Selecting a Vice President – May God Help Her or Him 

       Right now we have both the Republican and Democratic presumptive, uh, just a minute. Is this the first time the word presumptive has been used to describe a possible presidential candidate? I don’t remember hearing it used in this context before. Maybe I’ve just not been paying attention. I think I’ve been accused of that once or twice before. 
      But I digress. 
      I looked up the word in my Oxford English Dictionary. Of course, this is an English publication. Paraphrasing Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, the English and Americans haven’t spoken the same language for over 100 years. 
      But I digress again. 
      My dictionary gives this blurp on the word “Presumptive – adjective, presumed in the absence of further information, or behaving with disrespectful boldness; presumptuous.” 
     For the word presumptuous I get “Presumptuous - adjective - behaving with disrespectful boldness.” 
     Okay, I can see that all in both candidates. 
     Back to the start: We have both candidates trotting out one possible VP after another. I think they’re hoping the public will latch onto one of these possible running mates and give the candidates some direction on who to choose. No matter if each choice may or may not be any good at actually being a VP. 
      Why either candidate thinks the general public has the knowledge or skills to pick a viable VP is questionable. After all, look who the majority of them voted for in the primaries. 
      The whole thing reminds me of a horse auction, where the possible buyers get to inspect the merchandise before the auction begins. You know, checking their teeth, feeling the legs for scars from past surgeries or fractures, running the hands over the whole horse, like they know what they’re doing, asking about the gasping sound the horse is making, like it just galloped all the way to the sale. And asking why the middle of the back is so noticeable lower than the withers or its croup or why it only stands on three legs (My grand niece and nephew, Tara and John, sure could have been a help with this part.) 
     Anyway, that’s what the American public is doing to these VP possibles. 
      Either each candidate is unsure of their own ability to choose a running mate, or both candidates are just pimping out a stable of VP choices to see who gets the most action. 
      If nothing else, it’s slightly entertaining. 
      I just feel sorry for the poor schmucks who get picked.