The Vice President is just there to serve as a backup in case the presidential disk crashes. There is also the rarely required tie-breaking vote in the Senate. NOTHING ELSE.
Voters hope that if a VP assumes the presidency, ongoing administration policies will be continued, but the new guy has no obligation to do so. Ideally, a running mate is chosen based on sharing the philosophies of the main candidate.
All of this adviser, lobbyist, little helper, ghetto enforcer, brains behind the machine, surrey-with-the-fringe-on-top window-dressing is not why we have one. Although a VP can come in handy to represent the U.S. at foreign funerals, or to toss out the first baseball of the season.
A conscientious VP would spend time every day reading the congressional record, the newspapers, twitter, and anything the president sends over.
The idea is to stay informed, to be ready if called upon.
Monday, October 27, 2008
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2 comments:
There are Veeps, and there are Veeps; Dan Quayle was sort of the National Punchline, sent out of the country at the drop of a dignitary, whereas LBJ was extremely useful to the Kennedy admin's dealings with the Legislative Branch, particularly the Senate. This was back when the Executive Branch actually dealt with the Leg, instead of bullying the poor spineless dears.
Biden would fall into the LBJ mold, Palin (heavens forfend) would be more in line with the Quayle paradigm. Let's hope it doesn't come to a Palin Veepery, as Tina Fey has much better things to do with her time.
Most amusing nickname. One might think it was chosen expressly to comment on Vice Presidents.
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