While the losers of presidential elections get talked about, their running mates do not. However, I want to change that. Starting from 1900, of all the running mates of failed candidates, which do you think had the best chance of ever becoming president on their own(POD is 20 years maximum before their run), and which do you think would've been the best president if they did become so. I'm excluding any examples who became president, ran for president, was vice president or became vice president.
So the list is Henry G Davis(1904), John W Kern(1908), Hiram Johnson, Nicholas Murray Butler, Emil Seidel(1912), Charles W Bryan, Burton K Wheeler(1924), Joseph Tayloe Robinson(1928), Frank Knox(1936), Charles L McNary(1940), John W Bricker(1944), Earl Warren, Fielding L Wright(1948), John Sparkman(1952), Estes Kefauver(1956), Henry Cabot Lodge Jr(1960), William E Miller(1964), Edmund Muskie, Curtis LeMay(1968), Sargent Shriver(1972), Patrick Lucey(1980), Geraldine Ferraro(1984), Llyod Bentson(1988), James Stockdale(1992), Jack Kemp, Pat Choate(1996), Joe Liberman(2000), John Edwards(2004), Sarah Palin(2008), Paul Ryan(2012) and Tim Kaine(2016). Of these, who had the best shot of becoming president in their lifetime, and who would you hope did become president the most?