Reporter’s Notebook: In Veep Search, House Members Often Overlooked

By Chad Pergram It’s said that all 100 senators arise each morning and see a man or woman capable of being president staring back at them in the mirror. It’s unlikely that House members do the same, even when it comes to the vice presidency. After all, Gerald Ford was the last sitting House member to graduate to the vice presidency. And the last congressman to be directly elected to that job was House Speaker John Nance Garner, D-Texas, under President Franklin Roosevelt. Former Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, D-N.Y., was Walter Mondale’s unsuccessful pick for vice president in 1984. As for the Republicans, you’d have to scrape all the way back to 1868 and House Speaker Schuyler Colfax, R-Ind., to find a GOPer whom voters drafted to move from the House to the vice presidency. Bottom line: the House isn’t a bastion of vice presidential timber. Except this year. Both Barack Obama and John McCain are on the precipice of tapping their running mates. The conventional ... (link)