Warren Christopher helped kill John Edwards' chances to be picked as vice president in 2000.
According to "No Excuses," a biography by campaign consultant Bob Shrum, Edwards "nearly got the nod" from Al Gore because he was a southerner with experience as an advocate.
But Christopher, a former secretary of state in charge of Gore's selection process, thought the North Carolina Democrat was "untested, unprepared and a reckless gamble," Shrum writes.
A report that Edwards had incorporated himself to avoid paying Medicare taxes was particularly damaging, he says.
"It had come up in the 1998 Senate race, and we'd beaten it back; but now it gave Warren Christopher an opening to renew the case against Edwards as too callow, too uncertain, too far out of the box."
Gore picked Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, but Gore reportedly told Edwards that the senator would be president someday regardless.
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