If the ruling party’s presidential bet Gilberto Teodoro Jr. thinks that choosing TV host-politician Edu Manzano as his running mate would ensure a win in the 2010 elections, he could be wrong, a political analyst said.

For Teodoro to choose Manzano only made the Lakas-Kampi-CMD presidential bet look “desperate," because it showed that none of the popular vice presidential bets, whom the administration reportedly courted, wanted to run the race with him, Ramon Casiple explained.

“The fact that he ended with Edu meant nobody wanted to run with him," he said in a phone interview with GMANews.TV on Friday.

Casiple added that it was “debatable" why Manzano was chosen, because the TV host-politician does not even have the “masa appeal" of a celebrity endorser – often the main reason why candidates with poor poll ratings go for popular actors.

It was also one of the “conventional traits," Casiple said, that Teodoro needed to endear himself to ordinary folk to pull up his poor ratings in the presidential surveys. Conventional traits include machinery, money, organization, popularity, among others.

In a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, Teodoro garnered only four percent of the votes when respondents were asked for their most preferred successor to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

According to Casiple, what made the Teodoro-Manzano tandem look more desperate is that they came from two different sectors – show business and politics. “They might end up not appreciating each other. They may end up having disagreements because they don’t have the same platforms."

Ronaldo Puno, Lakas-Kampi-CMD secretary general, stressed however that choosing the actor was a right move and that he would “never bet on losers."

But Casiple thought otherwise, saying that based on Manzano’s record in the political arena, he does not even have the continuous track record of a winner. A former Makati City vice mayor, Manzano had lost to incumbent Mayor Jejomar Binay in the 2001 mayoral race.

The administration bets “must really do their homework" if they wanted to win next year’s elections, the analyst stressed.

Casiple stressed that the 54-year-old actor would be pitted against Binay once again in the 2010 vice presidential race, along with “more popular candidates" Senators Loren Legarda and Manuel “Mar" Roxas II. – Aie Balagtas See, GMANews.TV