The Vice President

"I spent several years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, in the dark, fed with scraps. Do you think I want to do that all over again as vice president of the United States?" ~John McCain

William Henry Harrison got the ball rolling in 1840 when he and John Tyler won the White House. Harrison tried to show that he was a stalwart, by giving a long inaugural speech in the rain. Everything was OK. That is, until Harrison croaked. (Geek points to anyone who catches all the references in the paragraph.)

At this point, it was unclear whether VP Tyler was meant to be an interim president and only act as that position, or if he was meant to become the new president for the rest of Harrison's term. Tyler chose the latter route, and Congress confirmed the decision. Since then, Vice Presidents have become president after a presidential passing. Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson all became president in this way.

The Vice President also gets a vote in Senate if there is a tie. He doesn't get a vote under other circumstances.

So... That seems like a pretty easy job. As Will Rogers put it, “The man with the best job in the country is the vice-president. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, 'How is the president?'” Thomas Marshall, VP to Woodrow Wilson, said, “Once there were two brothers: one ran away to sea, the other was elected Vice-President - and nothing was ever heard from either of them again.”

Now, let's think about our current Vice President, Joe Biden. Joe Biden is a friend to the middle class. Joe Biden thinks John McCain has terrible ideas for this country, but Joe Biden loves John McCain and wants to reach across the aisle to pass bipartisan legislation with John McCain. Joe Biden talks in third person too much.

But what has Joe Biden done lately? Anything political going on? I certainly haven't heard any mention of him unless he was making an appearance somewhere.

But while the vice presidency is pretty much worthless, that whole becoming president if the current one dies thing is somewhat significant. It was a contributing motive to Garfield's assassination, it bit bosses in the butt when McKinley was assassinated, and some people didn't vote for John McCain in 2008 because they were afraid Sarah Palin would become president if he died.

But more often than not, the vice president isn't worth a sack of dirt. Unless Obama dies in office, Joe Biden is unlikely to suddenly have a greater political career. But hey, for four years he gets paid to make sure the president hasn't died yet.