There are six things that one should consider in picking a vice president, and how you rate them shows how strong or weak your candidacy is.
1) Can he actually run the Country? - This should actually be the ONLY criteria. Can he run the country if the unthinkable happens. 8 presidents have died in office and one has resigned, so it's not an idle thing. It's actually kind of important.
Sadly, if Romney goes with Ryan... it tells me he didn't even consider that important.
2) Missing Element- - This is almost a valid reason. Your candidate is seen as missing something, so you nominate someone who makes up for that. Examples- Cheney made up for Bush's lack of foreign affairs expertise, Biden made up for Obama's youth.
3) Impeachment Insurance - You don't want to pick a guy people like better than you, though. Examples of Impeachment Insurance- Spiro Agnew. Ryan might be a good pick here, because he's one of the few people who is even less likable than Romney is.
4) Regional Balance - You come from one part of the country, and this guy will make the ticket more popular in another. This was more of a factor in the past before television made us one country... A good example was JFK picking LBJ.. but sometimes, you can go counter to this rule and do just fine.
5) Spice -Something about your pick excites people. Examples would be Ferraro or Palin pitching for the women's vote- and failing.
6) Appeasing the base- A large section of your base wasn't happy with your selection, so you need to throw them a bone. Sometimes this works, like Reagan picking Bush to mollify the Eisenhower/Rockefeller Republicans before they were driven out of the party. Sometimes, it can be disasterous, like Palin. Picking Ryan seems to fall into this category.
So it seems to me Romney is picking a bad pick for all the wrong reasons. It's almost like he wants to lose.
1) Can he actually run the Country? - This should actually be the ONLY criteria. Can he run the country if the unthinkable happens. 8 presidents have died in office and one has resigned, so it's not an idle thing. It's actually kind of important.
Sadly, if Romney goes with Ryan... it tells me he didn't even consider that important.
2) Missing Element- - This is almost a valid reason. Your candidate is seen as missing something, so you nominate someone who makes up for that. Examples- Cheney made up for Bush's lack of foreign affairs expertise, Biden made up for Obama's youth.
3) Impeachment Insurance - You don't want to pick a guy people like better than you, though. Examples of Impeachment Insurance- Spiro Agnew. Ryan might be a good pick here, because he's one of the few people who is even less likable than Romney is.
4) Regional Balance - You come from one part of the country, and this guy will make the ticket more popular in another. This was more of a factor in the past before television made us one country... A good example was JFK picking LBJ.. but sometimes, you can go counter to this rule and do just fine.
5) Spice -Something about your pick excites people. Examples would be Ferraro or Palin pitching for the women's vote- and failing.
6) Appeasing the base- A large section of your base wasn't happy with your selection, so you need to throw them a bone. Sometimes this works, like Reagan picking Bush to mollify the Eisenhower/Rockefeller Republicans before they were driven out of the party. Sometimes, it can be disasterous, like Palin. Picking Ryan seems to fall into this category.
So it seems to me Romney is picking a bad pick for all the wrong reasons. It's almost like he wants to lose.
