[inchaaruutaa]

Giving the benefit of the doubt that it may have cost him the election (which I would argue it didn't since Nixon was pro-civil rights himself and he would have had to sweep the south to get the 50 extra electoral votes he needed, which was even tougher since Byrd took 14. In addition, Lodge was a highly respected and competent politician.), we're still talking 1 election in 52 years and the first election in what I would consider the "modern era" of Presidential elections (I use the first televised debate as a watermark). Plus, it wouldn't have been his background and history and experience that was the controversial point, but a comment on a policy issue during the campaign.

Which is more so the point. You want a VP that doesn't screw something up, can stay on message and is a team player.



Correct.

I'm not suggesting Lodge was a poor choice, or that he even did all that poorly as a running mate. It's just the only case I can think of where it's conceivable that a Veep candidate definitively influenced the outcome the election.