.SHORTLY AFTER revealing his run for the Democratic nomination in 1960, John F. Kennedy said: "I do not recall a single situation where a vice-presidential applicant contributed an appointing vote." Still, the north-easterner picked Lyndon Johnson as his running-mate, wishing that the legislator coming from Texas would aid him in southern conditions. Johnson tore across the South in a train nicknamed the LBJ Express, coming to rallies in a ten-gallon hat to the tensions of "The Yellow Rose of Texas". After he succeeded, Kennedy accepted that "our experts couldn't have actually held the South without Johnson". That Johnson "provided the South" is now acquired wisdom. But how much distinction carry out vice-presidential picks actually create in political elections?