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The Role of Vice President
Posted 7-13-2004
Now that John Kerry has selected John Edwards as his running mate, the
choices become clearer for this year's presidential election. I saw a recent
poll that says about one in three people consider the vice president when
voting for the president of their choice. One in three is significant, and,
with an extremely polarized electorate, a small undecided group of voters,
every factor can play a role in deciding the outcome of the election.
Clearly the person serving as
vice president now wields more power and influence than practically any vice
president in recent history. He was so influential when Bush was searching
for a VP candidate; Cheney led the search committee that ultimately
determined he himself was the best available candidate. Talk about being
full of yourself! But, that was really only the tip of the iceberg as far as
what we'd have to stomach from the sneering, secretive,
pheasant-slaughtering Cheney. Even his body language and the propensity for
speaking out of the side of his mouth give the impression he just doesn't
care for too many people. If voters find him endearing, they must be seeing
something in him I don't see.
Just how does Cheney stack up
against other VP's in recent times? Let's look.
Dwight Eisenhower's VP,
Richard Nixon, was pretty much kept on the back burner by Ike who had no
overly ambitious agenda for his administration.
JFK's VP, LBJ, certainly was
an influential, powerful senator before becoming VP. He was pushed into the
shadows of Camelot, but, eventually, was thrust into the spotlight with
JFK's assassination. Say what you will about LBJ, he was certainly capable
of taking the ball and running with it on domestic issues.
LBJ's VP was one of the truly
great members of the Senate. Hubert Horatio Humphrey got saddled with LBJ's
mishandling of the Vietnam War. But, he was truly a compassionate,
thoughtful leader that recognized society's responsibility to help one
another.
Nixon's VP, Spiro T. Agnew,
was an interesting footnote in history. Before his own legal problems
brought him down, Agnew was a colorful, controversial figure that gave sound
bites that fired up both sides of the political spectrum. Either you loved
him or hated him.
Nixon's other VP, Gerald Ford
eventually inherited Nixon's mess. He brought Nelson Rockefeller along for
the ride, and they both paid the political price for Nixon's misdeeds.
Jimmy Carter's VP was another
thoughtful, compassionate Senator from Minnesota (why can't PA ever elect
guys like Mondale or Humphrey?) who became the standard bearer for our party
in the early 1980s.
Ronald Reagan's VP was of
course George HW Bush. A pro-choice opponent of Reagan's in the 1980
Republican primary election, who had called Reagan's economic proposals
"voodoo economics", daddy Bush underwent a values transformation and became
a good soldier for eight years under Reagan. But, you didn't hear all that
much from him until they were covering up Iran-Contra.
George HW Bush's VP was none
other than, that pillar of strength Dan Quayle. Not known for his spelling
skills, Quayle was kept as far from the action as possible and assigned to
battle fictional TV characters like Murphy Brown.
Bill Clinton's VP was Al
Gore. Gore had a successful career prior to assuming the VP position. He was
given much authority to work on projects such as "Reinventing Government"
that allowed for the size of the federal workforce to be reduced. But
Clinton's problems created tension between the two and, in some ways, Gore
paid the price in his own quest for the presidency. (he still won the 2000
election anyway)
Not one of the recent VPs
I've mentioned wielded the power Cheney wields now. Is that because this
Bush is not strong enough to push him into the background? Only they know.
But when Bush couldn't even testify before the 911 Commission without Cheney
being there too, it gave the impression that Cheney was there to make sure
Bush only said what Cheney wanted.
The differences between
Cheney and John Edwards may be even greater than those between Kerry and
Bush. While Edwards is attractive, energetic, and youthful, Cheney is not.
While John Edwards finds the phenomenon of "two Americas" one of the "haves"
and one of the "have-nots" wrong, Cheney works to maintain that separation.
While Edwards has been labeled a populist, Cheney meets secretly with
corporate bigwigs to form our nation's energy policy. And, while Edwards
recognizes the responsibility of the USA being the world's only superpower,
Cheney sees it as away of him and his neocons flunkies to grab land and
resources.
I know we are all going to
hear about John Edwards being a "trial lawyer". He helped victims in much
the same way we would all want to be helped, if or when we need a lawyer.
Besides, in addition to many Republican members of Congress who are also
"trial lawyers", twenty-five presidents were "trial lawyers" too, including
Abraham Lincoln. |
