A category of political leaders very easily forgotten are Vice Presidential candidates on a losing Presidential ticket.
Many of them are seen in history as disastrous for one reason or another, including William E. Miller, who ran with Barry Goldwater in 1964; Geraldine Ferraro, who was the running mate of Walter Mondale in 1984; John Edwards, who was John Kerry’s Vice Presidential nominee in 2004; and Sarah Palin, who was John McCain’s running mate in 2008.
On the other hand, we can find at least two Vice Presidential running mates who were true giant figures in American political history.
One was Richard Nixon’s Vice Presidential choice in 1960, former Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr of Massachusetts, who lost his seat to John F. Kennedy in 1952, but was United Nations Ambassador under President Dwight D. Eisenhower; and later Ambassador to South Vietnam under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson; and also sought the Republican Presidential nomination in 1964. Lodge was a true star figure, the only one of the four candidates in 1960 not to become President, and there are scholars who think he might have been a better President, than Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. He was certainly a solid figure in American foreign policy, and had 16 years service in the US Senate.
The other Vice Presidential running mate who was a star figure was Maine Senator Edmund Muskie, who was Hubert Humphrey’s choice in 1968. Muskie ran a dignified campaign that year, and later sought the Presidency in 1972, but derailed by the “Dirty Tricks” of the Richard Nixon reelection campaign, and lost the nomination to Senator George McGovern, seen as an easier candidate to defeat, which indeed he turned out to be. But Muskie served 21 years in the Senate, and then was Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter in 1980.
Both men would have been exceptional choices for the Oval Office, but never had the opportunity, but their legacy needs to be honored and remembered.
This has me thinking of losing tickets’s vice-presidential running mates who have been preferable to their party’s next U.S. president.
Springing to mind is Wiliam E. Miller, the 1964 Republican vice-presidential nominee with presidential nominee Barry Goldwater. The next Republican presidential pickup came in 1968 with Richard Nixon.
Miller, whose life span was March 22, 1914–June 14, 1983, was the father of comedienne and talk-show host Stephanie Miller.
Ronald—What do you think?
D, thanks for bringing up Stephanie Miller, who is a well known liberal talk show host.
Her father was an upstate NY Congressman, a conservative Republican, no comparison in 1964 to my then political hero, Hubert Humphrey, running with LBJ.
At the time, I was not impressed with Miller, and thought him a bad choice running with a bad choice for President, Barry Goldwater.
I thought at the time that Nelson Rockefeller or William Scranton were much better choices, but the right wing took over the party and was slaughtered by LBJ!