This is cross-posted at www.whatsrequiredky.com. This site will go dormant on Wednesday.
To follow-up on what was written earlier this morning, there’s the beginnings of doing away with our current selection process for Lt. Governor.
This is nothing but good news, despite the misgivings of some on the panel who have apparently become too hung up in the Clinton-Obama Dream Team Ticket With Sparkles. To put it simply, there’s one criteria to evaluate a Lieutenant Governor by, and that’s whether or not that person is ready to be Governor. Because the Governor might die. End of story. Does it make sense, then, that the selection process has locked out the most talented individuals, those best qualified to hold office, because they lost the primary leading their own ticket? Or that some talented candidates have tempered their ambition and signed on to be a Lieutenant Governor when they should have run for the big chair?
In defense of the present system, you can imagine how selecting a LT early would foster team unity, and ensure that the ticket was unified, as opposed to a shotgun wedding of two high-end candidates who may not like each other. It also can heavily influence who votes for whom during the primaries; a decent candidate can be taken over the top with the addition of an exceptional running mate. But that, too, is part of the reason our talent deficit has occurred, because those exceptional running mates have more often than not only been exceptional in their provincialism. This way, every candidate must stand on their own, and when they select their Lieutenant, they’ll be far more likely to get top-tier talent.
