Veep: Who Needs One? - I

23 June 2008 |permalink | email article

A 1974 rant against the vice presidency by Arthur Schlesinger Jr, the late and admired historian:

“It is a doomed office. No President or Vice President have trusted each other since Jackson and Van Buren. Mistrust is inherent in the relationship. The Vice President has only one serious thing to do: that is, to wait around for the President to die. This is hardly the basis for cordial and enduring friendships. Presidents see Vice Presidents as death’s heads at the feast, intolerable reminders of their own mortality. Vice Presidents, when they are men of ambition, suffer, consciously or unconsciously, the obverse emotion. Elbridge Gerry spoke with concern at the Constitutional Convention of the “close intimacy that must subsist between the President & vice president.” Gouverneur Morris commented acidly. ”The vice president then will be the first heir apparent that ever loved his father.”

Quote of the Day

“Basically, it’s a Google.” - John McCain, joking about his vice-presidential vetting process which raises more questions than answers.

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