When George W. Bush was president, I heard it said a lot in the TV industry that his VP pick insured nobody would ever want to see the president harmed because then it would have been President Cheney, and they feared that even worse than they hated President Bush. I think there could have been some truth to that, but I seriously doubt that played at all into Bush selecting Cheney as his VP. But I honestly think another President Bush made a VP pick for very similar reasons to Obama’s choice for VP: they make good lightning rods.
Think about it: Joe Biden was putting his foot in his mouth all over the place during the Democratic primary season of 2007, and he’s the guy who made that ridiculously (clueless and unintentional) racist-sounding comment about Obama being the first African-American candidate who is clean & well-spoken, etc. Oops! But what that did was to demonstrate what a great lightning rod he would be during Obama’s presidency! So Biden would be off making silly, doofus remarks, offending people left & right, and while the media is covering that stuff, Obama could get his work done in relative comfort and quiet. And it’s worked out pretty well for him so far.
And what about President George H.W. Bush’s VP: Dan Quayle? Well, the media hated that guy, and they were attacking him constantly for every gaffe imaginable. And he was a relatively gaffeless performer compared to Biden (who I kinda like, by the way, so don’t think I’m smearing him; but facts are facts…). So as a result, President Bush 41 could get stuff done without as much scrutiny as he would have gotten otherwise, and I even remember that people who hated him feared even more what would happen to the United States were something to happen to him and we’d get stuck with President Quayle! Jay Leno even used to make monologue jokes about that back then: I remember! And I’m pretty sure that’s why Bush chose him as VP.
So where is this all leading? Do I really even have to say it? This obviously means that when Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination for the 2012 presidential election, he’ll obviously select Michele Bachmann as his VP running-mate, because with her on the ticket, he’ll suffer almost no slings nor arrows during the election compared with her, what with her fact-inaccuracy-o-rama and overall general ditziness. And if he wins, even his most passionate enemies will wish him safe return every day, lest they be cursed with their worst nightmare: President Bachmann! (That’s right hippie: say good-bye to your precious Earth and pot and abortion then, my smelly friend!)
