I have a very long history of always losing money on the vice presidential choices in American election campaigns. This is not something that is decided by primaries or elections of some form but is the personal choice of the presumptive nominee in this case Joe Biden.

I’ve moved around so much in the betting on this that I have now cashed out on Betfair making a small profit whatever happens. I have another bet on Susan Rice at Ladbrokes because I think the she might just be the one that Biden decides on.

Oxford-educated Rice was a key player in the Obama White House serving as national Security advisor and then as the Ambassador to the United Nations. She holds no elected position but given that Biden has committed himself to choosing a woman and the pressure at the moment to have someone who is non-white then she seems to fit the bill.

We could have some time to wait because normally the presumptive nominee makes his/her choice shortly before the convention which because of the pandemic has been put back to mid-August.

My reading of Biden who would be 78 on inauguration day if he won will go for someone who he is familiar with and of course they worked alongside each other for 8 years during the Obama administration.

Mike Smithson