Kerry and Edwards?

KERRY AND EDWARDS?….Is it true that sitting senators don’t often win presidential elections? Yes it is, but it’s just a meaningless factoid.

I agree. But since I like meaningless factoids, let’s turn our attention to the second spot on the ticket and ask the question that’s on everyone’s mind: will John Kerry pick John Edwards to be his vice president? What do the factoids tell us?

Just this: presidential candidates don’t usually pick primary opponents to be their running mate. It’s only happened three times since World War II and only once in the past 40 years. Here’s the complete rundown, excluding incumbents:

Year	Candidate	Running Mate	Ran for President?
1948	R: Thomas Dewey	Earl Warren	No
1952	R: Dwight Eisenhower D: Adlai Stevenson	Richard Nixon John Sparkman	No No
1956	D: Adlai Stevenson	Estes Kefauver	Yes
1960	R: Richard Nixon D: John F. Kennedy	Henry Cabot Lodge Lyndon Johnson	No Yes
1964	R: Barry Goldwater	William Miller	No
1968	R: Richard Nixon D: Hubert Humphrey	Spiro Agnew Edmund Muskie	No No
1972	D: George McGovern	Tom Eagleton	No
1976	D: Jimmy Carter	Walter Mondale	No
1980	R: Ronald Reagan	George Bush	Yes
1984	D: Walter Mondale	Geraldine Ferraro	No
1988	R: George Bush D: Michael Dukakis	Dan Quayle Lloyd Bentsen	No No
1992	D: Bill Clinton	Al Gore	No
1996	R: Bob Dole	Jack Kemp	No
2000	R: George W. Bush D: Al Gore	Dick Cheney Joe Lieberman	No No

This is a funny result, isn’t it? It may seem like primary opponents are the obvious choices for running mate, but for some reason the winners seldom agree. Or it could be the other way around: maybe the kind of people who run for president aren’t very excited about settling for second place.

Naturally, this doesn’t mean that Kerry won’t pick Edwards. Still, it might be wise to start looking at the pool of candidates outside this year’s crop of primary wannabes.

Coming next: when was the last time a nominee chose a running mate with the same first name?