Just ask Dick Cheney. In 2000, after locking up the Republican presidential nomination, George W. Bush tapped Cheney to lead his vice presidential search committee. After an exhaustive search, in which Cheney vetted eleven candidates with an exhaustive 83-question form, the then-Halliburton CEO put himself forward and was selected. It was, as Scott Horton of Harper’s wrote, “a kind of prologue to the play of the Bush-Cheney years. ... Cheney worked in strict secrecy and sidestepped the scrutiny he imposed on others.”
On Wednesday, Trump announced that Ben Carson—who, lest we forget, Trump once compared to a child molester—will lead his vice presidential search committee. Appearing on Morning Joe, Trump suggested he wanted to go with someone with political experience. “I have the business, let’s call them talents, and I think I’ll probably go the political route,” he said. “Somebody that can help me with legislation and somebody that can help me get things passed and somebody that’s been friends with the senators and congressmen and all so we don’t have to go the executive order route as much as Obama did, you know, where he can’t get anything approved, so he just keeps signing executive orders.” Setting aside the most astonishing thing here—that a major party’s presidential nominee is openly admitting that he doesn’t know how to get legislation passed—this suggests that Trump would want an experienced politician as his running mate.
My money, for what it’s worth, is on Newt Gingrich, because Trump plans on turning this election into the worst episode of I Love the 90s ever. But Carson, often underestimated because of his sleepy affect, could make a play, which means that we might end up with the least experienced political ticket ever.