If there is one thing we have all seen during the Bush administration it is just how important the job of Vice-President has become. Even during the Clinton years, Al Gore was more of a partner than a veep, whose only constitutional job is to break ties in the Senate and nothing more.

That is why it is about time that voters know who Barack Obama and John McCain plan on being their number two.

There was a time when the selection of a vice-presidential candidate was made more as a means of strategy–how to win the South or the West or the Industrial states, etc.  But the position is clearly much more than that now and the public has a right to know as early as possible who is going to complete the two tickets.

Judgment

For one thing, the person selected to run for the number two spot is a pretty good indication of how the presidential candidate thinks and what his values are. Voters need their own time to think it through and not have someone rammed down their throats at the last possible minute.

Also, the sooner the selection is made by both candidates, the less likely voters will believe some backroom deal had been made.

Sure, you can make the argument, and the candidates do, that rushing to judgment is not good–that they want to make their decision carefully and methodically.

But there is no evidence that such a long drawn out decision making process actually results in a better candidate. Mr. Bush’s vice-president, after all, was actually supposed to be the one helping pick the right person to run with Bush, but, after a long process, concluded that he was that person.  And we all know what a good choice that turned out to be!

The conventions for both parties are fast upon us. Let’s get on with it, then.

Time for the candidates to actually make an important decision and lets us all in on it.