Presidential candidates usually pick their running mates with only one thing in mind: how will it help them get elected. Often the vice-presidential candidate is chosen to patch up a weakness in the presidential candidate’s offering to the public, or to add balance. Sometimes the vice-presidential candidate is chosen to give the campaign more geographic spread, or to add youth where there is maturity or to add maturity where there is youth, such as George H. Bush’s selection of Dan Quayle or John Kennedy’s selection of Lyndon Johnson. Or to give Washington expertise when the main candidate is an outsider, such as Ronald Reagan’s selection of George H. Bush or now George W. Bush’s selection of Richard Cheney.
The selction by Vice-President Al Gore of an Othodox Jew, Senator Joseph Lieberman, seems to be as a counterpoint to what has been seen as the moral weakness of the Clinton White House and an attempt to give some georgraphic spread. The fact of Senator Lieberman religion seems not to have been a big factor. Jews tend to vote Democrat anyway and those who would be inclined not to vote for a Jew on that ground alone, would be unlikely to vote for Mr Gore anyway. Rather, Senator Lieberman’s selction seems to be a tactic by Mr Gore to distance himself from President Clinton, esepcially as Republicans have tried to link Mr Gore with President Clinton, particularly Mr Clinton’s relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Senator Lieberman was the leading Democrat critic of Mr Clinton’s behaviour.
He’s also been a sharp critic of Clinton-Gore fund raising tactics and has teamed up with conservative Republicans to criticise sex and violence in the entertainment industry.
Analysts were split on whether Gore’s tactic would work, as Gore walks a tightrope facing every vice president running on his own – breaking with the boss.
California-based Democratic consultant Bill Carrick said Republicans are certain to remind voters of Clinton’s actions and Lieberman can at least distance Gore from the controversy.
If Clinton was unhappy with the choice, there was no public evidence.
(tm)I think it’s wonderful,š said Clinton. ™He’s been a wonderful friend to me.š
By picking a Jewish running mate, Gore raised the potential that religion could be an issue for the first time since the nation elected its first Catholic president in John F Kennedy in 1960.
(tm)I’m confident I won’t be judged on my faith,š said Lieberman.
But Lieberman’s devout faith will play at least some role in the campaign, because it generally prohibits him from campaigning on Saturday.
(tm)Obviously we’re going to be very, very respectful of their religion,š said Lehane. ™Having a day off is probably a good thing for all of us.š
(tm)Faith is part of me,š said Lieberman. ™Its been at the center of who I’ve been all my life.š
Gore and Lieberman planned a whirlwind tour of Midwestern battleground states before linking up with Clinton for a ceremonial passing of the torch before sweeping into Los Angeles at mid-week of the convention.
Despite the hubbub surrounding the selection, some warned the election won’t turn on the running mate in either party.
(tm)In the end, people are going to vote for a president, not a vice president,š said Bob Lichter of the Centre for Media and Public Affairs.
In making his decision, Gore picked Lieberman over a relatively short list of finalists. They included Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, North Carolina Senator John Edwards and Indiana Senator Evan Bayh.
Gore huddled privately with top aides into the wee hours yesterday before making his pick, phoning Lieberman at 11:58 am and closing the deal in a 12-minute call.
The campaign dispatched a private jet to whisk Lieberman and some family members to Nashville for a quiet dinner, making the announcement at a downtown plaza.
as his running mate for the White House. will put the spotlight on religious tolerance in America with an intensity not seen since John F Kennedy became the first Catholic president, analysts said.
We’re going to put religion into play in this election in such a way as hasn’t happened in 40 years,š said Cliff Zukin, director the Newark Star Ledger Eagleton-Rutgers poll. ™This is a new deal, and it’s going to be a good test of our religious tolerance,š said Zukin, who is also chairman of the Public Policy department at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Millions of people are going to adjust their sense of what Jews are based on what they see with Lieberman,š which Zukin called ™a tremendous opportunity.š But other analysts said it was precisely Kennedy’s election in 1960, when large numbers of voters had told pollsters they would not vote for a Catholic, that put to rest the religious affiliation issue.
(tm)Religion is going to be a major discussion,š said Tanya Melich, a political strategist and author, who cited the ™enormous stress the Republican Party has put on religionš as well as ™the great emphasis on (George W Bush’s) religiosityš at last week’s Republican convention. ™But it’s a very different country from the time before the Civil Rights movement. We keep broadening the types of people who can participate as leaders,š Melich added. Gallup polls have been monitoring US attitudes toward Jewish politicians since 1937, when only 46 percent said they would vote for a ™generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be Jewish.š
That number climbed steadily through the 1950s and 1960s, reaching 86 percent by 1969. Last year 92 percent of Americans said they would vote for a Jewish candidate. Pollster Lee Miringoff of the Marist College poll said the choice had trumped the Republican convention’s themes of tolerance and diversity, while risking little since those who might see Lieberman’s Jewishness as a factor would be unlikely to vote for Gore anyway.
(tm)It will be more significant in terms of boosting Jewish turnout in pivotal competitive states like California, Illinois, Ohio and New Jersey,š Miringoff said. Jews, who make up about three percent of the population but are more likely to vote than the overall populace, are clustered in a handful of states, mostly New York, California and Florida, with numbers in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. While many Jewish leaders privately wondered if it could be a negative factor, World Jewish Congress Executive Director Elan Steinberg said, ™the Jewish issue eventually falls by the wayside.š ™I don’t think his Jewishness has much impact at all. This really doesn’t matter except as an historic footnote.š Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, who is Jewish, agreed.
(tm)I don’t think it’s a major issue anymore. The election of Kennedy disposed of that issue,š Koch said.
As to Lieberman’s being Orthodox, which forbids working and other activities from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday, Koch said, “he has a responsibly for the country, and he’ll do whatever he has to do. If not, he can pray. There’s nothing wrong with a little prayer.š Under certain circumstances, Lieberman has carried out his duties as the US senator from Connecticut on the Sabbath, including attending the Senate impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. Jewish religious law allows people to break the Sabbath in order to save a life or work for the national security of their country, said Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith (ADL) national chairman Abraham Foxman.
Shortly after Gore selected Lieberman as the first Jew to run on the presidential ticket of a major party yesterday, Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said: ™We are going to be very, very respectful of his religion, as I think all people should be.š ™My guess is that most people in this country … think already there is too much campaigning going on,š Lehane said. ™Having a day off is probably a good thing for all of us.š REUTERS ts
Voting fopr gore, not clinton. Voting for gore not liberman.