It seems like the VP (or VP candidate) is almost never talked about in terms approaching ‘good’. No matter who the president is, everyone agrees that the VP is not desirable, or worse. Is this some secret strategy? An unspoken convention? What? I mean look:
Sarah Palin–Utterly despised by many, only mildly off-putting (at best) to a few.
Joe Biden–Considered an incompetent gaffer by most
Dick Cheney–Frequently compared to Darth Vader, Mr. Potters, etc. Was called “the Secret Service’s Godsend” and such by many amateur comedians.
Joe Lieberman–Frothing hatred by left wingers, right wingers. Mild dislike by centrists.
Dan Quayle–See Joe Biden
[skipping less memorable ones]
Richard Nixon–Considered slimy, dickish, unlikeable. Eventually this was proven to be true.
Spiro Agnew–See above, but more so.
Why does this happen? Has there been a reletively recent VP who was, if not liked, at least regarded indifferently?
I presume that VPs are either chosen for strategic reasons, or because the Presidential nominee feels that they would make a good president but have no hope of every achieving it without the inertia of VPdom due to lesser charisma.
Bush I, for instance, was probably a very good president. He came in, looked at stuff, analyzed it rationally, and made boring stolid decisions that just happened to fix everything just after he lost office and propelled on his successor to greatness. (Personal opinion, obviously). I imagine that he was chosen because Reagan wanted someone in there who’d do a good job.
Palin, on the other hand, McCain obviously didn’t know at all beyond that she was female and was popular with the furthest right voting block, with whom he was weakest.
Biden I assume to be more the Bush I type. Obama probably feels that he’d make the right choices, but without the VP seat he’d never have a shot of winning due to foot-in-mouth disease.
VPs are usually tasked to be the “attack dogs” who do the negative campaigning so the Presidential candidate can look good.
Also, people vote for the President. He’s the guy voters like and rally around. People are “meh” at best about VPs. Look at that list, only one of those VPs went on to be elected president. Usually, those guys just don’t have that essence of presidents and aren’t who people would want to vote for on their own. So, it’s easier for people to hate on the second banana politician they don’t care about.
VPs historically attended state funerals and represented the president when He did not want to be there. It was a figurehead type job and was mostly un-noticed. Nixon was ambitious and made a lot of noise when he was ikes VP. He got in a public argument with Khrushchev.
Spiro was a crook and took bribes in the white house. That was bad form, even for a Republican.
Most just came and went without notice. Biden is almost invisible. That is more typical.
Cheney was Preident and Bush was his VP.
Most were picked to balance the ticket , a southerner like Johnson to balance Kennedy.
Both Walter Mondale and Al Gore were considered to be strong in areas where their bosses (coincidentally both governors of smallish Southern states) were considered to be weak – notably foreign policy. Both had the confidence of their bosses, made substantial behind-the-scenes contributions to their Administrations, and were subsequently rewarded with the presidential nomination by their party.
Both, however, turned out to be duller than rocks during their own campaigns. Gore, for example, lost his own state in the election. Mondale won his home state, but lost 49 others.