I don’t follow politics,except what I see on the news,he doesn’t get mentioned hardly at all compared to previous VP’s, as far as I can tell.
Why not?
Or am I just not paying enough attention?
I believe he works in the background. he is a very smart, experienced politician.
Biden may be an experienced political hack-bt he is no intellectual type.
was president in 1929, and network TV existed in 1929.
Bt who said you had to be smart to be VP?
Well, the prior VP was notoriously assumed to be “in charge” and did not really try to disabuse anyone of the notion.
Clinton and Gore were very close in age and experience, and Clinton was comfortable giving Gore a public role as a “partner”, similar to how he allowed his wife to be perceived.
I think prior to that you saw a more traditional pattern of a VP being in the background.
I’m disappointed. Biden was supposed to be a gaffe machine, and I have not seen much of that. Noe I have to get all my Biden yuks at The Onion. biden - The Onion
The Onion is so persistent with those articles that I will never for my living years be able to see Biden in the real news without thinking of them. I just can’t take him seriously now, no matter what he does.
George Bush I while Veep was used mainly to attend state funerals on behalf of President Reagan. Since he attended so many over his 8 years of Veep-dom, he was said to have joked: “You die, I fly!”
The only thing a VP is required to do is break a tie vote in the Senate and take over if the President is incapacitated or deceased. That’s it. It’s up to the President how much he wishes to use his VP or not. Recent administrations have been using them, but apparently Obama has chosen not to, or at least hasn’t given him much time in the limelight.
I do remember when Bush 1 was Regan’s VP it really did seem all he did was attend funerals. Hell, I don’t even remember who Carter’s and Ford’s VP’s were - and I only remember Ford was VP because he took over after Nixon’s resignation (I remember Agnew was Nixon’s original VP, but resigned due to a… tax scandal, wasn’t it? Geez, that was over 40 years ago now, wasn’t it?)
Vice Presidents are always in an awkward positions - if they do anything major on their own, it is considered grandstanding and in poor taste. Their job is to support the President, which usually means a lot of back door swaying of votes, checking the pulse on certain policies and basically doing what might be considered poor taste for a President to do. Ideally, they compliment each other, with the President getting the glory (or blame) for whatever happens.
So unless there is some major gaffe, the ideal VP will always remain in the shadows. Granted, it is a great stepping stone to becoming President, if that is the goal, but often it is a thankless job with, yes, lots of State Funerals to attend. Being as I doubt Biden thinks he can become President in 2016, my guess is that he just wants to be a loyal follower and use what power he has to help.
BTW, has that rumor of Biden stepping down and Hilary stepping up to VP in 2012 been officially squashed?
Every time Obama has passed a major piece of legislation through the Senate I hear news stories of how Biden was instrumental in it’s passage. The guy was in the Senate a long time, he knows what he’s doing when it comes to that chamber.
The VP spot is one of the few purely political positions in the executive branch. You don’t want to waste it on someone who will just attend ceremonies. It’s better if you use that position to get a powerful political fighting on your side.
Carter: Walter Mondale, who’s now mostly remembered for getting blown out of the water by Reagan in the 1984 presidential election.
Ford: Nelson Rockefeller (!) (Edit: well, he had been governor of NY, and ran for president three times.)
It’s hard to remember VPs who didn’t go on to be president. George H. W. Bush’s VP is really only remembered for his spelling ability.
A few weeks ago I read where she said she was retiring from politics in 2012.