.SHORTLY AFTER announcing his compete the Democratic nomination in 1960, John F. Kennedy mentioned: “I do not remember a singular instance where a vice-presidential applicant contributed a selecting vote.” Still, the north-easterner picked Lyndon Johnson as his running-mate, really hoping that the statesman from Texas would certainly assist him in southern states. Johnson tore throughout the South in a train nicknamed the LBJ Express, reaching rallies in a ten-gallon hat to the strains of “The Yellow Flower of Texas”.
After he won, Kennedy acknowledged that “we couldn’t have lugged the South without Johnson”. That Johnson “delivered the South” is actually now obtained wisdom. Yet how much difference do vice-presidential choices really make in vote-castings?