The 7 Worst Vice Presidential Picks

Speculation regarding who Mitt Romney will choose as his running mate is reaching a crescendo, though he probably won't announce a pick until after the Olympics are over. Conventional wisdom has Portman from Ohio, or Pawlenty from Minnesota as possible VP picks for Romney. Some others point to Paul Ryan or even General Petraeus. More forward thinkers point to Bat Boy as Romney's clear choice. Here is a guide to some stinkers that some of Mitt's predecessors have made when selecting their running mates. To keep it simple, I have confined the picks to choices who had problems that were widely known by the time Election Day came around.

7.  Bob Dole-  


 Was chosen by Gerald Ford as running mate after first choice Rockefeller dropped out of consideration. In the VP debates against Mondale, he accused Democrats of starting WWII, a remark that did not go over well.

6.  Dan Quayle-

Nominated by George HW Bush, even before the infamous “potatoe” incident, Quayle was considered a lightweight, with no gravitas. There were also questions regarding his military service. On top of those concerns, he also was the subject of one of the most memorable quips in political debate history, "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy", always a bad place to be.

5. Geraldine Ferraro-

  Mondale had picked her as a game changer, the first woman VP pick by a major party in the history of the US. Unfortunately questions about her husband’s tax returns (sound familiar?) dogged her throughout her campaign, and her answers about it were less than satisfying. Women did not flock to the campaign the way Mondale had hoped that they would, and her ticket was defeated in a landslide.

4.  Henry Wallace- 

Eventually dropped off the presidential ticket by FDR in favor of Truman, Wallace declared his greatest aspiration was to “make the world safe for corn breeders." His dabbling in Zoroastrianism, with loving letters addressed to "Dear Guru" probably did not help.

3.  Adm. James Stockdale- 

“Who am I? Why am I here?” Picked by Ross Perot to be his running mate for an independent ticket, Stockdale seemed just as befuddled about Perot’s pick of him as a running mate as the rest of us. His performances during debates seemed equally as sluggish and lost. He was portrayed as elderly and confused, adding to the perception that Perot was a loose cannon who did not know what he was doing.

2. Sarah Palin-

Ah...Palin. She was a bold choice no doubt. John McCain made a huge gamble after he was talked out of his preferred running mate choices, Lieberman and Pawlenty. Palin was new, and in the very beginning, she seemed fresh and daring. She was brought in to shore up McCain’s bona fides for the Tea Party component of the Republican Party, and improve his standing with women. Unfortunately, Palin turned out to be an intellectual lightweight, whose version of a “gotcha!”question was asking her what newspapers she had read lately, or what Supreme Court decisions she disagreed with. By the time she was immortalized by the great Tina Fey as a complete moron, public opinion of her had completely set, and not in her favor.

1. Thomas Eagleton- 

Is the general consensus for worst vice-presidential pick ever. While George McGovern did not know about it when he chose Eagleton, when your running mate turns out to have had electroshock therapy, and be on anti-psychotic medication, he is probably going to drag down your ticket just a little bit, even if most people aren’t swayed by vice presidential picks. If nothing else, it calls your own judgment into question.

So there you have it, my picks for the worst running mate decisions ever. Who would be a good pick for Romney, and who do you think would be a disaster?