Biden’s most likely VP choices

By Kent R. Kroeger (March 10, 2020)

Charles Fairbanks and Joseph Cannon (in a parody of Alphonse and Gaston) repeatedly offer each other the chance to pick up the bouquet which represents the chance to be the Republican vice-presidential nominee in the 1904 election. (Cartoon by E. A. Bushnell, 1904)

President Harry Truman said of the vice presidency, “Look at all the Vice Presidents in history. Where are they? They were about as useful as a cow’s fifth teat.”

Perhaps no one has summarized the vice president’s job as succinctly as Joe Biden: “It’s easy to be vice president — you don’t have to do anything.”

Of course, that is not exactly true. There are lots of funerals to attend. And if you are a really unlucky vice president, you get stuck leading a task force charged with stopping a seemingly unstoppable infectious disease.

In other words, vice presidents, when they do get to do something, get the sh*t work.

Nonetheless, ambitious politicians still want the job, and for good reason: 14 out of 48 vice presidents have gone on to become president (almost 30 percent).

It can be the stepping stone to political immortality, or, you’re Dan Quayle.

As I sit here on the morning of the Democratic Party’s Michigan primary, the betting consensus is that former Vice President Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee in the 2020 presidential race.

Working on that assumption, the next task for Biden is to pick his running mate. Various lists have already been offered, but I will give you…