In the choice of vice presidential nominee, the winning, and wealthy, party leadership perpetuates itself and its real policies into the future. Major campaign financing reforms, such as strict spending limits, free television time, and the limiting of campaigning to six weeks before primaries or conventions and six weeks before elections would limit the role of money. Then the vice president would not automatically function as heir apparent and de facto party chief, and voters might ultimately have real choices between candidates and parties. Norman Markowitz is a member of the history faculty at Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, N.J., and a writer for the History News Service. The History News Service, an independent, nonprofit distribution service provided by professional historians to the news media, offers commentary that places current issues in their historical perspectives.
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