That’s not entirely true
Point taken. But out of dozens he’s the only assassin, or prospective assassin, I know of who said or wrote anything of the sort. Most would-be assassins don’t care who comes after the guy they kill.
Vice presidents in recent years have become to be known as unimpeachment insurance.
I agree but I don’t think that’s really the issue we’re discussing here. The issue wasn’t that Sarah Palin wasn’t Presidential - it wasn’t her role to look Presidential. The problem was that John McCain looked less Presidential for having picked Palin.
He was President at the time, though.
I think the last candidate who was was Lloyd Bentsen, who was picked partly in the vain hope that it would make Texas competitive. It ended up backfiring, because it Bentsen was more impressive than Dukakis, but…
I misread the quote I was looking at; I thought it said “Name one thing a VP has done as prez.” That of course is an invitation to recite the resume of Dick Cheney.
Not entirely. McCain is old enough that people were seriously worried that he might have health problems, and Palin would have to take over. Sure, it wasn’t as bad Truman with FDR, but it was a consideration.
In fact, a lot of people thought Palin was campaigning to be president. Quite often people framed the choice as being Obama or Palin. The fact that she didn’t even seem vice-presidential, let alone presidential, really hurt the ticket.
I think Obama was going to win regardless, but I think it would have been a lot closer If McCain had picked one of his opponents in the primary–all of whom had campaigned to be president.
Mr. Dooley has it about right:* " If ye say about a man that he’s good prisidintial timber he’ll buy ye a dhrink. If ye say he’s good vice-prisidintial timber ye mane that he isn’t good enough to be cut up into shingles, an’ ye’d betther be careful.*
Woodrow Wilson’s VP, Thomas R. Marshall, joked, “Once there were two brothers. One ran away to sea; the other was elected Vice President of the United States. And nothing was heard of either of them again.” Daniel Webster declined the job twice, saying, “I do not propose to be buried until I am really dead and in my coffin.”
Johnson had attained so much power in both houses of the legislature that he was a factor in the Kennedy adminstration. Even though he was not well excepted within Kennedy’s White House, Congress had to assume that Johnson could exert his influence with congressional leaders. Nixon, preceding him as VP also had attained a certain amount of political influence as well. Johnson and Nixon as VPs and presidents represented the peak of presidential power in this country. The period that encompassed the Truman, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Bush I presidencies may have made the VP seem like a more important role than prior history would indicate. As I mentioned previously, presidents tend to keep an eye out for running mates that the congress might prefer, to reduce their chance if being impeached or removed from office. But since Johnson, they have been considered a major factor in the election process, filling out the presidents appeal across the country. In the case of Clinton-Gore, two southerners were considered a way to neutralize the republican southern strategy. With Bush-Cheney, Cheney appealed to the traditional publicans and neo-cons who realized Bush was a moron. Bush-Quayle was a clear case of a president protecting himself from impeachment for the crimes he committed as VP.