.SHORTLY AFTER declaring his run for the Democratic nomination in 1960, John F. Kennedy said: “I don’t remember a solitary situation where a vice-presidential prospect supported an appointing vote.” Still, the north-easterner decided on Lyndon Johnson as his running-mate, hoping that the statesman from Texas will help him in southern conditions. Johnson tore across the South in a learn nicknamed the LBJ Express, arriving at rallies in a ten-gallon hat to the strains of “The Yellowish Rose of Texas”.
After he won, Kennedy accepted that “our experts couldn’t have held the South without Johnson”. That Johnson “provided the South” is now acquired wisdom. Yet the amount of distinction perform vice-presidential selections actually make in elections?