affair. And called Clinton an example of “a virus of lost standards”. Ouch. And then came the debate against Dick Cheney. Lieberman wanted to be the nice guy. He came off dull and weak and Cheney won the debate. It seems impossible, but somehow Joe Lieberman made Dick Cheney look like he had personality. An almost impossible move and completely unhelpful.
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Richard Nixon – Dwight Eisenhower’s Running Mate 1952 – 1956
Nixon made such an unhelpful move in Dwight Eisnehower’s run for the White House, he had to make a special televised speech to stay on the ticket. Richard Nixon, the VP candidate was accused of having a secret political fund. Nixon made a plea to the public and announced that there was a gift he was keeping from donors, a little black and white dog named “Checkers”. He played on their emotions and invited them to contact the RNC to see if he should stay on the ticket. This went from a campaign to an early version of American Idol. Conservatives loved Nixon and he stayed, although it should have been a sign of things to come.
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Joe Biden – Barack Obama’s Running Mate 2008 – 2012
Joe Biden is the best kind of running mate who doesn’t always help. It’s no scandals, just pure gaffe. Whether he’s talking about Indians running 7-Eleven stores or jumping the gun on supporting gay marriage, or even more recently telling a crowd, that they’re going to be back in chains. Biden actually made a speech during the ’08 campaign where he told the crowd that Hillary Clinton would be a better VP than he would be. And kept it going. He’s completely honest about his feelings which means not always helpful.
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