McCain - Palin

The very first time I visited the United States I began the trip in Anchorage, Alaska, So I've always found it strange when many Americans have talked as though it doesn't exist (e.g. the idea that Chicago is in "the midwest" when Alaska stretches the geographic west a long way). Maybe with the choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate that will change.

She is certainly a bold choice, as Juneau is almost as far away from the Beltway as you can get, and both her home town of Wasilla and Fairbanks, where she was inaugerated as governor, are even further. As a political maverick herself, having taken on both party establishments in Alaska, she makes the perfect complement to John McCain. What a contrast to a Democrat ticket claiming to be "change you can believe in" and made up exclusively of Wasington DC insiders.

And yes she's the second woman to be a major party nominee, and the first on a ticket that can actually win. She didn't get there through a political marriage, she has risen on the back of her own merits. This is a real way of cracking the glass ceiling and is a true victory for all women in politics.

And it's Joe Biden

Barack Obama has chosen Joe Biden to be his running mate. (BBC News: Obama picks Biden as running-mate ) It's a bold move in one sense - Delaware has just three votes in the electoral college and is a pretty reliable blue state. But in another it means Obama now has his own Lloyd Bentsen who could prove to be far more credible than the Presidential nominee. And a campaign promoting "Change we can believe in" now has not only an all Beltway ticket but now includes a man who entered the Senate when Obama was prepubescent.

If there is one significant move in all this it's that increasingly the Vice Presidency is tacking away from being a stepping stone to the Presidency - who can seriously envisage a Biden 2016 bid? Instead the role is becoming more and more a significant office in its own right. And in turn that will make nomination battles more open and competitive. Dick Cheney (who also comes from a tiny state his party never needed to worry about) may well have made his best long term contribution to the office here.

Obama stops walking on water

The latest opinion polls are not looking good for Barack Obama. The Boy Wonder is slipping into a dead heat despite having far more campaign finance and far more television coverage than John McCain. (BBC News: Why has Obama's poll lead slipped?) McCain's legendary underdog ability to triumph over superior odds is coming to the fore and at a time of rising fuel prices Obama is starting to run on empty.

So he needs to pull a rabbit out of a hat, aka choose a Vice Presidential nominee who can boost him. Times have changed since the days when delegates at party conventions got drunk over dinner and laughed about who to nominate, then carried forward the joke to the vote, resulting in people like William Wheeler going from one form of obscurity to another whilst Presidential nominees were left wondering just who their running mate was. (Rutherford Hayes famously said to his wife "I am ashamed to say: Who is Wheeler?")

Nowadays the choice is treated more seriously but is there really a stunning Democrat who can join the ticket and magically turn around Obama's chances? I somehow doubt the choice announced today (BBC News: Obama set to reveal running-mate) will do that.

The many re-entries of Dan Quayle

Further to my earlier comment about the re-appearance again of Dan Quayle on the search engine terms, here are a couple of clips from YouTube, starting with the moment where any credibility Quayle might have ever had evaporated:

And eventually George (H. W.) Bush noticed. Or at least his latex double did:

But will Quayle make a re-entry here?

One day we will know...

Is the Labour Deputy Leadership worth a pitcher of warm piss?

Antonia has declared her support for Jon Cruddas as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. But why is this the contested post?

A good Daily Telegraph editorial on Saturday noticed that the last time a Labour Prime Minister announced he was retiring in government, no less than five candidates had declared to succeed him within a few hours. And these were not lightweights - they included the Foreign Secretary, the Home Secretary, the Employment Secretary, the Energy Secretary and the Environment Secretary. The Chancellor of the Exchequer soon threw his hat into the ring.

By contrast it is now two months since Tony Blair was forced to concede a timetable and there is only one candidate for the leadership. Meanwhile the Deputy Leadership race is getting crowded. But just what does a Deputy Leader actually do?

I'm reminded of the way that the Vice President of the United States is traditionally one of the most maligned positions in any democracy. Just think for a moment as to how many Vice Presidents you can name. I bet very few of them did not go on to become President.

Who can remember the Vice President who remarked that the post was "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived"? Well he was quite famous but for other things - he was John Adams. Or the one who said "Once there were two brothers. One went away to sea; the other was elected Vice President of the United States. And nothing was heard of either of them again." He was not so famous at all - Thomas R. Marshall. (He also said "Indiana is the mother of Vice Presidents, home of more second-class men than any other state." He was probably wrong - New York has produced no less than ten - though Indiana, which ties with Massachusetts for second place with four apiece, did go on to produce Dan Quayle.)

And then there's the one who called the job "not worth a bucket of warm piss". Otherwise the only thing John Nance Garner is notable for is living to just 15 days short of his 99th birthday - the record for any President or Vice President.

The office only really gained some significance under Richard Nixon, who had the benefit of both media attention and a President who wished to stand above partisan debate. Even then the post has risen and fallen - George H. W. Bush seemed to spend most of his time going to funerals and other dull diplomatic tasks.

What precise role does the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party serve? Gordon Brown does not hold the position, nor did Tony Blair. Indeed I can think of only two Deputies who became leader - Clement Attlee (and this was only because when George Lansbury insisted on resigning despite unanimous please by MPs for him to stay, most sitting Labour MPs believed Arthur Greenwood was unsuitable and Attlee was about the only viable person about) and Michael Foot (hardly a leadership career to aspire to repeat).

And so we're left with a situation where Gordon Brown looks set to take the real position all but uncontested (maybe a token challenge to force a ballot but that's about it) whilst numerous Labour politicians fall over the Deputy Leadership. Is it worth it?

Whatever happened to... Dan Quayle?

Remember James Danforth Quayle, Vice President to the better Bush? Quayle was a rarity amongst modern Vice Presidents, being one of the few you could never seriously envisage as President. Indeed the only other Vice Presidents from the last fifty years who have never been nominated for the Presidency were one who was forced to resign due to charges of tax evasion and money laundering and the incumbent. Quayle's own bid for the Republican nomination in 1999/2000 went absolutely nowhere and got about as much public attention.

But there's one incident above all others for which Quayle will be remembered. He once attended a spelling bee and tried to correct the spelling of "P-O-T-A-T-O" to "P-O-T-A-T-O-E". Never has anyone generated so much concern for a US President's health!

So other than a brief shadowy appearance in a Presidential election what has Quayle been up to for the past thirteen years? And does anyone know if he's learnt to spell yet?