Presidential candidates pick out run mates to balance out their weaknesses , make for geographical diversity , and — most importantly — to facilitate them win . As speculation backing over who this year ’s candidate will pick to connect them on the ticket this fall , we look back at the wildcards past nominees considered .
1. PRESIDENT GERALD FORD (1980)
Ford ( leave ) stood behind Reagan at the 1976 Republication National Convention .
In 1980 , Republican nominee Ronald Reagan thought he ’d found the perfect way to beat incumbent President Jimmy Carter . The “ dream just the ticket , ” as it was call , would sport former President Gerald Ford as Reagan ’s running mate . He had geographic diversity — Ford was from Michigan , while Reagan hailed from California — and , having already been in the Oval Office , he had the most Washington experience of any of the other VP prospect . The party seriously talk about the option , but talk hit a rampart when Ford demand that the two essentially run as “ carbon monoxide gas - presidents , ” getting expand power in the VP role . Ultimately , neither could agree to naturalistic condition , and the dream team tumble .
2. CLINT EASTWOOD (1988)
despairing fourth dimension call for dire measures , and George H.W. Bush , facing an 18 - breaker point deficit in his 1988 presidential play , was desperate . That ’s when aides to the Bush run floated role player Clint Eastwood as Bush ’s VP pick . In an audio audience released in 2011 , former Bush hunting expedition chairman and Secretary of State James Baker tell the drive considered Eastwood with some measure of sincerity “ when we were way behind . ” Eastwood had held public agency before , as the Republican mayor of Carmel - by - the - Sea , California , for two years . But “ it was shot down moderately agile , ” Baker said , and Bush give out on to choose Indiana Senator Dan Quayle .
3. MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN (1992)
In 1992 , Bill Clinton in short considered the spectacular civil right activist and promontory of the Children ’s Defense Fund as his running mate . His wife , Hillary , was airless with Edelman , a fellow lawyer , and had served on the display board of the Fund . Edelman ’s name reportedly come up when Clinton postulate , “ Who are the leading citizen in the country ? ” and then answered his own question . consort to theLos Angeles Times , though , Edelman was n’t interested .
4. BARBARA BUSH (2000)
Who better to deal a ticket with than your mom ? In an op - ed in theSt . Louis Post - Dispatch , frailty presidential expert Joel Goldstein made the display case ( albeit facetiously ) for George W. Bush to pick his mother , former first lady Barbara Bush , as his running mate in 2000 . Having moved to the rightfield during the primaries to appeal to the Reaganites in the party , Bush needed a running first mate who could invoke to the more moderate fender , who had experience in Washington , and who would verbalize frankly to him . The perfect campaigner , Goldstein argued , was his mom . Bush chose former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney instead , a repulse his mom likely never forgive him for .
5. JOHN MCCAIN (2004)
During a swearing - in ceremonial in 2013 , Kerry ( leave behind ) jaw with McCain in Washington , D.C.
Four years before he became the GOP nominee for president in 2008 , the Arizona senator was approached by John Kerry ’s campaign as a possible VP option . Prominent Democrats skip the two-party slate of two decorate Vietnam war old stager would didder up the race against incumbent President George W. Bush and lend them clout in the debate over who could best preside over a war on terror . One Democratic strategisttoldtheNew York Timesthat it “ would be the political equivalent of the Yankees signing A - Rod . ” But while the pair reckon each other honorable friends , McCain monotonic out disapprove the thought .
6. OPRAH (2000, 2008, & 2016)
complimentary BMWs for everyone who record to vote ! After he announced his campaigning last year , Donald TrumptoldABC News that he ’d love to have Oprah on his tag . “ I recall Oprah would be swell . I ’d love to have Oprah . I think we ’d come through easily , in reality . ” This was n’t the first clock time the actress and talk show host was floated : In 1999 , Trump told CNN that Oprah “ would always be my first selection ” for a running mate , and when then - Senator Barack Obama went onThe Late Show with David Lettermanin 2008 , he joke that he ’d make her his frailty president . As for this year ’s election , Oprah has put the kibosh on Trump VP conjecture , telling Jimmy Kimmel in June that she plans to vote for Hillary Clinton .
7. MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (2008)
Obama ( left ) shook hands with former New York City Mayor Bloomberg in Washington , D.C. in 2014 .
In 2008 , the city manager of New York City was court by not one , but two candidates for prexy — on diametric side of the aisle . Obama met with Bloomberg to talk over the possibility in April of 2008 , and McCain took the billionaire out to breakfast to gauge his pastime just a month later . At the time , John HeilemannwroteinNewYorkmagazine that both side had serious advantages in picking the mayor for their running mate . “ He ’s plentiful , Judaic , and [ has ] a capitulum for business . What ’s not to like ? ” Something , patently : Both prospect end up going in different directions .
8. DONALD TRUMP (2012)
horn ( rightfield ) plump for Romney for President of the United States during a February 2012 news show conference in Las Vegas .
Before he became a major party candidate himself , The Donald was floated as GOP nominee Mitt Romney ’s running mate pick in 2012 . Though he told Fox News that he thought Romney could " do much better , ” Trump later articulate he was quick to be take if the nominee needed him . Four years can interchange a set : Trump has made jabs at Romney throughout the 2016 campaign , saying , “ Poor Mitt Romney . I have a computer memory that ’s deserving more money than he is ” and that he “ walk like a penguin . ” Does n’t voice like it would have been the most blissful of labor union .
image courtesy of Getty .
