TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/070692/07069928.000

Text File | 1993-04-04 | 5.9 KB | 130 lines

                                                                                VICE PRESIDENTS, Page 30

Spelling Out The Job Specs

The next big challenge for both Clinton and Perot is selecting a
running mate

By WALTER SHAPIRO


    Retiring New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman, who vaulted to
folk-hero status when he announced he was leaving Congress in
frustration over the deficit, laughs at the question. Why is he
suddenly on the lists as everyone's prototypical Vice President
-- both Democrat Bill Clinton's and independent Ross Perot's?
"Because they don't know me," Rudman cracks. "If you pressed me,
I suppose it's because I have credibility as someone with
integrity and as a square shooter. And for a Republican, I'm not
highly partisan."

    Rudman, in short, offers the rarest of commodities in the
current vice-presidential veepstakes -- Washington experience
coupled with the image of a truth-telling outsider. For in the
latest irony in a peculiar political year, both Clinton and
Perot have been musing about similar -- even identical --
vice-presidential nominees. As political analyst Kevin Phillips
puts it, "What Perot needs in a Vice President is someone who's
political, yet puts the finger in the eye of the politicians.
Someone like Rudman. And Clinton too needs a running mate who
reinforces his outsider status with Perot swing voters."

    The problem with this speculation is that Rudman himself is
not available. "I would not serve as a Vice President for anyone
ever," he declares. Another crossover name is Colin Powell. But
again the same pitfall: there are no signs that the Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff wants to be the first black candidate
on anyone's national ticket.

    For Clinton, still running third in the national polls, the
vice-presidential choice represents his best opportunity to put
his campaign back on track. The stakes are even higher for
Perot, who needs to prove that he can govern without the benefit
of a political party. But Perot also risks jeopardizing his
all-things-to-all-voters appeal if he selects a Vice President
who comes complete with heavy ideological baggage.

    Jack Kemp, George Bush's disgruntled Secretary of Housing
and Urban Development, is one name being pushed hard in Perot
circles. New York leveraged-buyout specialist Theodore
Forstmann, a Kemp presidential fund raiser in 1988, is trying to
broker a marriage between Kemp and Perot. Some of Kemp's
political advisers argue that running with Perot represents
Kemp's best chance to be elected President himself in 1996.
Others counsel caution -- Kemp's favored political style --
contending that bolting the g.o.p. would permanently brand the
supply-side conservative a pariah. Kemp's probable reluctance
illustrates Perot's quandary in finding a credible running mate
willing to risk his political career on one roll of the dice.

    Third-party candidates often stumble badly in their quest
for a plausible No. 2. Remember General Curtis ("Bomb Them Back
to the Stone Age") LeMay, George Wallace's 1968 ticket mate?
Perot has already tapped retired Admiral James Stockdale, a
conservative former Vietnam pow, as his stand-in running mate
to get on the ballot in all 50 states. Perot calls Stockdale
his "fail-safe fallback" and has said that he will, if
necessary, "just go with the team we have."

    Clinton may make his final decision this week when he heads
off on vacation (destination: top secret) with his wife Hillary.
So far, Clinton has kept his short list of prospects under tight
wraps. But the factors shaping Clinton's choice are likely to
include:

    Geography: Gone are the days when regional balance was the
holy grail of vice-presidential selection. Clinton's polls show
that only New York's reluctant Governor Mario Cuomo helps the
ticket nationwide. That is why part of the calculus involves
searching for a running mate who would at minimum help Clinton
carry one major state. Some of the possibilities with the right
zip code include: Cuomo, Texas Governor Ann Richards,
Pennsylvania Senator Harris Wofford and Senator Paul Simon of
Illinois.

    Image: With Perot in the race, Clinton risks forsaking his
outsider credentials if he picks a running mate too tied to the
Washington status quo. "People sense that Bill Clinton is a
little too slick," says a campaign insider. "So it would make
sense for him to have someone a little rough around the edges."
But who has both an unorthodox flair and the political heft to
burnish the ticket? The short list includes: Richards (the
funniest political put-down artist in Democratic politics);
Wofford (at 66, an elder-statesman type newly elected to the
Senate); and freshman Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman (an
orthodox Jew who does not campaign on Saturdays).

    Security: From the revelation of Tom Eagleton's electroshock
treatments in 1972 to the disclosure of Geraldine Ferraro's
tangled finances in 1984, the Democrats have a history of
star-crossed vice-presidential nominees. That is why the safest
choice might be someone who has already been tested in a
national campaign, like the trio of 1988 presidential contenders
-- Tennessee Senator Al Gore, House majority leader Richard
Gephardt and Simon. Gore, a hot prospect on the Washington rumor
mill, would add needed foreign-policy expertise to the ticket.

    Back in 1968, Richard Nixon offered the axiom, "A Vice
President cannot help you, he can only hurt you." That insight,
of course, did not prevent Nixon from choosing Spiro Agnew, but
in the veepstakes risk often outweighs reward. Yet for Clinton
and Perot selecting a Vice President will be a true defining
moment. That one choice will symbolize who they are, what they
represent and the type of people they hope to bring into their
Administration. That's why one can imagine in Hollywood fashion
both Clinton and Perot shouting to their aides, "Get me someone
like Warren Rudman."