[QUOTE=Menocchio]
Well, sure, but many of the people that are suggested to be VP don’t have close relationships with the president, and do have positions of considerable political power. If the nominee offered you or I the slot, our status would be increased. But your or I won’t get the nod, because we don’t have any status.
I guess if you’re hellbent on being president, and have already lost a primary campaign, VP is your best bet, if delayed and a bit of a long shot. But if you want to maximize your political power, you’re likely better off wherever you are now.
[/QUOTE]
Being VP is a heck of a chance to develop a close relationship with the president, and I think having that level of access to the head of state could be a more powerful position than the governor of a state–it would certainly allow you to influence types of things that governors never deal with (foreign policy, most notably)
I seem to recall hearing someone - probably Bob Dole - saying recently that nobody wants to be Vice President until it’s offered to them. And at that point they seem willing to give up on their own decision-making authority in order to get a high-profile job, have influence on the President and be next in line.
[QUOTE=iamthewalrus(:3=]
and 4 by later election (go Wikipedia)
[/QUOTE]
But of those 4, two were elected under the old system, prior to the 12th Amendment. Since the Twelfth Amendment came into force in 1804, only 2 sitting veepsters have been elected president: Van Buren and Bush I. That’s 2 out of 51 presidential elections.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
Aside from the the incredible perks, prestige and relative lack of responsibility, a lot og people see it as a springboard to the top spot. If you last two terms, you’re virtually guaranteed the next nomination, and even if your top guy gets retired after one term, you still have a pretty good shot in the next cycle. There are exceptions, of course, Cheney (who doesn’t want it) and Quayle (who no one could take seriously), but the Veep spot is still usually a much btter spot to run from (and raise money from) than a Congressional spot.
[/QUOTE]
Only one former Veep has been elected President in a later electoral cycle: Richard Nixon.
Overall, there’s not a particularly impressive record to argue that the V-P slot is a natural springboard to be elected President.
[QUOTE=jtgain]
I forget his name, but there was a Lieutenant Governor who said that his only duties were to wake up early in the morning and call the Governor. If the Governor answered, he went back to bed.
[/QUOTE]
I believe that was current Governor Patterson of New York. Looks like the governor didn’t answer (I think he wasn’t out on bail yet…).
you get great health benefits and a lovely pension. a rather nice house, i believe there are still perks at the smithsonian, (or perhaps that is only pres.). people usually aren’t gunning for you and you get to do all sorts of public events.
the best thing… not many people will remember who you are.
No, David Paterson’s version would have been to call the Governior every morning. And if a woman answers the phone, hang up and call the New York Post.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
I must not have been paying attention…I didn’t know she was considered gay. I knew that there was speculation about Condi Rice, but not Hillary.
Not that it really matters, as I seriously doubt most RW types would vote for her in any event…
-XT
[/QUOTE]
The meme that Hillary is a lesbian is a part fantasy for some Clinton-haters, and part “schoolyard taunt” (Ann Coulter’s words, for when she obliquely called John Edwards a “faggot”). Hillary has never been seriously “considered” gay, any more than Ann was actually claiming Edwards was.
Not that a few don’t seem to have been duped by their own disinformation: a fellow I worked with used to come in about once a month brimming with confidence that he’d heard it from a very reliable source: it would be out in the open, really soon, that Hillary Clinton was a lesbian. The fact that it he’d been predicting this for several years didn’t seem to dampen his confidence one bit. Whatever gets you through the day, I guess.
I believe Hillary would jump at the chance if Obama offered it to her, which I sincerely hope he doesn’t. Hillary would be VP like Cheney is VP, you can bet on that. I can even envision some vengeance exacting going on behind the scenes upon those who betrayed her during the nomination process. And Obama would be in a constant state of rue for making such a stupid decision to make her his running mate.
I went to the Nixon library years ago. They had a display room showing all of the nice crap he was given when Ike sent him on a world tour. My wife and I decided that was the job - paid a lot, and go around the world making nice with people and getting nice gifts (that you can’t personally keep, but can go into your official residence and library later).
I would be an AWEsome slacker VP, wearing the different costumes of foreign lands, doing shots of local booze, and getting slapped by the 2nd lady (or whatever the VP’s wife is called) when I oggle the local ladies.
Sign me up for the tour and the lifetime pension plan!
From what I can see, if you 1) have a whole lot of influence on the president you’re under, and 2) are a less appealing choice for president than he is, you can get yourself in the position of having near-presidential power, with a built-in blame catcher (the president himself), and as a perk your can make the both of you effectively unimpeachable!
[QUOTE=Northern Piper]
But of those 4, two were elected under the old system, prior to the 12th Amendment. Since the Twelfth Amendment came into force in 1804, only 2 sitting veepsters have been elected president: Van Buren and Bush I. That’s 2 out of 51 presidential elections.
[/QUOTE]
Without stirring up Election 2000 Vote Thread CXVIII, it’s worth pointing out tht Al Gore did win the popular vote in 2000, one of the handful of close elections in history where the Electoral College victory did not match the (close) popular vote.
Starting with Eisenhower and Nixon, later 20th century VPs have often (not always) been given a role in policy making and implementation. Nixon was Ike’s Lord High Executioner – Ike was the likeable popular guy at the top, while RMN handled dealing with the recalcitrant and problematical types, and in addition sered as a goodwill ambassador of sorts (a role which backfired in South America). JFK made little use of LBJ, and LBJ of HHH. But Nixon reprised his arrangement with Ike with Spiro Agnew, castin himself in the Leader Above Partisan Strife orole (at least publicly; thanks to the Washington Post, we know the real story), while Spiro decried the Nattering Nabobs of Negativity etc. Nixon/Ford and Ford/Rockefeller don’t seem to have left too much of an indication either way; nor is it clear what Carter/Mondale roles were. I get the impression that Bush I was a bit of a significant influence on Reagan policy, and Dan Quayle was yet another Nixon-to-Ike for Bush I. Gore had a little influence but not much in the Clinton years. from what I’ve seen; and of course Cheney has been the most powerful VP in history (or at least since Jefferson).
And I believe it was the current Governor of New York who came up with the “phone call in the morning” line. Cactus Jack Garner also had some pithy comments on the job of VP in his day.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
Nope…wouldn’t be caught dead in a RW blog (honestly I don’t actually read many blogs of any stripe). Are they trying to say she is gay??? :dubious: Not that it would be bad if she were, mind, but…I’m not seeing it.
Something tells me that Tory in Battlestar Galactica is based off of her. Though by that analogy that would make Barack Obama, Gaius Baltar.
People don’t give enough attention to soft power. Ruminate on the difference between power and authority. Power is something you can attain via many sources, and can be related to you in and of yourself. Authority is power conferred by the chair or office. Hillary Clinton would be quite powerful as Vice President. I can see why she would want it, she is already quite powerful, so being part of the executive branch would benefit her greatly, as it would add a modicum of authority to her power, and wouldn’t change her role in the Senate terribly significantly as she has done very little in the way of authoring actual legislation as a Senator. She has always been an influence peddler. There are many lawyers who you are unlikely to have heard of in Washington who are more powerful than many of the celebrity politicians you have heard of.
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
According to the recent HBO miniseries on John Adams, he hated the job with a passion and it seems they all have, since.
[/QUOTE]
Poor example, because in Adams time, the Vice President was not your running mate but your political opponent, so there were reasons to keep his role separate from your own that don’t exist in the same way now with the massive bureaucracy that lives underneath the White House. In the show it also shows him working alone in the partially constructed White House half the time. That doesn’t exist in any way shape or form today.
