Vice-Presidential Debates and the Presidential Vice Presidency: A Guest Post by Professor Joel Goldstein

The following is a guest post by Professor Joel Goldstein of the Saint Louis University School of Law.

The advent of vice-presidential debates has not only changed the dynamics of presidential campaigns. These debates have also helped shape the criteria which govern vice-presidential selection. In particular, this innovation has reinforced the requirement that presidential nominees choose a running mate who is presidential.

Although candidates occasionally proposed a vice-presidential debate as part of a presidential debate series, the inaugural such debate occurred in 1976 between Walter F. Mondale and Bob Dole. Since then, the event has become institutionalized. Every subsequent presidential campaign except 1980 has included one vice-presidential debate. A departure from that practice would require some justification.

The vice–presidential debate guarantees that the running mates will share the campaign’s center stage for a period of time. For 75 or 90 minutes of each campaign, the vice-presidential candidates are the single campaign event and one which millions of voters watch simultaneously. The period of focus is expanded in both directions. During the days prior to the debate, the media focuses on the two running mates; during the days following the debate it replays and analyzes the choice sound bites from the event.

The inevitability of these encounters provides presidential nominees added reason to choose a presidential running mate who will present himself or herself as a plausible president during this moment in the national spotlight. The debate focuses attention on the two candidates for the position of first successor and senior adviser/troubleshooter. Accordingly, it also implicates the judgment of those who selected the running mates. No presidential candidate will want a running mate whose debate performance will hurt their prospects or embarrass their campaign by appearing not ready for prime time.

The vice-presidential debates are not the only reason modern presidential candidates have greater reason than once was the case to consider seriously the presidential qualities of prospective running mates. A variety of factors contribute to this incentive. These include the frequency of presidential succession, the expanded expectations of the vice presidency since Mondale, the increased realization that the vice-presidential choice reflects the considered judgment of the presidential nominee, and the access to information about even vice-presidential candidates in an information age.

Yet the vice-presidential debate plays an important part in reinforcing this incentive. By putting the running mates front and center for a brief period during the campaign, the vice-presidential debate gives the presidential candidates additional reason to choose a running mate who will reflect well on them. As such, a reform intended to improve the conduct of campaigns also contributes to the selection of presidential vice presidential candidates.