McCain!!

[prog]

CBS poll shows that Sen. John McCain would give Kerry's campaign a strong edge over Bush-Cheney Holy crap. It didn't even occur to be that such a bi-partisan ticket is possible. Is there any kind of precedent for this? (Seriously, I'm asking.)

The notion of a bland Democratic candidate (whose strongest suit, the incumbent's increasing unpopularity, is out of his own control) choosing a centrist, straight-spoken Republican as a running mate falls squarely into so-crazy-it-just-might-work territory, and would shatter the caked-on cynicism covering this whole election so far. To my eyes, anyway.

I guess I shouldn't get my hopes up, since everything in this process tends towards the dull and tiring, but it's exciting to ponder.

(props to pseudomanitou for the link)

Comments

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I think it was the case that, once upon a time, you ran for president, and if you came in first you became president, and if you came in second you became vice-president. Which meant that a lot of presidents had VPs from the opposite party. But I'm not sure.

[mrmorse.livejournal.com]

I believe that happened approximately once and led to a new amendment changing the way the Vice President was selected. I can't cite anything at the moment to prove that, though.

[xymotik.livejournal.com]

It was the 12th Amendment, ratified 1804.

[wrog]

I think it was the combination of

1. John Adams (Federalist) having to deal with somewhat hostile Jefferson (DR) as his VP, followed by
2. the fiasco of 1801 where Jefferson and Burr, both from the same party, completely swept the electoral college but managed to get equal numbers of votes and thus had to duel it out in the House of Representatives to figure out which one of them would be President

that convinced everybody that this was a completely stupid way to do things.