"That being said, can anyone tell me if the vice presidential nominee has ever been changed this late in the game, and how did it bode for that campaign?"

1972, the year George McGovern ran against Richard Nixon.

McGovern's first VP pick was a man named Eagleton. But it soon surfaced that Eagleton had dealt with mental-health problems some years before. In those days that was the kiss of death, so 18 days after the convention, Eagleton was replaced by Sargent Shriver (yes, related to Maria Shriver, first lady of California).

That fiasco resulted in much more detailed checking into backgrounds.

1972 was the election that involved the Watergate break-in and coverup, which ultimately resulted in Nixon's resignation. It was the election where the Republican Committee to REElect the President (known appropriately by the acronym CREEP) reached new lows in dirty tricks. The Watergate break-in, to steal information from the DNC HQ, was just one of them.

Ever wonder why every piece of campaign literature has fine print that says who paid for it and wrote it? And why every TV or radio commercial has the candidate saying "I approved this"? It's because of dirty tricks played by CREEP (and caught) in the '72 election.

Google "Eagleton shriver" for more.

define what a "hockey mom" really is?

I mean, I love hockey, but is a VP candidate really defining herself by the sport her kid used to play?

How many practices did she carpool? How many games did she attend? How many uniforms did she clean?

And how is it any different from a mother whose kid(s) play baseball, football, soccer, basketball, field hockey or lacrosse?

Or who are in the band, the orchestra, the other performing arts, the math club, etc.?

Plain American English, please, not these silly code-words.