When Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton phoned Al Gore one night in the summer of 1992, the Tennessee senator is said to have taken the call with his mouth full of barbecued meat.
Mr Clinton, the Democratic nominee for the White House, cut to the chase. Would Mr Gore agree to be his vice-presidential running mate? Mr Gore had barely emptied his mouth of food before he replied with an emphatic 'yes', at which point Mr Clinton turned to his wife Hillary and gave her an enthusiastic thumbs-up. Mr Gore had been his first choice as running mate, and the first person to whom he had posed the big question.
If only things were quite as simple for Republican Bob Dole. So many names have already been thrown into the ring on his behalf that his campaign aides would need a couple of filing cabinets to store them. And sadly, the number one choice on his list - retired general Colin Powell - not only took himself out of consideration last autumn, but recently rebuffed Mr Dole's quiet advances for him to reconsider.
When a 'politician' as wildly popular as Mr Powell has flirted with running for the White House and then so abruptly withdrawn, it becomes impossible for Mr Dole to find an alternative who will not forever be seen as a second choice. But try he must; the choice of running mate is always seen as a crucial move by presidential candidates, and with the Dole campaign currently digging itself into a hole full of strategic errors and lapses in judgment, his decision on the issue could be a make-or-break one.
Vice-presidential candidates serve a number of uses to their boss, most importantly the ability to deliver key votes from their state or region. Mr Gore, for example, helped bring in some extra southern voters despite the general drift in the south towards the Republican party. Similarly, Mr Dole has the option of choosing a Californian or Mid-western running mate in order to deliver votes in those two areas, which could tip the balance in the November election.
Running mates also offset the characteristics of the main man, perhaps adding some qualities he doesn't have while possessing the necessary gravitas to look credible as the chief executive should the incumbent die (or be impeached) in office. George Bush, for example, ran against Ronald Reagan in the 1980 primaries but looked a good choice for No 2 when Mr Reagan won.
The last thing running mates should do is be a handicap on the ticket. Mr Dole knows this well, since he partly blames his own lacklustre performance as Gerald Ford's running mate in 1976 on the subsequent defeat by the previously unknown Jimmy Carter. (Coming as it did in the shadow of the Watergate scandal, the Dole effect is impossible to calculate).