Before the Tennessee Republican / Law and Order actor pulled the plug on his campaign, Fred Thompson should have turned to Hollywood one more time and selected as his running mate one of the scores of actors who have portrayed VEEPs in movies and on TV.
A runningmate who had high name visibility with the voting public and also vice presidential experience may have helped him get his Hollywood ending. So what if it’s fictional? Big deal.
Geena Davis: Portrayed Vice President MacKenzie Allen in the short-lived ABC drama Commander in Chief (2005-06).
Pluses: Besides appealing to the all-important women’s vote, Davis is way hotter than Hillary Clinton and thus would likely attract men who would vote for her on her looks alone. Like Thompson, she’s also a very tall drink of
Minuses: In Commander in Chief, she became President after the previous chief executive died in office from a sudden ruptured cerebral aneurysm. That can’t possibly sit well with Thompson.
Kenneth Welsh: Played Vice President Raymond Becker in the climate change disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow (2004).
Pluses: Hardly a household name, Welsh nonetheless would appeal to the hard right Republican base since his character pooh-poohed all that global warming nonsense.
Minuses: His character pooh-poohed all that global warming nonsense. And he was clearly patterned after the ever popular Dick Cheney.
Patricia Wettig: best known for the yuppie soap-like Thirtysomething (1987-91), but more recently played Vice President Caroline Reynolds on Fox’s Prison Break.
Pluses: Wettig’s Reynolds was a strong, accomplished Hillary-like figure who, like Davis, might also appeal to female voters.
Minuses: To further her seemingly boundless political ambitions, her character collaborated with “The Company” to fake the death of her brother and frame an innocent man for his murder. When “The Company” turned against her and President Richard Mills refused to support her bid for the presidency, she arranged his assassination, thereby becoming the Chief Executive. Now that’s gotta give Thompson second thoughts.
Tim Matheson: portrayed Vice President John Hoynes in ABC’s The West Wing (1999-2006).
Pluses: During the 1998 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, New Hampshire governor Josiah Bartlet, the party’s presidential nominee, convinced Matheson’s Hoynes to be his running-mate; Hoynes, a former Senator from Texas, delivered the South except the Lone Star State. Hmmm.
Minuses: Well, ok, he’s a Dem. Picky, picky. More to the political baggage point, he resigned after a sex scandal in 2003, attempted a political comeback to gain his party's nomination for the presidency in 2006, but failed due to another sex scandal. Which reminds us: guess it’s a safe bet that one Republican who most definitely won’t be Thompson’s running mate is Larry Craig.
