There were words, ‘August pick, October pick, and January pick” in the article titled
“Biden’s Brief – Obama picked his running-mate to help him govern,” appearing in New Yorker magazine October 20 issue. The article deals with the character and political records of Joe Biden who made a name in the recent vice presidential debate by making for President Obama’s lethargic representation in the preceding presidential debate.
The words appear in the following statement:
In 2004, when John Kerry was conducting his search for a running mate,
he divided his options into three groups, based on the electoral
calendar. “Kerry said you can pick either a Mr. August, a Mr.
October, or a Mr. January,” David Wade, who was Kerry’s press
secretary at the time and is now serving in that role for Biden, told
me. “In a perfect world, you have someone who is all three.”By Kerry’s logic, Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor, whom John McCain
named as his running mate, was an August pick. An October pick
tends to be political—someone with strong, even strident campaign
skills, Kerry’s choice—John Edwards—may have fallen into that
category.”
As I’m totally ignorant of political affairs in U.S., I have no idea about what August, October, and January pick mean, though I understand Mr. August, Mr. October, and Mr. January mean respectively those who are picked up as the presidential running-mate according to the political calendar.
Are they political jargons, or just an application of greengrocery terms? What do they mean?
Best Answer
Oishi-san, it works this way in the political calendar:
An August pick happens around the time of the political conventions, and is calculated to arouse the party base.
An October pick is calculated to be a strong campaigner right before the election, which takes place on the first Tuesday of the following month.
A January pick, however, is someone who would be a good and competent Vice President after the inauguration. One supposes the January pick would be chosen only if the president needed no help to win the election, and was perceived as a shoo-in — the way Nixon was in 1972, say.