How Much A Kamala Harris VP Pick Matters, Presidential Historian Explains

3 months ago

Historian and Professor Allan Lichtman joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss how important a vice presidential pick is.

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Transcript

00:00I know that this isn't a key but because this is a really historic moment it's

00:05unprecedented. How much do you think VP pick matters? Let's say the nominee ends

00:10up being Vice President Kamala Harris. Who she picks as a running mate? Does

00:14this sway voters minds? Does this impact the keys at all? It does not impact the

00:21keys at all. The keys are the northern star of politics. They remain fixed. You

00:26know every four years someone comes to me and says this year is unprecedented.

00:31You have to change your keys. We have an African-American running. America is not

00:36ready to elect an African-American. We have a woman running. We have social

00:40media. We have the access Hollywood would take but my answer is always you can't

00:45change a model on the fly. That's a recipe for error. Moreover the keys are

00:52extremely robust. Developmentally they go all the way back to 1860 the election

00:59of Abraham Lincoln. When women couldn't vote most African-Americans were

01:02enslaved. We had no polls, no automobiles, no jet planes, no radio, no television. So

01:09the keys have survived vastly greater changes in our economy, our society, our

01:14demography, and our politics than anything we see today. You know we tend to look at

01:20things unfortunately in the lens of the immediate present. I think my role as an

01:26historian and predictor is to look at the broader picture.

How Much A Kamala Harris VP Pick Matters, Presidential Historian Explains

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