Surveying the field of vice presidential possibilities

In my lifetime, I don’t recall vice presidential picks being such a big deal since the Nixon administration. That’s reaching back a bit.

For those of you too young to remember, Spiro Agnew was Nixon’s vice president and resigned, just as Nixon was looking down the barrel of the Watergate scandal.

Nixon then tapped Gerald Ford who went on to be an unelected President and arguably the most bitter, resentful man in United States history. He was not re-elected, but had logged enough assassination attempts during his short term to retain substantial Secret Service protection for the rest of his life at taxpayer expense.

Flash forward to current events. Let’s face it. On one side we have a loose cannon who keeps putting his foot in his mouth. I am not a fan of Donald Trump personally. I like most of his policies, but his divisiveness has kept him from getting things done. We have no immigration reform. We have no healthcare reform. I’m not tired of winning.

The alternative is a guy who has been in government for half a century, yet he wants to tell us what’s wrong and that he’s the guy to fix it. His own team is having conversations about when to take Dad’s car keys away. The choices aren’t great.

By the time you see this in print, circumstances may well have changed, but as of this writing, Mr. Biden has not named a running mate. My bet has always been on Kamala Harris, because she is mathematically the best political choice. He’s old, white, male and from the east coast. She’s young, black, female and from the west coast.

That’s a winning combination. It doesn’t hurt that she took a chunk out of his rear at one of the primary debates either. That was a good strategic decision on her part.

Susan Rice has also been named as a contender. She’s all about the pedigree. Stanford, Oxford, Rhoades Scholar, PhD. in philosophy, National Security Advisor and Assistant Secretary of State, she’s got the resume to beat the rest. The Albatross around her neck is the role she played in the Benghazi attack that killed US Ambassador Christopher Stevens. As qualified as she is, if she runs, expect to hear about it.

Elizabeth Warren, AKA Pocahontas, I actually like. I don’t agree with her on much of any current policy at all, but there was a time that she went after the banks for unconscionable credit card policies and she was quite articulate about that. I also harbor a bit of sympathy over the Pocahontas thing.

I had an uncle who convinced me that my great grandfather had charged up San Juan Hill with Teddy Roosevelt. My great grandfather had indeed taken part in the Philipine police action, but he was not one of the Rough Riders.

He wasn’t even on the same island, but I went around repeating that notion for several years before my dad straightened me out and told me that Uncle Ted was joking. I can forgive Pocahontas for having a relative tell her that she was Native American, but I also think she mishandled the situation.

For now, my money is on Mike Pence, who is by any measure, a class act. He’s measured, he speaks well, he is reserved and he is photogenic. Yes, he is to the right of me. He has held some unfortunate positions on same-sex marriage with which I do not agree. For the record, I don’t care who marries whom. Well, I should probably clarify that. I don’t think dog people should marry cat people, but beyond that I don’t care. It’s not my business. It’s not yours either.

Putting that aside, Pence is the best Veep we have had in a while. I would not be unhappy to see him in the driver’s seat. In political science 101, they teach us that in the British system of government, the ceremonial head of state and the functional head of state are two different humans.

In our form of government, both are invested in one individual. That’s where the current president disappoints me, but we can always look to our vice presidential pick as a fall-back.