But Joe Biden, at least, isn’t Majority Leader, nor would he be. The VP’s power is largely informal, but I don’t think you can seriously argue that it’s less than a rank-and-file senator, even in the majority. These days, the Executive Branch is where it’s at.
–Cliffy
Last week’s New Yorker had an article discussing how Biden might see the role and what understandings about it he has reached with Obama. It’s final paragraph claims that he’s indicated to him that he has “ruled out the possibility of another Presidential run”.
The whole article is precisely about what Biden thinks he’d get out of being VP. It also describes the different ways holders have used it over the last few decades.
After eight years of W*. Four of Obama might change that a bit, especially since he’d be coming in with a Democratic majority in both houses. These things tend to slide around over time and according to major shifts in the balance of party politics.
*(And didn’t Cheney say the VP isn’t in the Executive Branch, or am I misremembering?)
When he wanted to claim Executive Privilege, he said he was in the Executive Branch. When he wanted to be exempt from Executive Branch requirements, he said he was in the Legislative Branch.
Wrong. His career as an elected official ended, but he’s still very much involved in politics, making his pet issue more prominent. And, I think, in many ways having more success than he did as VP.
By the way and while we’re at it, Biden is simultaneously running for reelection as Senator as well as for VP and the polls have him winning that reelection running away. So if he doesn’t make it to VP he keeps the job and the status of one of the most powerful veterans in the Senate. Folks to this day wonder why John Edwards bailed on continuing in the Senate, he could have run again from a safe seat without even the simultaneous election thing!
But as mentioned in a post above, for political types there is always the allure of “hey, I’ll be remembered!”. In the Biden case in particular, after having failed twice to get even close to the nomination for the top job, the opportunity comes along to run as number two in a historic election, and maybe even serve as number two in a historic administration, w/o having to risk his Senate seat.
VP indeed is seen mostly as either stepping stone or capstone; when legislators accept the VP spot and because of age it’s unreasonable to think they’d be available to run for president after 8 years, it’s often a matter of a deal with the Top Guy to the effect that some pet proposal of the would-be-VP will be pushed from the Executive side.
I soemtimes feel a little weird as to how in our current political culture we have adopted a sort of “up or out” (or “mommy track”) mentality by which your political career is dead if you either fail to climb the next step up the ladder or take a lateral detour. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think we’ve had anyone lose as the top-of-the-ticket R or D Presidential nominee and then even TRY to stage a comeback in a later election, since Nixon!
Cheney’s been a pretty powerful VP backstage for a while, it’s not the office of old. You can shot some in the face and just walk away from it with a witty line at a Friar’s Club.
Priceless.
Johnson was re-elected in 1964.
Just to point out an obvious error, LBJ was in fact re-elected after becoming President.
I’m not sure it’s accurate to say he was re-elected, since that was the first time he got elected as President. Since he was eligible to run again in 1968, but chose not to, what would that campaign have been called by your standard? Re-re-elected? I think not.
As far as I know, Roosevelt’s '36, '40, and '44 campaigns are all referred to as ‘re-election’.
Eh, a congresscritter can serve for fifty terms in a row and still be referred to as being re-elected. You don’t have to add forty-nine re-s.
Standing Firm: A Vice-Presidential Memoir (1994) by Dan Quayle is currently ranked #479,007 at Amazon.
Al Gore (2008) is ranked #7,802. Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth (2006) is #131,765, although there’s also a reworked 2007 version for kids ranked #18,527.
I understand that–see Post #34.
In any event, while I now understand the point that muttrox was making, looking at the probabilities in this manner has some problems.
For one thing, not only is “every single American who has never been vice president” not necessarily eligible for the Presidency, not every American necessarily has the desire to be President. Presumably those politicians serving as VP are willing and able to serve as President; the average American may well not be willing and able to serve.
In any event, it is not particularly illuminating to consider the probability of a random American becoming President. The point of my OP was not random Americans, it was “well-established politicians,” and in particular, well-established Senators.
Many of the Senators I mentioned in the OP (including Mondale, Quayle, and Gore) could have continued in their Senate seats for years had they not consented to serve as VP. Biden appears to be continuing in this pattern.
And what about the quotes I posted from the men who actually served as VP (back in Post #31)? They generally seem pretty disillusioned with the office. For all of the purported power of the VP, virtually all of their power (save only those few duties outlined in the Constitution) and all of their influence comes at the pleasure of the President. Should the VP’s relationship with the President chill, the VP can quickly find themselves cut out of the political process. There is ample precedence for this, too, starting with the very first VP, John Adams. Adams committed a few embarrassing blunders early in his term, and soon found himself completely isolated, not even being permitted to attend Cabinet meetings, and generally ignored in the Senate where he attempted to preside over Senate sessions.
The current VP (Cheney) is influential only because the President permits this.
I probably worded that poorly. Nevertheless, LBJ was elected President only once.
(As opposed to Ford, who was never elected President or Vice President.)
Real best-sellers, eh? 
Gore is an environmental activist, author, businessperson (he serves on several corporate boards), a visiting professor at several universities, and a former politician.
I was indeed using “political career” as a synonym for “politician/elected official.” Gore is currently neither.
Now that we’re talking the same language, I’m interested to see where this thread goes. I’m not sure how you quantify how many “well-established politicians” there have been. I would wager it’s well over 200, and thus I maintain that becoming VP is a good road to become P. This still seems like the obvious answer.
The link someone posted in #42 was very good IMO. Biden seems very aware of the power he’s giving up, but thinks he will have more influence as VP. IMO Gore and Cheney both enjoyed much more influence as VPs than they would have otherwise. You could make the strong case that historical comparisons don’t take into account the expanded role of the VP nowadays.
I think as much as a “Why?” question like yours can be answered, it has been. The VP is a very powerful role, more powerful than most/all Senators. In addition, it greatly increases the odds of becoming president yourself.
Thanks for the replies, everyone.
Great discussion, and I agree with most of what has been said. The Vice Presidency of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, assuming the President and the Vice President are personally cordial and have roughly the same expectations of what the Veep will be doing, is far removed from the dead-end job bemoaned by Adams, Jefferson and Garner.
I remember a Washington Post article from GHWB’s administration, when Dan Quayle still was not much respected, that nevertheless described the office as “an 800-pound gorilla” within the Federal government. When the VP takes an interest in a topic, and asks for something to be done about it (assuming this does not conflict with the President’s known wishes), it will usually get done.
kunilou, Lloyd Bentsen did run for President (in 1976), but didn’t get far.
There was a Bob Hope election comedy special in the mid-'70s. Hope was running for President, went the gag, and Sammy Davis Jr. was his running mate. They were singing and dancing in front of a big band. Hope said, “You realize, Sammy, that if we’re elected you’ll just be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.” Davis thought for a moment, turned back to the band conductor and said, “Let’s step up the tempo on this next number, OK?”