Wednesday, September 26, 2012

GOP VP Selections

I want to comment on the past two GOP vice presidential candidates. I realized after hearing Romney's convention speech that in both cases, the GOP presidential candidates chose a VP that undermined their argument against President Obama.

In 2008, one of John McCain's main attacks against Obama was that he wasn’t experienced enough. However, he then went on to choose Sarah Palin as his VP candidate - someone who was objectively as inexperienced and far less ready to be president.

Now Mitt Romney says, in his convention speech and many other places, that Obama failed because he has never been in the private sector. But he selected a VP candidate with even less private experience.

In both cases, it suggests that the GOP candidates didn't really believe one of their main attacks. If overall experience was key, you would want the next in line to also be experienced. If private sector experience is important, again you would chose the potential next-in-line to be someone with private sector experience.

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