Our Views: Vice presidents must be ready

By the end of August, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will let Americans know about his choice of a vice presidential running mate. Presumably, President Barack Obama will keep Vice President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket in the No. 2 slot. Political observers spend a lot of time speculating on the ability of a vice presidential candidate to appeal to a particular region or other voter demographic. Such speculation tends to treat potential vice presidents as little more than window dressing in a national campaign.

But vice presidents sometimes end up succeeding to the presidency through the death or incapacity of a commander-in-chief. One vice president, Gerald Ford, became president through the resignation of a president, Richard Nixon.

The distinct possibility of vice presidential succession is underscored in the latest installment of author Robert Caro’s multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. Caro’s new book, “The Passage of Power,” details Johnson’s initial reluctance to accept a spot on presidential candidate John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign ticket as his running mate. Johnson was a powerful majority leader of the U.S. Senate. He was reluctant to become vice president, trading his influential Senate role for a position that had little real power.

But while mulling the vice presidency, Johnson had his staff research how many presidents had died in office. In 1960, Caro notes, “the answer was seven. Since thirty-three men had been president, that had been seven out of thirty-three: The chances of a vice president succeeding to the presidency due to a president’s death were about one out of five. And when that question was asked about presidents in modern times, the odds against such an occurrence got shorter — better. During the last hundred years before 1960, five presidents had died in office – Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James Garfield in 1881, William McKinley in 1901, Warren Harding in 1923 and of course Franklin Roosevelt in 1945.”

It’s unsettling to think of a potential vice president — or a sitting vice president — calculating presidential mortality rates in order to gauge his political prospects. But all vice presidential candidates should carefully consider whether they’re ready to be president. Voters, too, should strongly consider whether a vice presidential candidate seems qualified to serve in the nation’s highest office.

As history tells us, a vice president can become president in a fateful instant. That’s what happened to Lyndon Johnson on Nov. 22, 1963.

Comments

1) Comment by Whatnow - 16/05/2012

@agagent, that was one hilarious speech. Can you imagine Obama in a debate without his teleprompter? No real numbers or planned questions?

2) Comment by agagent - 15/05/2012

OBAMA at a Bristol, Va. town hall meeting: “What they'll say is, "Well it costs too much money," but you know what? It would cost, about... It -- it -- it would cost about the same as what we would spend... It... Over the course of 10 years it would cost what it would costs us... (nervous laugh) All right. Okay. We're going to... It... It would cost us about the same as it would cost for about -- hold on one second. I can't hear myself. But I'm glad you're fired up, though. I'm glad.”

3) Comment by DMJ - 15/05/2012

Agagent, you're right. Palin's great. I hope she is on the ticket for Vice President again. Seriously. I really do hope she's on there. I'm not joking. In fact, I wish Palin were running against Obama instead of Romney. I want Palin to engage in a debate with President Obama. I would absolutely love to see that. For real. hahahaha!!!

4) Comment by agagent - 15/05/2012

“Zogby conducted an exit poll of ardent Obama voters and found that many were uninformed. Here are the appalling results from the polls: 1. 57.4 could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing) 2. 81.8 could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing) 3. 82.6 could NOT correctly say that Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing) 4. 88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing) 5. 56.1 % could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).And yet….. 6. Only 13.7% failed to identify Palin as the person their party spent $150,000 in clothes on 7. Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter 8. And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her “house,” even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!”--The Political Lizard Annex

5) Comment by agagent - 15/05/2012

Some Palin’s best assets were: She did not spend her early childhood in Indonesia. She was not raised as a liberal elite by her grandparents. She did not attend expensive elite schools. She was not mentored by a radical communist. She was not into drugs in college. She was not drawn to radical communist professors. She did not have unrepentant domestic terrorists as associates. She did not sit in the church of a radical preacher of liberation theology for 20 years. Her speeches did not send trills up the leg of liberal commentators. She is an inspiring American success story. She was a leader on her state championship basketball team in high school and a beauty queen. She learned how to work hard and how to run a business to feed her family. She had executive experience in business, as a mayor, and as a governor. She opposed leaders in her own party to help her state. She believes in Conservative principles which caused most of the media and Hollywood to work extra hard to destroy her reputation and to help elect Obama.

6) Comment by DMJ - 15/05/2012

Where'd you get that 90% figure from? Just curious... though I have a pretty good idea...

7) Comment by Whatnow - 15/05/2012

@DMJ, Look in the mirror, bub. Your material is just as bad and old.

8) Comment by agagent - 14/05/2012

Seems like the 90% of the Obama voters are still uninformed or misinformed as they were in 2008. They knew that Palin had a pregnant teenage daughter but did not know that the Democrats controlled Congress. They did not know that Obama said his policies would necessarily cause energy prices to skyrocket or that Biden had to withdraw from a previous campaign for plagiarism.

9) Comment by DMJ - 14/05/2012

Ahh...yes, that time Obama said 57 instead of 47. Need some new material, bub?

10) Comment by mh1949 - 14/05/2012

DMJ how about knowing how many states we have also ?

11) Comment by DMJ - 14/05/2012

Please, GOP, don't pick another know-nothing. Picking Sarah Palin in 2008 was disgraceful. At least vet the nominee this time around. You know....make sure they know there are 2 Koreas, that Africa is a continent and not a country, and that the head of government in the U.K. is the Prime Minister, not the Queen. You know....the stuff the rest of us learned in 7th grade Social Studies.

12) Comment by tradewinns - 14/05/2012

the very idea of biden becoming president is horrific! please secret service perform your duties even more duitiful.

13) Comment by Whatnow - 14/05/2012

Makes a person wonder just how far Johnson did go.

14) Comment by Elderly Man - 14/05/2012

Lyndon Johnson simply wanted to be president so intensely that he took the chance. Good book and good editorial.