georgedwilkinson
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- Mar 4, 2008
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The concept of running mate goes back to the early days of the US. Both the President and Vice President had to be from the same party. Otherwise, if you had a Republican president and a Democrat vice president and the Congress was controlled by the Democrats, the Democrats might just cook up some phony charges, impeach the president and get their man in as president.
No references, that was the way it was explained to me.
Hmmm...as I recall my US History classes, initially the VP was the loser from the opposing party. Having a running mate came along later. I think the reason they changed it was because of the possibility of such intrigue.
Not sure why they ever cared about impeachment, Bill Clinton was impeached and all that happened to him was Hillary yelled at him. Since she probably always did that anyway, it was business as usual for him.
I think some state governor races still appoint the losing candidate as Leiutenant Governor. I think I recall something like that from my 4th grade Florida history class.