The American presidential campaign is in one of its few fallow periods just now. Which means it is time for a favourite quadrennial pastime: the Veepstakes! Who will Mitt Romney choose to be his running-mate? Rob Portman of Ohio? Marco Rubio of Florida? Chris Christie of New Jersey? Someone else entirely? Who can tell but does it matter anyway?
And that, as Mike Crowley points out, is the small secret lurking behind most of the press coverage of this mini-drama: most of the time the identity of the Vice-Presidential nominee isn’t worth even the famous bucket of warm spit. Very few people even consider, far less are swayd by, the Vice-Presidential pick and the success or failure of these running-mates is usually suject to the post hoc propter hoc fallacy.
Thus Bill Clinton’s “double-down” tango with Al Gore – two southern, wonkish, “New Democrats” – is judged a success because Clinton won the 1992 election.
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