Picking A Vice President

Having secured his party's nomination in the Republican Primary Process, the Former Governor of California had set to work unifying the party, a task he had set himself to do after his first and only defeat four years prior as he sought to take the nomination from then President Gerald Ford. Seeking to broaden his appeal, Ronald Reagan went to his one time party rival and offered to him the Vice Presidential spot, offering extraordinary powers within the policy and decision making process in order to secure that second name on the ticket. It would transform the role of the V.P. had it happened. But it was not to be. When they set to hammering out the details they would find themselves in deadlock. Ford was quickly dropped and former CIA Director, Texas Congressman and one time primary rival George H.W. Bush became the second name on the ticket.

Had you asked anyone even a hundred years prior how vital the Vice Presidential selection was the answer would have been simple... not very. It was there, there were tickets but the simple fact was that it didn't quite hold that much relevance. Had it been an important role Daniel Webster never would have been said to have quipped, when offered the second spot on the Whig ticket by William Henry Harrison, that he had no intention of being buried until he was dead and Theodore Roosevelt would have never been President. After all, he became William McKinley's Vice Presidential choice because the Tammany Hall Political Machine in New York was seeking to oust him as Governor and sought to put him where he would fade off into political obscurity.