The biggest scoop any reporter could get right now is to find out who the respective presidential running mates are going to be.The best scoop may be the one columnist Martin Schram told about in a recent column. Schram says that in 1960, a cub reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times hid in the bathroom of a Chicago hotel suite and locked the door just moments before Richard Nixon met with Republican Party leaders. Sitting in the dark, the reporter, a friend of mine who was then a bit more eager than smart, discovered hed forgotten his notepad, Schram writes. Luckily, his hideaway was equipped with a roll of precious, perforated paper. And so, as the party elders whittled the field, the young scribe scribbled on toilet paper his scoop of how Nixon chose Henry Cabot Lodge.Throughout history, the choosing of a running mate may have actually held more excitement than the actual duties itself. Thats beginning to change, albeit slowly. Its only been since 1967 when the 25th Amendment to the Constitution was enacted that if the president dies, resigns or is removed the office, the Vice President shall become President for the remainder of the four-year term. Before that, he was just considered an acting president.It seems that the office and people filling it had handled it just about as many different ways as there were occupants. Some went on to political greatness; but many found it difficult to rise out of the shadows of the president they had served under especially if he had been successful and popular. Perhaps that explains why former President George Bush, the present Republican presidential candidates father was the first incumbent vice president to be elected at the top of the ticket since Martin Van Buren did it in 1836. Bush recognized the historical significance of his presidential victory in 1988 by quipping, Its been a long time, Marty, at his first post-election news conference. As recently as the mid-1970s, vice presidents were forced to arrange their own housing, and were relegated to offices in the Capitol and the Old Executive Building and were forced to steal speech writers from the White House. But now, vice presidents have a separate line item in the budget and their own large staff, as well as an office in the West Wing. No longer must they find their own housing, its in the Admirals House at the Naval Observatory. It used to be that the top two persons on the ticket were intentionally chosen by party leaders from opposite wings of the party and often did not trust each other, today the vice president is often the most trusted adviser the president has. And although the actual power of a vice president remains somewhat constitutionally weak except when, as president of the Senate, he would cast a tie-breaking vote, he performs some critical roles. He also holds membership on the National Security Council, is the second-ranking leader in the party and serves at sensitive diplomatic functions.The choice of a running mate can either bring votes to the ticket or drive constituencies the other way. All of which means the choices George W. Bush and Al Gore make as running mates are crucial and secretive. By the way, anybody who says they know who either is going to pick doesnt. Nobody does. This would be a terrible issue to lay a bet on. Consider not-so-long-ago history when President Bush unveiled Dan Quayle as his running mate in 1988. Whoever the vice president ends up being, lets hope he or she will be ready to take on the increasingly prestigious role and ready to step in if God forbid anything should happen to the president.