On friday a panel of Political Campaign experts participated in a discussion on the Vice President ial Selection Process. They also offered recommendations for the candidates during this election cycle. Taking part were former Campaign Staff members from the obama, mccain and Romney Campaigns. This is just under two hours. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] okay. Good morning. I direct the democracy project at the bipartisan center. Welcome today, we are here with a very distinguished group of people who have been thinking about Vice President ial selection. Im just going to have a few minutes here to introduce some people, and then im going to turn it over to our group. We are here today with a product of the working group, bpcs working group on Vice President ial selection. Many of you have it in your hands, others of you can find it online. It is a group that came together over the last six months, people who have seen up close the Vice President ial Selection Process and have some advice for the campaigns who are at it today and for the media who will be covering the selection over the next couple of months. Our day today is going to, were going to begin with the chairs of the working group as well as the other members coming up here. The chairs saying a few words, and then well have a couple panels to delve more into the recommendations both with panelists and with one of the leading scholars on the vice presidency. Isso begin with some introductions. We have on the panel, many of them with us today, maria sino with hewlettpackard, also the president and ceo of the 2008 Republican National convention and has been involve inside other conventions as well as other campaigns. A. P [inaudible] a partner at [inaudible] former white House Counsel, adviser to the 2008 Mccain Campaign as well as with other candidates going back to howard baker. Anita dunn, the managing director of skd nicker boxer and a Communications Director for the 2008 obama president ial campaign. And not only that campaign, many other president ial and other campaigns. Ben ginsburg, partner at jones day and National Counsel for romney for president as well as, again, other candidates. Tom pearl is not with us today, but as part of the group is a partner at jenner and block and was former u. S. Associate attorney general. Scott reid, again, not with us today but senior political separate just at the u. S. Chamber of commerce and Campaign Manager for the 1996 bob dole president ial campaign. Matt rhodes who is with us, chairman of america rising, and Campaign Manager for the 2012 romney president ial campaign and manny ruveles has been involved in numerous campaigns. So a distinguished group. But let me introduce the cochairs who will come here, say a few words about what this exercise was, give us some highlights. All the other working Group Members can come up here, and then well delve into the panels in more detail. The chairs of our working group are bob baur, bob is a partner at perkins coo by, former white House Counsel and general counsel to both the 2008 and 2012 obama president ial campaigns. And charlie black who is the chairman of the prime policy group, senior political adviser to 2008 mccain president ial campaign and involved in president ial campaigns going back at least to reagan in 1976. So a wealth of experience. So let me invite our cochairs, bob and charlie, to come here to the podium and the other working members to come assemble, sit, and then we will move into the panels after we hear the announcement of the report, the highlights, and well delve more into them during the day. Thank you. [inaudible conversations] well, thank you very much for your attendance and for those who are viewing, we hope youll enjoy this experience. We have, the Bipartisan Policy Center respond so or sponsors many, many important projects in order to try to bring our country together and to promote Good Government. In this case, you know, we know each other. The men and women who work in politics and president ial campaigns in both the democratic and republican parties know each oh. We have a lot in common. We have philosophical differences and sometimes get into partisan combat. But you know what . Its been my experience everybody whos a professional in either party really wants Good Government. They want their candidates with their viewpoint to win, but they really want the government to be effective. And thats what this project was about. We, with all our experience many both parties over in both parties over the last 30 to 40 years, weve seen that Vice President ial selections can be done well and that sometimes theyre not. And sometimes its just a matter that theres so much going on in a nomination contest that the process of selecting a Vice President is started too late or not properly planned and sometimes not properly vetted. Be we thought it was important and appreciated the bpc bringing us together to meet and discuss this and to try to come up with some suggested best practices. And i think weve got some good ones. Obviously, the consensus between people many both parties. So im going to let bob tell you a little bit about the highlights, and then well go to our panels. Well, as john mentioned, we also have with us today a leading scholar on the vice presidency, and it is in many respects an unusual institution, but its evolved dramatically. An institution about which, obviously, some skepticism was discussed early in the public. Daniel webster said something he did not propose it being suggested he become a Vice President or Vice President ial candidate. He didnt proposto be buried before he died. [laughter] and there were ore comments to that effect other comments to that effect. The circumstances have changed dramatically. The vice presidency is an extraordinary example of a high governmental, Constitutional Office that has e e loved. Evolved dramatically into a very substantive and significant role for which the president of the United States is accountable. In the end, the president ial nominees also have really extraordinary authority under our system to direct the selection of the nominee. Its a highly personal choice as well as a Political Choice as well as a governmental choice. And so our report looks at what this entirely privatized by highly significant policy needs. And i wont go into great detail here because the panels will explore it, we talk first and foremost about the importance of timing. It becomes essential later in the year that the process structured in a timely fashion so that theres ample time to do what is popularly called the vetting, but also time, for example, for the president ial candidate, for an office that requires so much mutual confidence and trust to be effective to get to know the Vice President ial nominees among whom the choice will be made. We talk about the structure of the vetting process, about the importance of confidentiality, about rooting out potential conflicts of interest that can distort the Decision Making process. And we talk also about what it means to account to the public for the Decision Making process on the Vice President ial selection. How the rollout of the Vice President ial nominee might be structured and basic questions with be raised or, rather, addressed that the public will have about the criteria that the president ial candidate weighed and ultimately decided the selection upon. And so we walk through all of this in these recommendations, and i just want to echo something as i close that charlie said which is, its always a pleasure to be in a room of people with whom, you know, you might be in somewhat regular partisan or political combat, but across the table theyre working with you as people who care about u. S. Government, they care about u. S. Politics in a thorough goingly nonpartisan sense. And all of us are deeply appreciative of the support we received from john forte and his team here at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Obviously, without their ongoing efforts to organize and keep the process running and tight, this exercise would not have been possible. So on behalf of the entire group assembled and on behalf of the cochairs or, charlie and myself, we wanted to thank bpc. [inaudible conversations] i think im here and then you just move down the road. Thats fine here. So were all here, and we heard a little from bob and charlie, but im going to start thinking about how this exercise came together. I do remember sitting with bob bauer and thinking and he saying, look, ive been thinking about this for a while. Do you want to tell a little bit of the story why you thought this kind of exercise was necessary. What brought you to the thinking that more substantive thinking about how to select the Vice President had to be done . Well, i touched upon it at the outset which is its really an unusual Selection Process. Here you have the second highest Constitutional Officer, the individual whos going to step into the role of president should it become necessary and who increasingly is expected to have and, in fact, i think this is fairly settled a very senior role in the government, the second most Important Role in the government as an adviser and as a troubleshooter and as somebody who is a full partner in a governmental administration. And yet, as we know, the person who decides who that will be is the nominee of the party. Now, granted, conventions can sometimes have some role. That is to say, apparently in the past conventions have made it clear, at least in one case i can think of, something who was on the mind of somebody who was on the mind of a president ial candidate would not pass muster with the delegates. But thats not typically the case. Its a very privatized process. Everything thats done in the selection of the Vice President ial nominee is done, essentially, behind closed doors. The vetting process by which the nominee is examined and qualifications scrutinized takes place behind closed doors. Some of it has to take place behind closed doors, but nonetheless, it raises fundamental questions about preparation and democratic accountability. And so ive been buttonholing people over time with comments on this topic. I remember i wore down a guest at a Wedding Party [laughter] matt bayh, and in order to escape me, he promised to write about it. And i buttonholed you, and i buttonholed the right person. [laughter] turning to charlie, i have two questions for you. One is bob, come to charlie black and, charlie, you thought also this was something that needed a bipartisan look, right . Not just one party. Tell us why you thought it was necessary or something from your experience that made you think it was necessary. Do that first, and then im going to get into one thing that you said very early on in our deliberations, that is one of our key recommendations about really getting to know the Vice President. Start with the general, and then ill move to that. Well, ive been involved at least on the fringes of vp selection in six or eight campaigns. Ive been right in the middle of it in two or three. And ive observed what the Democratic Party has done over this time. It seemed to me like we werent always vetting properly. Sometimes the nominee was making a decision without all the Background Information that they needed. Secondly, that on occasion theyre looking at a lust of people, some of whom list of people some of whom theyve never met, and the prospect of spending eight years with this person as your chief deputy if you dont know them pretty well is not good. And also, you know, i like for both parties to perform well and have the issues debated, sort of force the press to cover the issues and not chase personal scandals and things. And so id like for both parties to do it well. And, in fact, bob and i talked about this. We were involved in another bipartisan mission before, and we started talking about it, and he was right in what he said. So thanks to you again for pulling our group together under the bpc in order to discuss this and produce this report. Yeah, i noticed in both parties sometimes a selection that looked good on paper, and it might be good politically at least on the surface. And present netically parenthetically, Vice President s dont usually decide the election, no matter who you pick. The last time it mattered in the election was 1960. Because if kennedy had not picked lbj, lbj would not have sent John Connolly down to south texas to steel enough votes to to steal enough votes to [laughter] i refer you to robert caro if you want more detail on that. [laughter] nevertheless, its very important. It has an Important Role in the government. And you want somebody who not only will be in sync with the president s policies, but also the president s style and method of operation and the way of doing business. So i think if you put more focus on the process of getting to know people and getting to see how much they think alike and work together, its going to be that much better when you get into the government. Ive also been around administrations when they wished they could move Vice President s office over to the New Executive Office Building or something just to keep them from butting in on things, and its just not, thats not the way it should be. We should have a good debate, and win or lose, we ought to have a good team running the government. So i promised id follow up on a specific recommendation. We have a number of recommendations, its sort of like picking your favorite child here. But id say our two biggest ones relate one to the timing and the timeline, how long it takes. Its a significant amount of time. And, two, that the president ial nominee really has to get to know these Vice President ial choices, the people in the small circle that he might pick. And you brought this up, and in a way its a very simple point, but tell us what you mean by that, why its so important and why this choice sometimes has been made where there hasnt been a lot of knowledge between the two people, not a lot of time spent between the two people, a lot of understanding who that other person is . Well, you know, i can give you good examples and bad camps, but i bad examples, but i prefer to focus on the good. And matt can tell you how mitt romney got to know paul ryan well by campaigning with him, and he also had others that were potential running mates campaign with him so that the chemistry was there. On the other hand, you know, a couple of Vice President s had to sort of get to know the nominee after their selection, and thats in a time when theyre campaigning in different directions, and maybe theyre together once a week. And so if you do win, you get to the white house, and theres sort of time to get acquainted and figure out what the role should be. Youd be better to have somebody that you know and trust from the beginning. Yeah. And i was going to turn to matt because you, and our report even describes some of the ways in which the Romney Campaign really went out and tried to build some of those relationships among the top choices. So tell us, tell us what worked and what youd recommend to others. First, i just want to thank bob and charlie for inviting me to be a part of this panel. It was a real honor. Probably the first bipartisan thing ive of done in my life. [laughter] probably the last. [laughter] so if you look at report, i think theres three important things that go into selecting the Vice President ial nominee, and ive been on both sides where ive been a part of the team defending the pick and then ive been a part of the team trying to undermine the pick in 2004. Wiz the research i was the Research Director on the bushcheney undermine the pick of the other party. The other party. Not my own. Clarifying that for you. [laughter] turns out he was right. Turns out i was right. Thank you, charlie. But, obviously, the person has to be qualified to be president. They have to pass through the vetting process which theyll get into in the next panel. But i think chemistry is absolutely critical. And charlies right, i was exposessed to exposed to it. Congressman ryan ended up endorsing governor romney during our long slog primary process as we were leading into the wisconsin primary, and it was probably like march, i think, of 2012. And the two of hem had met ran of them had met randomly at, you know, aei events, but they didnt really have a real relationship. They had talked a few times. And i didnt have the chance to be on the road, because i was chained to my desk in boston running the campaign. But immediately when they started campaigning together, i started getting reports back from our advance team like, oh, my god, youve got to see these guys together. You know, mitts on stage doing town halls, and hes asking paul to come on s