# Best Vice Presidents **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 21, 1999, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066 "1999-12-21T14:47:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/1 "1999-12-21T14:47:00Z")
They’re rarely recognized except if they go on to be President. Heck, two of them made it onto Mt. Rushmore. Anyway: _While they were VP,_ who was, in your opinion, the best Vice President of the US, and why? ## My nomination: Thomas R. Marshall (Wilson’s VP). He was very personalble and had a great sense of humor:[list] [li]In 1917, during a Senate debate on the country’s needs, he said, “What this country needs is a good five-cent cigar.”[/li][li]He asked people passing by his office in the Capitol to toss his some food, as if he were a caged zoo animal[/li][li]Gave a book to Wilson after their election win, inscribed: “From your only Vice”. (Wilson was not amused, however.)[/li] I looked in the mirror today/My eyes just didn’t seem so bright I’ve lost a few more hairs/I think I’m going bald - Rush ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/2 "1999-12-21T14:59:00Z")
I nominate Alben William Barkley because he did almost nothing. * * * “It is lucky for rulers that men do not think.” — Adolf Hitler ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/3 "1999-12-21T15:24:00Z")
\*Libertarian: I nominate Alben William Barkley because he did almost nothing. \* Hey! We have the same initials! Watch what you’re saying. 🙂 For nothingness, try Hanibal Hamlin. Instead of serving in DC as VP, he went back to Maine and served as a private in the Coast Guard throughout the Civil War. * * * I looked in the mirror today/My eyes just didn’t seem so bright I’ve lost a few more hairs/I think I’m going bald - Rush ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/4 "1999-12-21T15:51:00Z")
I don’t know how to answer this one. This could almost be worded “Which VP dressed best at funerals?” ---
**Author:** ![Surgoshan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Surgoshan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surgoshan)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/5 "1999-12-21T15:56:00Z")
Um, until recently, the veep was window dressing, he was a useless functionary and was thus used to “balance the ticket” (try to make more people happy). I don’t know who it was that first used his VP to do something useful for the country, but it was in the last 40 or 50 years. If you want a VP that did nothing, just look to 1950 or earlier. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/6 "1999-12-21T16:21:00Z")
Who was it who said the vice Presidency wasn’t worth a bucket of warm spit? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/7 "1999-12-21T16:27:00Z")
To pursue Surgo’s thoughts a bit, Walter Mondale (Carter’s VP) was the first one to have real responsibilities, AFAIK. So that really limits the field to Mondale, Bush, Quayle :), and Gore. Unless you buy Lib’s reasoning that the less a public official does, the better they’ve done. Kennedy made Lyndon Johnson his VP partly for ticket-balancing, and partly because it put Johnson in the position where he could cause Kennedy fewer problems than anywhere else. I’d bet a bucket of money that Lyndon absolutely hated being VP; probably felt like he’d been put in a gilded cage. ---
**Author:** ![KeithB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KeithB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KeithB)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/8 "1999-12-21T16:56:00Z")
It was actually Barkley, a distant relation of mine who made the “warm spit” remark, and it was actually “warm piss.” ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/9 "1999-12-21T16:57:00Z")
RT, your “warm spit” quote was John Nance Garner, AKA Cactus Jack (long before Mick Foley adopted that as one of his wrestling personae). He is also famous for the line: “A family had two sons. One ran away to sea; the other was elected Vice President. Neither was ever heard from again.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/10 "1999-12-21T17:08:00Z")
Poly - ROFL! Hadn’t heard the ‘two sons’ line before - I’ll have to remember that one. Split decision on the origins (and original wording?) of the ‘bucket of warm \_\_\_’ remark. I’ve searched a number of Web quotation sites, including Bartlett’s; no luck. Have printed references I can check but they’re at home. ---
**Author:** ![KeithB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KeithB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KeithB)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 1999, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/11 "1999-12-22T06:16:00Z")
I’ll bet the “warm” quote is attributed correctly in that seemingly funny book about vice presidents used a source in the “Vice-President’s Residence” question to the mailbag. ---
**Author:** ![KeithB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KeithB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KeithB)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 1999, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/12 "1999-12-22T06:26:00Z")
I thought it rude to mention a link without providing it so here it is: [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mvphouse.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mvphouse.html) (Though I do not know how to do it with UBB codes.) The book is “Bland Ambition.” ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 1999, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/13 "1999-12-22T06:51:00Z")
_KeithB: The book is “Bland Ambition.”_ ## I love that book. Two thumbs up! I looked in the mirror today/My eyes just didn’t seem so bright I’ve lost a few more hairs/I think I’m going bald - Rush ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/14 "1999-12-21T19:01:00Z")
“The vice-presidency isn’t worth a bucket of warm piss.” John Nance Garner, said to (soon-to-be Vice President) Lyndon Baines Johnson “A family had two sons. One ran away to sea; the other was elected Vice President. Neither was ever heard from again.” was Thomas Marshall. (both of these according to my copy of _Bland Ambition_.) My favorite vice-president? Probably Alben Barkley. A fun guy, a great Senator, and anyone who dies on such great cue deserves honors. (For those unfamiliar with it, Barkley had given a commencement speech and was being asked questions by the students; when someone asked how he felt regarding returning to the Senate, he stated “I shall serve in the Senate so long as the good Lord shall allow” and promptly fell dead of a heart attack. Almost as good as Sedgewick, IMHO. * * * JMCJ Die, Prentiss, Die! You will never have a more glorious opportunity! ---
**Author:** ![JoeyBlades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@JoeyBlades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeyBlades)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/15 "1999-12-21T19:19:00Z")
That’s a toss up. Quayle was a good VP because he made Bush look like a freaking genius, but Ford kept Nixon out of jail, so that has to count for something… What? Oh, you didn’t mean who was the best from his President’s point of view? Well E-X-C-U-S-E… ME! If you’re talking “good of the nation” kind of best, then I’d put George Bush first and Al Gore second… I don’t particularly like either one of them, but they’ve probably done the most good in their extra curricular activities, in spite of being vice presidents… ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/16 "1999-12-21T19:49:00Z")
_JoeyBlades: Quayle was a good VP because he made Bush look like a freaking genius_ ## He was also better than a whole squad of Secret Service agents. Assassins just figured offing Bush would leave Q in charge, so they’d better not. 🙂 🙂 I looked in the mirror today/My eyes just didn’t seem so bright I’ve lost a few more hairs/I think I’m going bald - Rush ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/17 "1999-12-21T20:26:00Z")
I’m sorry, but asking “In all of U.S. history, who was the best vice president?” is like asking “In all of NFL history, who was the best ball holder for kickers?” * * * The truth, as always, is more complicated than that. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/18 "1999-12-21T20:38:00Z")
WHOA, Tracer, that there’s an IMPORTANT job, unlike Veep. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/19 "1999-12-21T21:13:00Z")
Here’s a pretty good and difficult Veep quiz. Only 20 questions. [http://www.catsdogs.com/veepquiz.html](http://www.catsdogs.com/veepquiz.html) * * * “A zebra does not change its spots.” ~Al Gore, 1992~ ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066/20 "1999-12-21T21:56:00Z")
tracer, I’m gonna have to quote that one! If someone famous had said that, it would make the anthologies… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-vice-presidents/17066.md?page=2)