Vice Prez? It Matters

Two brothers grew up; one ran off to sea, the other became vice president of the United States and neither was heard of again!

The vice presidency? The most anonymous job in the world! Those are a couple of views of the vice presidency from the past.

In the beginning, the vice president was the candidate who came in second in the presidential election, meaning that the president and vice president would be of opposing views, thus creating a rancorous relationship as when the second president, John Adams, had Thomas Jefferson as his VP. This situation led to the adoption of the 12th Amendment in 1804, which directed the electors to use separate ballots for the president and vice president, which meant that the VP, not having been involved in the presidential election, lost considerable prestige.

When the vice president was the guy (always guys so far) who got second prize, there was at least a person of presidential timbre next in line. The first death in office, Abraham Lincoln, ought to have been a wakeup call since his successor, Andrew Johnson, while serving almost all of Lincoln's second term, is not remembered kindly. Bear in mind, though, that as a southerner and former senator from Tennessee, he was in the invidious position of trying to bind the wounds of the Civil War. Perhaps he's best remembered as the first president to be impeached. (He was acquitted in the Senate, as was the second president impeached, Bill Clinton.)

James Garfield, the second president to be assassinated (in 1881), was an undistinguished president succeeded by the equally undistinguished Chester Arthur.

I pause to observe that until the 20th century, the rest of the world was largely unaffected by American foreign policy, which was, after all, still echoing the warning by George Washington to avoid "foreign entanglements."

The international importance of the presidency came in 1901 when William McKinley, who was responsible for getting the U.S. in a war with Spain, was assassinated, bringing to the White House Theodore Roosevelt, who finished McKinley's term and one on his own and was generally regarded as a "near great."

VP to prez: Truman and Johnson

It wasn't until the 1940s that the United States got very lucky. In 1944, Roosevelt dumped his previous vice president, Henry Wallace, in favour of a failed haberdasher and beneficiary of the infamous Prendergast machine in Kansas, Harry Truman. Truman is now considered a "near great," but the real story here is that Wallace, who was tossed aside for Truman, was on the far left and a great admirer of Stalin and the U.S.S.R. It's difficult to imagine Wallace standing up to Stalin in Europe or Korea.

In 1963, John F. Kennedy was killed and succeeded by Lyndon Johnson who, turned out to be great on the social side and a catastrophe in Vietnam.

While the party conventions have, on paper, the power to select the vice presidential candidate, since FDR and even before that the vice presidential nominee was appointed. This is not because he or she would be a capable president in case of the death of the president, but because he or she "balanced" the ticket.

When that became the rationale, we began facing breathtaking possibilities.

Striking a scary balance

Spiro Agnew was Nixon's eventually disgraced VP, and for good reason bumper stickers of the day read "keep Nixon healthy." Dan Quayle, who was George Bush Sr.'s VP, was embarrassingly light on smarts. And the current VP, Dick Cheney, is a man whose possible rise to the White House would make any sane person's hair curl in fear -- for their lives!

Starting in January 2009, we may have a 71-year-old man, John McCain, as president and Sarah Palin, 44*, as his successor should he die in office. Moreover -- and this point is often overlooked -- in 2012, the next election, McCain will be 75 and nearly 80 when his second term would end. This would put Palin in the driver's seat.

Palin's paleolithic politics

Palin has caused a flurry of excitement because she is so different. A former mayor of a small Alaska town and a two-year governor of Alaska, outspoken, anti-abortion, anti-environment, anti-gay couples, against gun control and a fervent moose hunter, she appeals to the right wing.

The trouble is, McCain already has that segment locked up.

She also appeals to women but will she attract women who usually vote Democrat or stay at home? Does she have political legs? Will the down home, small town mayor and moose hunter still be popular in November?

The critical part here is that when Agnew, Quayle, and Cheney were elected, the president was fairly young and healthy. McCain has passed his Biblical allotment and has medical issues.

What about Barack Obama? He is short on experience, having served just part of one term as a senator, but if you read his writings, it's apparent that he knows foreign affairs and is a deep thinker. And he has, at his right hand, the very experienced Joe Biden, a long-time member of the Senate and current chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He may not be the best choice for president should something happen to Obama, but he's sure as hell a better choice than Sarah Palin.

VP a big issue

For the first time in many a moon, in fact probably the first time in U.S. history, the potential vice president will be an election issue, and for sure for the first time the televised vice-presidential debate will be an important event.

There are a lot of issues domestic and foreign in this election. McCain must bear the unpopularity -- I need a better word than that! -- of George Bush. The economy is in tatters and American foreign policy a shambles. These are crosses Barack Obama doesn't have to bear.

For all that, standing alone, McCain is likely the better choice. But to win, he'll have to hope that the voters overlook his choice as vice president.

Considering Mr. Obama's running mate, that may be a very faint hope indeed.

*Corrected at 4 p.m. on Sept. 22.

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