Politico contributing editor Bill Scher ranks Joe Biden's more thoughtful vice- presidential choices, but whose downsides, also according to Scher, I quote:
12. Stacey Abrams (former state House minority leader, Ga.): "The prospect of a manifestly underqualified vice president serving under a president who is pushing 80 is the opposite of reassuring."
11. Elizabeth Warren (Sen., Mass.): "Warren has a lot of strong attributes, but being a deferential team player is not one of them."
10. Susan Rice (former national security adviser): "Rice comes with the baggage of the Benghazi affair."
9. Laura Kelly (Gov., Kan.): "Kelly would be a long-shot pick" — for a whole lot of reasons.
8. Gretchen Whitmer (Gov., Mich.): "A January poll pegged her job approval at a very soft 43 percent."
7. Val Demings (Congresswoman, Fla.): "Her political résumé is thin: She is in only her third year in the House."
6. Michelle Lujan Grisham (Gov., N.M.): "Like Whitmer, her level of support at home is short of intimidating."
5. Catherine Cortez Masto (Sen., Nev.): "The low-key Cortez Masto has yet to make much of a national impression."
4. Tammy Duckworth (Sen., Ill.): "If the ideological left can’t forgive her dismissal of [Rep.] Ocasio-Cortez ['I think (she's) the future of the party in the Bronx'], she’s not the right choice to help unify the party."
3. Tammy Baldwin (Sen., Wis.): "The biggest downside is that her ascendance to the vice presidency would create a Senate vacancy that gets filled by a special election."
2. Amy Klobuchar (Sen., Minn.): "Klobuchar’s role, while district attorney, in imprisoning a black teenager on reportedly flimsy evidence could be used by Trump to try to weaken Biden’s support among black voters."
1. Kamala Harris (Sen., Calif.): "She struggled … with carving out a distinct ideological profile" in her presidential attempt.
However — and with this I still agree — "Biden’s vice presidential nominee would be most useful politically by shoring up his support among culturally liberal young voters eager to elect a woman of color in 2024…. The smart money is on Kamala, and no drama."
Of course the smart money has been known to be counterfeit when placed on vice-presidential picks, in that the nominee, on occasion, wants a dramatic, headlining surprise. (Somehow, though, McCain-Palin might, just might have contaminated the surprise factor.)
Still, whichever way one cares to cut it, political science studies have shown that, historically, any given vice-presidential choice had an electoral effect that extended no further than around 1 percent of the presidential nominee's total vote. After all, when was the last time you voted for the vice presidency? (See again, however, #12, which, I suppose, could upset history's record.)