Miscellaneous Musing #80: That’s Not the Ticket

The strange 2016 presidential contest became yet stranger when Republican non-frontrunner Ted Cruz chose a “running-mate”.  Sen. Cruz’s move (presumably a primary-minded calculation, made for such a reason as to capitalize Donald Trump’s perceived vulnerability with female voters) is interesting to an historian such as I, since this is probably the first time that someone who is unlikely to be nominated for the US presidency has selected someone to be the vice-presidential half of his yet-unrealized ticket.  Will Mr. Cruz’s maneuver set a precedent, or will posterity remember Carly Fiorina as the “running-mate who never was”?