Why no foreign-born American as president?

When does the presidential nominee have to choose a vice presidential candidate by?
A vice presidential candidate must be chosen by the time the party’s national convention opens, or at least by the day the convention officially nominates its ticket.

After all, the purpose of the convention is to officially nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates.

By tradition, the announcement is usually made shortly before the convention, although in 1980 Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan picked George H.W. Bush on the second day of the convention, after a tentative deal with former president Gerald Ford to serve as Reagan’s running mate fell apart.

How does the winner decide his/her running mate? Can they choose the runner-up to be the vice presidential candidate?
The winner often decides to pick someone who can bring strength to the ticket in a part of the country that the presidential nominee is not from.

For example, in 1988, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, the Democratic presidential nominee, picked Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas as his running mate. In 1932, Gov. Franklin Roosevelt of New York chose House Speaker John Nance Garner of Texas as his running mate. The Roosevelt-Garner ticket carried Texas; the Dukakis-Bentsen ticket did not.

Sometimes a running mate is picked for ideological balance, or because they have the reputation of being an experienced Washington operator (Dick Cheney in 2000 comes to mind).

When and why did the vice-president stop being the person who came in second in the electoral vote count?
In the first four presidential elections, starting in 1789, no distinction was made between electors’ ballots for president and vice president. The person getting the most votes was president; the person with the second highest number of votes was chosen vice president.

But with the development of political parties (not anticipated by the Framers of the Constitution) this led in 1796 to Federalist John Adams being elected president and his rival, Republican Thomas Jefferson being elected vice president.

Jefferson actively opposed Adams — which made for an unhappy presidency.

In 1800 there was confusion when an electoral vote tie occurred.

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The Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804, tried to clarify the process: electors would now cast separate ballots for president and for vice president. With the dominance of a two-party system, electors more and more tended to be party loyalists and voted for the president and vice presidential candidates their party had nominated.

National conventions

What is a national party convention?
It is a quadrennial event during which the party formally nominates its presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Do delegates to national conventions perform any substantive function?
They cast their votes for the person they want to be their party’s presidential nominee. But usually, party’s choice for nominee has been decided by the time the delegates get to the convention.

The delegates end up ratifying a choice that has already been made by the voters. They also serve as colorful backdrop for the candidate’s acceptance speech and do a lot of socializing in the convention's host city.

When was the last time there was a national convention at which the outcome was in any doubt?
There has not been a convention at which the nominee was in any doubt since the Republican Convention in 1976 in Kansas City, where it looked like Ronald Reagan might be able to take the nomination from President Gerald Ford.

Superdelegates

During the Democratic presidential nominating contest, we heard an awful lot about the so-called superdelegates. Who or what are they?
The category includes Democratic governors and members of Congress, former presidents and former vice presidents, retired congressional leaders, and all Democratic National Committee members, some of whom are appointed by party chairman Howard Dean.

They are not elected to be delegates by voters in a primary or caucus. Instead they are delegates ex officio by virtue of the office they hold, or by virtue of being members of the Democratic National Committee.

The Democratic Party created the superdelegate system in the 1980s to give the party’s elected officials more of a voice in choosing the presidential nominee.

Do superdelegates have extraordinary powers or privileges which regular delegates do not possess?
No, they don’t. They have one vote at the convention just like the other delegates.

The presidential nominee

Has a presidential nominee ever had to step down after being nominated by his party?
No.

Has a vice presidential nominee ever had to step down after being nominated by his or her party?
Yes. In 1972, Sen. Thomas Eagleton of Missouri was the Democratic vice presidential candidate chosen by presidential nominee Sen. George McGovern. Less than two weeks after the Democratic convention, news reports revealed that Eagleton had been hospitalized for exhaustion and depression in the 1960s and had undergone psychiatric care and electroshock treatments.

At first, McGovern announced his support for Eagleton to remain on the ticket but he soon stepped aside.

McGovern and the Democratic National Committee then chose R. Sargent Shriver, former Peace Corps head and brother-in-law of Sen. Edward Kennedy.

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