Former Vice President Dick Cheney offered his own two cents on picking a running mate at a gathering of students in Washington Monday. Cheney said that the idea, promulgated by “talking heads” that likely GOP nominee Mitt Romney should pick someone who appeals to a certain demographic or carry a particular state misses the No. 1 criteria, which should be the “capacity to be president.”
Cheney put a lot of stock in the idea that the public will evaluate the nominee on the quality of the pick.
You watch the talking heads out there now, and they say you better get a woman or a Hispanic or you better pick somebody from a big state. Those are all interesting things to speculate about, but it is pretty rare that an election ever returns on those kinds of issues. It is much more likely to turn on the kind of situation where they will judge the quality of your decision making process is based on whether or not this individual is up to the task of taking over and is serving as president of the United States should something happen to the president.
