Picking the Vice President (eBook)

Elaine C. Kamarck (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020
35 Seiten
Brookings Institution Press (Verlag)
978-0-8157-3875-6 (ISBN)

Infos

How Picking the Vice President Has Changedand Why It MattersDuring the past three decades, two important things have changed about the U.S. vice presidency: the rationale for why presidential candidates choose particular running mates, and the role of vice presidents once in office. This is the first major book focusing on both of those elements, and it comes at a crucial moment in American history.Until 1992, presidential candidates tended to select running mates simply to balance the ticket, sometimes geographically, sometimes to guarantee victory in an must-carry state, sometimes ideologically, and sometimes for all three reasons.Bill Clinton changed that in 1992 when he selected Al Gore as his running mate, saying the experience and compatibility of the Tennessee senator would make him an ideal partner in governing. Gore's two immediate successors, Dick Cheney and Joe Biden, played similar roles under Presidents Bush and Obama. Mike Pence seems to also be following in that role as well, although the first draft of history on the Trump Administration is still being written.What enabled this change in the vice presidency was not so much the personal characteristics of recent vice presidents but instead changes in the presidential nomination system. The increased importance of primaries and the overwhelming need to raise money have diminished the importance of balance on the ticket and increased the importance of partnershipselecting a partner who can help the president govern.This book appears as Joe Biden prepares to choose his own running mate. No matter who wins the November 2020 elections, what Elaine Kamarck writes will be of interest to anyone following current affairs, students of American government, and journalists whose job will be to cover the next administration.

Autor

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Elaine C. Kamarck is a political scientist and scholar noted for her ability to combine real life experience in politics with academic research. She has a PhD in political science and has worked at the Democratic National Committee and in several presidential campaigns. She was one of the founders of the Democratic Leadership Council in the late 1980s. In the 1990s she served in the White House as a senior staffer to Vice President Al Gore. Since then she taught American politics and government innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She is currently at Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of several books and countless article on government innovation, the presidency and American politics.