(Vice) Pointless (Vice) Presidential (Vice) Pfacts #47 - "It Has Nothing to Do with 47% of Anything Except a Warm Bucket of Spit"

The 47th vice president is the incumbent, Joseph Biden of Delaware. President Barack Obama is the 44th POTUS but only the 43rd man to be president. President Grover Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms established how we count our presidents since Cleveland was the 22nd POTUS and his popular vote losing successor, Benjamin Harrison, was the 23rd POTUS and when the two had a rematch in 1892 Cleveland became the 24th POTUS instead of simply being known as just the 22nd POTUS.

For the vice presidency, there has not been a non-consecutive vice president to serve. But the reason there are more vice presidents than presidents, and only by 3, is because some vice presidents have served more than one president, some have been dropped and replaced by another, and then with the passage of the 25th Amendment, some have been appointed to fill a vacancy.

Only two vice presidents have served two different presidents. George Clinton was the first as Thomas Jefferson's second vice president, and first elected under the 12th Amendment, and while President Jefferson left office, Vice President Clinton was reelected to a second term with the newly elected James Madison. Clinton would also become the first vice president to die in office in 1812 as President Madison was seeking reelection that year. Interestingly, Clinton's replacement Elbridge Gerry would be the second vice president to die in office. The other vice president to serve two different presidents was John C. Calhoun. He was elected vice president with a majority of votes in 1824, unlike the presidential winner. Calhoun ran on 2 tickets in the same race so he was guaranteed to win enough votes to be the vice president. John Quincy Adams became president in 1825 and by the 1828 election the incumbent vice president was running against the administration. The ticket of Andrew Jackson and Calhoun won but the would become so antagonistic toward each other that Vice President Calhoun resigned, becoming the first to do so, and win election to the Senate to better combat President Jackson.

Vice President George Clinton.

While Clinton and Calhoun are the only two vice presidents to stick around for more than one president, some vice presidents haven't even been asked back for another term. Vice President Burr was not on the first ticketed election in 1804, Clinton was the first vice president to replace another in a second term of a presidency. Since Calhoun resigned in 1832, President Jackson got a new vice president for the second term, Martin Van Buren. Jump to 1860 when Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin won the general election with a plurality of the popular vote, but four years later President Lincoln would win 55% of the vote but without Vice President Hamlin. For his reelection, Lincoln ran on the Union Party ticket which represented not just the unity of the States and the Federal Government but the political factions within. So he chose a southern Democrat that remained loyal to the Union during the sectional crisis, a.k.a. the Civil War. That Democrat was Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. Ulysses S. Grant would get a new vice president for his second term. Franklin Roosevelt would have 3 different vice presidents over his four runs at the office. Gerald Ford was the last incumbent to drop the incumbent vice president for a new one. But FDR is the last to drop a vice president and win with a new one and Ford was the first to try since.

Gerald Ford being sworn-in as Vice President.

Ford is also a product of the 25th Amendment. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the threat of nuclear war brought the presidential line of succession into focus. Throughout the history of the presidency the vice presidency never had a remedy for a vacancy. Whenever the office was vacant it wasn't replaced until the next election and for some that was a whole four years. Such a thing could not happen in the Cold War era, so by 1967 the amendment was ratified. Just six years later in 1973, the amendment would be invoked and Gerald Ford would be the first appointed vice president. Then as President Ford, he too would appoint his own vice president, the moderate Republican Nelson Rockefeller...before dumping him in '76 for the more conservative Bob Dole.

Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, Senator and Vice Presidential-Nominee Bob Dole, President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty Ford.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #45 - "THE TERM OF RESIGNATIONS"

It had been 141 years since a Vice President of the United States resigned the office.

On October 10, 1973, the vice presidency had become vacant for the second time because of a resignation. It had been vacant because of death 7 times, the last being James Sherman in 1912. While Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency the following year would be a first for that office, it would not be for his second-in-command. When Nixon chose a running-mate in 1968, he chose a little known governor, Spiro Agnew, instead of a star that would take attention away from the top of the ticket. What Agnew did bring was that attack dog persona and while a moderate in the GOP appeased conservatives and southerns, since he was from Maryland. Nixon hoped Agnew would resign before the 1972 reelection so he'd be easier to replace with Nixon's preferred vice president, John Connally, the guy that also got shot, but only wounded, on November 22, 1963.

Spiro Agnew of Maryland. 39th VPOTUS.

Agnew was reelected VPOTUS with Nixon in 1972, Nixon had deal with his decision from 1968 for another four years, or would he? When Baltimore started cleaning up corruption, investigations led to corruption in the Governor's Office, the former governor turned vice president of the United States. Nixon eventually got his wish, but he got it too late. Agnew resigned in the first year of the second term, 1973, and became the first vice president to resign because he faced criminal charges, among them bribery and tax evasion.

With Agnew's resignation, there was a vacancy in the vice presidency for the first time since the States ratified the 25th Amendment in 1967, just 6 years earlier. Nixon became the first president to appoint a vice president, not including nominating conventions, but because the Constitution says so. However, by the end of 1973, Nixon was not as popular as he was just a year prior when he won one of the biggest landslides in presidential history. Watergate continued to grow from a piece in the Washington Post in June of 1972, to investigation of the president and threat of impeachment if he does not comply. Nixon had to choose someone that was not going to divide the country any more than his administration had achieved by covering up the Watergate scandal and no cooperating with the Congress. Connally, a Democrat turned Republican, would not be a favorite for Republicans in Congress, both the House and the Senate, for fear of Nixon's removal would put a scalawag in office. Nixon was in no position to get what he wanted.

Gerald Ford of Michigan. The soon-to-be 40th VPOTUS on the cover ofTIME magazine in October of 1973. (later the 38th POTUS)

Less than 2 months after Agnew's resignation, Gerald Ford became the first appointed vice president after both houses of Congress confirmed him on December 6, 1973, the Senate confirmed him over a week before the House. The new vice president, "a Ford, not a Lincoln", easily won the votes because he was a moderate and a nice guy. He served in the House of Representatives for 24 years and only sought to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives, one-half of the leadership of the Legislative Branch of the United States, the Congress. Instead he'd have to settle for the other half, the vice presidency, which is also, the President of the Senate. The 40th VPOTUS would go on to be the 38th POTUS after the 37th resigns in August of the next year. Connally and Agnew, almost became president, but politics, and the law, came into play as it always does.

Now more than ever, but really this is from 1968.

The ticket of Nixon/Agnew won the 1968 election in one of the closest elections and won reelection in a landslide only Roosevelt 32 and Johnson 36 had accomplished. The ticket of Nixon/Agnew would not last the full second term, and become the only ticket to resign before the term expired...so far, of course. (2013) History showed that John C. Calhoun's resignation was not a one-time occurrence, just a rarity.

Calhoun, resigned for different reasons. Calhoun and Agnew share nothing more than being known for their resignations. While Agnew had a short rise from Baltimore County Executive to the Vice presidency in just six years, Calhoun is an American political legend. They both were southerners, but Calhoun was from South Carolina and not a border State like Maryland. They didn't get along that great with their Chief Executive. While Nixon tried his best to avoid Agnew and realized, when it was too late to replace him, that Agnew was not smart enough for the job of Commander-in-Chief (so avoiding him, is a great way to prep him for the job). Calhoun did not get along with his President either, Andrew Jackson. And Jackson wasn't even Calhoun's first President. He was the second VPOTUS to serve two presidents. Calhoun won election to the vice presidency in 1824, when he was on both John Quincy Adams' ticket and Jackson's ticket. In that uncertain election, the House of Representatives chose Adams to be the president while Calhoun easily won enough Electoral Votes to win the vice presidency. He won reelection to the office when Jackson ran again in 1828, but wouldn't be around by election day in 1832.

John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. 7th VPOTUS.

Calhoun was proponent of States' Rights and limiting the power of the Federal government, which rankled Jackson. The president even threatened to go to South Carolina and hang Calhoun. Calhoun would eventually resign to win a seat in the Senate where he could do more against Jackson than as his Vice President, a weak and powerless office at the time. Martin Van Buren would be put on the bottom of the ticket in '32 and win election with Jackson. Van Buren would then gain Jackson's approval as his heir-apparent in the 1836 election. Van Buren easily won.

Unlike Agnew, Calhoun would continue his illustrious career defending the peculiar institution of slavery, illustrious to southerners, not those in favor of progress like the Abolitionists, while serving in some capacity in the Federal Government of the United States. Agnew would go into political obscurity and really only reappear at Nixon's funeral in 1994, three years before his own death. Because of Nixon's resignation in 1974, Ford's elevation to the presidency created another vacancy in the vice presidency. Ford appointed Nelson Rockefeller to his recently vacated office. The Ford/Rockefeller Administration became the first where neither the president or vice president had campaigned for the offices. From then on, there would be no vacancies in the vice presidency...so far.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #31 - "Let's Clear Things Up with the Vice Presidency"

The following words were added to the Constitution with the 25th Amendment after its ratification on February 10, 1967:

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Before that it was unclear if the vice president of the United States became the president or an acting president. After the first death of a president in office, William Henry Harrison, on April 4, 1841, John Tyler stepped up and took the oath of office. The Tyler Precedent was followed by Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson.

The amendment's second section clarified what to do if there is a vacancy in the vice presidency. Whenever a vice president became president, like those listed above, or died in office or resigned, the vice presidency remained unoccupied. Six years after the passage of the amendment, Spiro Agnew became the second vice president to resign from office and Richard Nixon used the new amendment to fill the office. Gerald Ford became the first vice president appointed to the office, after approval by both Houses of Congress. Less than a year into the office, Nixon became the first president to resign the presidency making Ford the first president of the United States never elected to either office. Once president, Ford appointed Nelson Rockefeller to the vacant office of the vice presidency. So from 1974-1977, the POTUS and VPOTUS were appointed office holders.

The third section of the amendment also allows the president to transfer power to the vice president, if the president is unable to perform the duties of the office. President Ronald Reagan did so with Vice President George Bush and President George W. Bush did it twice with Vice President Richard Cheney. Previously this should've happened with Presidents James Garfield, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Woodrow Wilson, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, but there was no amendment then, of course. To transfer power, the president must write a declaration of of the transfer to the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, both relinquishing the powers of the office to the vice president and then resuming the duties of the office.

The final section of the amendment has never been put in to effect. President George H.W. Bush calls it a legal coup since it requires the vice president and a majority of the cabinet to declare the president unfit for office. The movie Air Force One shows the vice president and cabinet with section 4 of the amendment as a backup plan while the president is held hostage by terrorists, but the plan is never used.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #25 - "The Sampler-Elected Presidents"

So 17 presidents have been reelected to second terms, there were another 4 that were reelected to the presidency. Of the vice presidents that succeeded to the presidency through death of the president, only four were ever reelected to a term of their own after completing their predecessor's term of office like Theodore Roosevelt who finished William McKinley's second term and was reelected to the presidency in his own right in 1904. But it can also be argued that since TR took over so early in the 1901-05 term, six months in, that McKinley's second term was TR's first and the 1905-1909 term was TR's second. The same could be argued for someone like Lyndon Johnson who took over John F. Kennedy's first term with less than one year until the presidential election and then won his own election. And yes, both reasons can be considered correct. This is about the four vice presidents-turned-presidents with on-the-job-training prior to their first run at the top of the ticket.

John Tyler became the first vice president to become president after William Henry Harrison died 30 days after being inaugurated. The U.S. Constitution didn't clearly state that the vice president officially became the president until the passage of the 25th Amendment in 1967. Tyler, in 1841, established the precedent which Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Roosevelt 26, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and LBJ would all follow until the amendment was written. But it wouldn't be until Roosevelt 26 in 1904, that one of these VPOTUS turned POTUS would win an election after succeeding to the office. Some would try to run for the job they got from outside the democratic process (although elected vice president), but only a few would actually get the chance to try on their own...and even win.

For Tyler, he was more of an independent after being shunned by the Whig Party that nominated him as vice president in 1840 and the Democrats didn't want him. He considered running as an independent but chose not to run in the end. Fillmore, Johnson 17, and Arthur weren't even given a chance for renomination. Tyler would eventually side with the Confederate States of America, or as Lincoln called them the States in rebellion, or something like that. Fillmore gave the presidency another chance in 1856 as the Know Nothing Party's presidential candidate. He would place 3rd in the general election and not like early 21st Century 3rd Parties and their 3rd place positions. Fillmore would win a State, Maryland and not his home State of New York, which means 8 electoral votes and 21% of the popular vote. Johnson 17 would get reelected to the U.S. Senate from Tennessee becoming the first and only former president to be elected to the Congress as a senator, but never ran at the top of a presidential ticket. Arthur wanted to try but realized, like Fillmore in 1852, the party wasn't with the incumbent. A challenge TR wouldn't have to face thus starting a new trend.

TR was a popular American with his stories of gallantry in the Spanish-American War leading the Rough Riders. He'd served as McKinley's Assistant Secretary of the Navy and went on to be the governor of New York, a stepping stone to national office. When McKinley's first vice president, Garret Hobart, died in 1899, Roosevelt was put on the ticket because New York Republican Party bosses wanted to put an end to TR's corrupt-busting from the State capital. Of course putting TR, a crazy cowboy according to Mark Hana, McKinley's political brain or Karl Rove, thought it was unwise to put him so close to the presidency. His fears came true when McKinley was shot in September 1901 by Leon Czolgosz. Since McKinley was shot in the first year of his second term, President Theodore Roosevelt's popularity continued to grow through the remainder of that term. His 1904 reelection was a given. However after winning the 1904 election, he declared he wouldn't run for reelection in 1908 because he was following in the tradition set by George Washington and limiting one's self to two terms. Roosevelt 26 considered McKinley's second term as his first term but his declaration as a two term president made him a lame duck president from the start of his second term.

He would however handpick his successor William Howard Taft, his Secretary of War. After realizing Taft was no TR, former President Roosevelt decided to do what only a few former presidents had tried... run for reelection as a former president. Only one has been successful, TR's fellow New Yorker Grover Cleveland. And he was renominated by his own party 3 times in a row. Roosevelt 26 would have to do what former presidents Fillmore and Martin Van Buren did. They went the 3 party route. Whereas Fillmore won a State in 1856, Free Soil Party nominee Van Buren got 10% of the popular vote and no electoral votes. Very modern. All 3 were vice presidents, but Van Buren was the last incumbent vice president to become president through election until 1988 with Vice President George Bush's election to the presidency. As a 3rd Party candidate in 1912, Progressive Party or the Bull Moose Party nominee former President Theodore Roosevelt became the last 3rd Party candidate to come in second place. The 1920 election would be the first election since Roosevelt 26's death in 1919, but there would be a Roosevelt on the ticket. Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Woodrow Wilson's Assistant Secretary of the Navy and future governor of New York, was the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee to James Cox. A son of Ohio would've been president had either ticket won, but the vice presidents were different. FDR was from New York and Republican vice presidential nominee Calvin Coolidge of Vermont was from Massachusetts. He would be president of the United States before the presidential election of 1924, not that much different from TR 20 years prior.

Calvin Coolidge finished Warren G. Harding's first term after he died of natural causes in 1923. (Myth will have you believe his wife, Florence Harding, poisoned President Harding...she didn't. But there are some that would want you to think that.) Coolidge presided over a prosperous America in the Roaring 20s and was easily renominated by the GOP in 1924. Like Roosevelt 26, but not with the proclamation of not running in 1908 (which limited TR from seeking his own second term or historically speaking an unheard of 3rd term), Coolidge didn't run for another term in 1928 in the days before the 22nd Amendment which limited presidents to two terms, or 8-10 years in office. But Coolidge's successor, Herbert Hoover would face the man in 1932 for which the 22nd Amendment was passed, Coolidge's rival for the vice presidency 12 years before.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first and only man to be elected to a third and fourth term. He also had the most vice presidents, 3. And it was lucky number 3 that succeeded him after he passed in April of 1945. Harry Truman was the lucky one of FDR's vice presidents and served about two and a half months as the nation's number 2 before taking on the big job of filling the shoe's of the POTUS that presided over the nation through the Great Depression and most of the Second World War. Truman's chances of reelection weren't great by 1948, but at least he was easily renominated. The election was close and even though everyone including the press thought Thomas E. Dewey, Governor of New York (there's that State again) and 1944 Republican Presidential Nominee, would be the 34th POTUS. Truman woke up to learn that he had finally become a president-elect.

Like Johnson 17, Arthur and Roosevelt 26's ascensions to the presidency, LBJ, or Johnson 36, would also become president because of an assassin. John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, while riding in the backseat of an open motorcade. Johnson 36 was sworn in on Air Force One before taking off for Washington, D.C. In 1964, LBJ's popularity propelled him into his own term as president with one of the biggest landslides in a presidential election.

It would be during Johnson 36's term that the 25th Amendment would pass and put John Tyler's precedent into the Constitution. "In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.". It also makes sure there is no vacancy in the vice presidency. When all the vice presidents listed above became POTUS, the office of the vice president remained vacant, as well as the times that the vice president died while in office. Vice President James Sherman was the last to die in office just weeks before the 1912 election. Votes for Sherman would go to Nicholas Butler of New York. This amendment takes care of that.

So when Spiro Agnew became the second vice president (after John C. Calhoun in 1832) to resign from the office in 1973, Richard Nixon became the first POTUS to use the 25th Amendment and fill the vacancy. Gerald Ford became the first vice president never elected by the people, but approved by a majority of the Congress of the United States, House and Senate. With Nixon's unprecedented resignation in 1974, Ford was the first unelected POTUS and went on to appoint Nelson Rockefeller as vice president. They would be the first unelected administration. Ford would earn his party's nomination in 1976, even though he did have a challenge from California's Ronald Reagan. But in a close election, Ford would become the first of these 20th Century vice presidents that moved on up to the presidency through death or resignation to lose election to his own term. Unlike his 19th Century vice president-turned-president counterparts, he at least won his party's nomination and got to face the electorate at the top of the ticket.

Nixon's resignation was the last time a vice president, Ford, became president outside of being elected, George H. W. Bush ran for president in 1988 while he served as Reagan's vice president and won. So while 17 won reelection to a second term and 4 won reelection to the presidency, 21 have spent more than four years as president of the United States.

Today in POTUStory

Finally after 178 years under our current Constitution these words were written into the great document:

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

And that was just the start.

Before 1967 the Constitution never specified what exactly would happen if something happened to the president of the United States. For the first time on April 4, 1841, a president passed away. The nation's 9th chief magistrate, William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural address in the depths of winter on March 4th of that year. The oldest man elected to the office to that point (Ronald Reagan would later hold that title) decided to give his long address without a top hat or overcoat. The 68 year old president died 30 days (or 32?) later of pneumonia.

William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States

Hay dios mio! What do we do?

The 10th vice president of the United States, John Tyler, found out the next day that President Harrison had passed away. The Constitution said:

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President

What did devolve mean? It was unclear and the Founding Fathers made it unclear intentionally or unintentionally. But Vice President Tyler took it to mean that he would become the president of the United States.

John Tyler, 10th Vice President of the United States and 10th President of the United States

On April 6th he took the oath of office and the reigns of power. The cabinet, which Harrison appointed, tried to deny Tyler the authority of the presidency. Tyler made it clear to them and his detractors in the Congress that he was the president of the United States, not Acting-President or the Vice President in the role of the presidency until some kind of special election.

The 10th vice president went on to become the 10th president.

Vice President Tyler being informed of the death of President Harrison

The Tyler Precedent would be followed by Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson. The Tyler Precedent would go on to be written into the Constitution as the 25th Amendment. Gerald Ford would be the first to be elevated thanks to the 25th Amendment. Ford would also be the first to be appointed vice president due to a vacancy.


House Minority Leader Gerald Ford being sworn in as the 40th Vice President of the United States

The 25th Amendment would also make sure that there would never be a vacancy in the vice presidency. Whenever the vice presidents succeeded to the presidency, died in office, or resigned leaving the vice presidency vacant it would remain so until the next election and then inauguration.

The acknowledgment that the vice president becomes the president is the first thing mentioned in the 25th Amendment and has taken effect only by Gerald Ford's ascendancy. Filling the vacancy is the second part of the Amendment which has only occurred twice, Ford replacing Spiro Agnew after his resignation in 1973 and Nelson Rockefeller's appointment once Ford succeeded President Nixon in 1974. The third section of the Amendment allows the president to inform the President Pro Tempore and the Speaker of the House that he or she cannot perform the duties of the office and transmit the powers to the Vice President to perform them as Acting President and can reclaim the powers once he or she informs the two leaders of the Congress. Ronald Reagan did this in 1985, making Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush the first Acting-Presidnet. While Dick Cheney held the title twice during the George W. Bush administration once in 2002 and then again in 2007.

The final section of the 25th Amendment has never taken place. George H. W. Bush calls the fourth section a legal coup. The vice president and a majority of the cabinet officers are needed to declare the president unable to execute the duties of the office. The closest we've come to this is in the feature film Air Force One when the vice president played by Glenn Close is presented with a letter readied for her to sign initiating the Acting President status under the fourth section of the 25th Amendment. She tears it up at the end of the film once the president is safe from the Russian terrorists and no longer in danger.


Air Force One movie poster

It took the threat of a nuclear age for the line of succession of vice president to president to be clearly written into the Constitution. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, the vice presidency remained vacant. Where as before then no evil or dangerous threat really harmed or threatened the country as succession slowly took its time. But in the post-Cuban Missile Crisis United States immediate succession took precedent.

The Vice Presidency - The American Prince

Long ago, in a time far away the loser of the U.S. presidential election won something. The Vice Presidency.

Back in the day at the start of our nation's second government under our current Constitution, the person, or man at the time, with the second most number of electoral votes became the vice president. This meant that men of exceptional caliber who sought the presidency, if they lost, would end up in the vice presidency.

In the first and second contests, the Electoral College unanimously elected George Washington president and in both contests John Adams received the second most number of votes. However in our nation's third contest, John Adams ran for president and Thomas Jefferson ran against him. While Adams claimed not to be a part of the Federalist party, Jefferson ran against him as the anti-Federalist. Our nation's first partisan election. The end result was Adams as president and Jefferson as vice president. The first of two times where the president was of one party and the vice president was of another.

Vice President John Adams

By our nation's fourth election which for the only time pitted the incumbent president versus the incumbent vice president, the idea of having same-political party president and vice president was taking hold. Teaming up with politically minded allies was to avoid the results of the 1796 election, however this idea quickly backfired. Jefferson ran to be president with Aaron Burr as his vice president. The two tied in the Electoral College.

The Constitution kicked in and the House of Representatives determined the outcome of the election 36 ballots later with Jefferson the winner of the presidency and Burr his vice president. So as to avoid this confusion as to which candidate was running for which office the 12th Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1804 before that year's election. It established that the electors would vote separately for both the president and vice president, thus diminishing the office and the caliber of those who sought the office.

Our nation went from vice presidents like Adams and Jefferson to men who never achieved their status or reputation. There were controversial vice presidents like John C. Calhoun, our second vice president to serve two different presidents and the first to resign from office. While Adams and Jefferson may have been of two different political philosophies during the third presidential term starting in 1797, Andrew Jackson certainly dealt with an unruly Vice President Calhoun who preached succession over the right to nullify laws of the federal government.

Vice President John C. Calhoun

Calhoun's successor, Martin Van Buren, would be that last heir apparent vice president to go on to become president until the late 20th century. Van Buren's own vice president, Richard M. Johnson, would become the first and only vice president elected through the senate because of an affair with a slave. Johnson's successor to the vice presidency, John Tyler would go on to establish precedent which would later take the form of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, that is becoming president of the United States upon the death, removal, or resignation of the office holder.

Men would be nominated and elected to the office of such importance that never compared to that of our first two vice presidents. Some were put in the office to balance the political party's ticket geographically, ideologically, or politically. One was even put in the nomination of vice presidency to shut him up politically, Theodore Roosevelt was the man.

William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt

No vice president who succeeded to the presidency through the death of the president went on to election in his own right, until Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was put in the vice presidency as a way to control him, but once he ascended to the presidency all that changed. In 1904 he ran for election in his own right and won. So did the other vice presidents turned presidents through death of the 20th century, Coolidge, Truman and Johnson; with Ford, succeeded through a resignation, losing in a very close election.

The importance of the vice presidency was becoming apparent. It obviously wasn't realized until the passage of the 25th Amendment, but the nominees were becoming more than a balancing act. Richard Nixon was the vice president to Dwight Eisenhower and began to take on more responsibilities than his predecessors. His presence was well known by the time he joined the ticket. He rose up fast from representative to senator to vice presidential candidate. The Cold War was in its infancy by the time Nixon made it to Washington in 1953. Fear of war struck the American people and the health and safety of the man with the trigger for the nuclear bomb was of greater importance than ever before. OMG! Russia has a bomb! When Eisenhower suffered a heart attack, Nixon comforted the nation and letting the country and the world know that everything was under control in the United States. Once Eisenhower returned from respite, Nixon continued to be a face of American leadership. The line of succession showed its importance more than ever.

The president following Eisenhower would be the first president assassinated in the United States since 1901, and is also the first president lost under Secret Service protection. John F. Kennedy's death on November 22, 1963, would be the last president assassinated while in office and elevate Vice President Lyndon Johnson to the presidency. JFK's death and a vacancy in the vice presidency during the Cold War would reveal the dire need for the office of the vice president to never be vacant.

On February 10, 1967, the 25th Amendment to the Constitution passed the number of States necessary for approval. It confirmed the Tyler Precedent which John, whom the precedent is named after, established after President William Henry Harrison became the first president to die in office. No longer could there be a vacancy in the second most powerful office in the country. This section would kick into gear rather quickly.

When for the second time in our nation's history, the vice president of the United States resigns, it is also the first time the 25th Amendment begins. Spiro Agnew stepped down for reasons not connected to Watergate, Nixon's problem, on October 10, 1973. By October 12th, Nixon nominates Republican Minority Leader of the House Gerald Ford. After the Senate and then the House voting in the majority, Ford was sworn in as vice president on December 6 of that year. He was the first vice president never to campaign for votes of the American people.

The new second couple on the cover of Time magazine, December 17, 1973.

Then on August 9, 1974, after Richard Nixon became the first president to resign, Ford became the first president never elected to either the vice presidency or presidency. Soon after swearing-in, his top priority was filling the vacancy of his prior office. Nelson Rockefeller became the second man to be appointed vice president.

The importance of the office was becoming apparent. By 1974 Congress finally got the vice president a permanent Washington home with the Naval Observatory. Ford, set on moving in, became president before the family could move in. Rockefeller only used it to entertain, the man's a Rockefeller, he's already got a mansion. Walter Mondale became the first Second Family to live in the Vice President's Residence. Mondale also showed the importance of the vice president as a leader in the Executive Branch.

The Vice President's Residence

Jimmy Carter ran as a Washington outsider, showing he was from anything and everything but Watergate. He was governor of the state of Georgia and he defeated an incumbent president, albeit dealing with the legacy of the Vietnam War and Watergate. Carter needed someone with knowledge of the game, and he chose a well known senator from Minnesota.

The role of the vice president was becoming important as politicians sought, or unsought, the nomination. Candidates who they themselves sought the higher spot on the ticket were being considered as number two. Lyndon Johnson was one in 1960 and George Bush in 1980. Reagan, like JFK, chose a rival for the top spot to fill the other half of the ticket. Bush had a larger foreign policy resume than the western governor. Bush like Nixon, would assume the role of an acting-president. This idea, similar to Nixon in the 1950s when an acting president was needed due to the health of the incumbent president, also become a section of the 25th Amendment. It has only been used twice since George Bush. Richard Cheney would act as president twice when George W. Bush went in for surgery in 2002 and 2007.

The other section of the 25th Amendment, involuntary withdrawal, has yet to be used. Although it came close in the 1997 film Air Force One, it hasn't happened in the real world.

With the exception of James Danforth Quayle and the nomination of Sarah Palin, the seriousness of the office has been taken into consideration when seeking a candidate for the second spot. The nation's 45th vice president in 1993 showed an increase in importance and responsibility for the nation's number two. It certainly increased beyond any expectations when the 46th VPOTUS, Cheney, succeeded Al Gore in 2001.

Aside from the increase in power from Gore to Cheney, there was another difference between the two vice presidents. Since the days of Nixon the incumbent vice president was seeking the top of the ticket when it was his time. Hubert Humphrey tried it in 1968 and just like Nixon in 1960 and John C. Breckinridge in 1860, they all lost. Incumbent Vice President Bush won the top job, the first sitting VP since Martin Van Buren in 1936, and the last. Gore tried to do what Bush did and run for president. While Gore received more popular votes than George W. Bush, he did not win the Electoral College which determine the winner.

Gore had that desire to run for president. Prior to being nominated for the vice presidency in 1992, he made a run for the Democratic nomination in 1988. He lost. But a youthful man and vice president he was. He had the ambition, desire, and opportunity to run for the nomination in 2000, just as Bush in 1988, Humphrey in 1968, and Nixon in 1960. However the idea of the VP thinking about his own political future rather than the vision of the president reeked of possible situations no different than the Adams/Jefferson administration of 1797. People with different agendas. A divided government within the Executive Branch.

Cheney's selection of himself as George W. Bush's vice president put a new light on the role of the vice president. This man was not looking for anything in his political future. The vice president would help, or simply, run the show. Cheney did not want to be president and was not planning on running at the end of the administration. His decision created the first time no incumbent POTUS or VPOTUS ran for a party's nomination since 1928. Sure Herbert Hoover was part of the incumbent administration as the Secretary of Commerce, but far from the elected posts of president and vice president in 1928.

Whether or not the person seeking the nomination or becomes vice president, they remind the public they never want the job. When they get the vice presidency and then succeed to higher office, they were put there because we the American people believe that they will make a good steward of our country. Since it has taken us so long to realize the importance of the vice presidency, perhaps it is time to reevaluate the way we nominate him or her. Should the people have say or should the people allow one individual near dictatorial powers of appointing his or her choice? In 2008, half of the Democrats and independents, as well as Republicans, did not have their voice heard on the national ticket. Instead the number two spot went to someone who received a fraction of the primary and caucus votes. No matter what, Joe Biden, has the political resume to be a leader, and is a fine selection in this era of presidential-candidate's-appointing vice presidents. The Republicans allowed one man to select a woman with no real credentials for the job but whose only selection was because she was a woman. The conventions are only there to approve the anointment of the possible president, which is what the vice president truly is.

Maybe it's time for the second place person in the primary season become the vice presidential nominee, or allow for separate balloting of the presidential and vice presidential candidates. Maybe even friends running as a ticket in a primary season, but avoiding all the pitfalls that came of a similar scenario in 1800. The vice presidency always seems to be evolving, just like our great nation.

The Appointed Vice President

Gerald Ford is not the first appointed vice president.

Okay technically, or constitutionally, he is. The 25th Amendment fixed the ever vacant vice presidency problem which had been going on every now and then since 1841. That's what section 2 of the amendment did: president nominates and a majority of both chambers of Congress confirms.

We know politicians seek the office of vice president even if they won't admit it. James Polk was trying for the vp nomination before he stumbled on to the bigger nomination back in 1844. Those that don't seek the office usually accept the nomination, kind of taking one for the team. Theodore Roosevelt was that way. The extremely popular New York Governor, recent war hero from the Spanish-American War, was banished to the vp slot to keep in check by party leaders. Who would think the vice presidency could put TR in some kind of position of power? Oh, right Mark Hanna.

Presidential candidates eventually took on what party bosses were doing and selected their own vice presidential candidates. John Kennedy offered the vice presidency to Lyndon Johnson after their rivalry for the top nomination in 1960. The Kennedy brothers didn't think LBJ would accept, but he did.

Sure the national conventions have been confirming the vice presidential candidates via delegate votes. In the days of uncertain convention outcomes, it took more than one ballot to find a party's nominee for the bottom of the ticket. And yes when the people go to the ballot boxes in November they are electing a slate of electors to vote for their ticket of choice, each ticket containing a top (president) and a bottom (vice president). Thank you 12th Amendment. The vice president is the only other national office elected by the entire country. But we're usually just thinking of the person running for that other national office when we vote.

The vice presidential candidate historically was someone who balanced the ticket geographically or ideologically. The candidate usually filled out something that was missing on the other end of the ticket. In 1976 Jimmy Carter was the true Washington outsider and Walter Mondale was the exact opposite, perfect match. William Jefferson Clinton of Arkansas broke the mold on balancing geography in 1992 by selecting his home state's neighbor state's son, Al Gore of Tennessee.

We the voter accept the presidential candidate's choice pick as his or her's first real presidential decision pre-election. The presidential candidate believes that the person he or she selects will be able to do the job of president. The presidential candidate fought long and hard for the nomination, to get the people's vote, and the vp candidate is chosen not by the people but by the person who survived a test by the people.

We've accepted this way of selecting the nation's second highest office. And yet nine times in our history has the vice president ascended to the presidency. In 1841 when John Tyler became the first vp to become president upon the death of William Henry Harrion just 30 days into the new administration, the Constitution did not specify the ascendancy. The 25th Amendment's section one clarified all that by saying "In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President." It took so long to realize the importance of the office and transition of power.

Perhaps we have accepted the practice of selecting vice presidential candidates for too long. We may have had some good picks like Robert Dole, Walter Mondale, George Bush, Al Gore, and Jack Kemp. We've also had some which we question and did not turn out so good.

In 2008 the tradition of an undemocratically chosen vice presidential candidate continues with the selection of Senator Joe Biden of Delware for the Democrats and Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska for the Republicans.

Barack Obama makes his first presidential decision by selecting a running mate. An African-American male on a presidential ticket is a new thing. The country can handle change but not such a dramatic change as not having a white male somewhere on the ticket. So Obama chooses Biden, over the person who in the Democratic nominating contest received the second most number of votes to the nominee. Almost half of those that voted in the Democratic primary/caucus elections. Very undemocratic.

John McCain makes his first presidential decision after Obama. Ah, it's all politics. Well McCain can't pick another white male for his ticket when he's going up against the history making ticket of Obama/Biden. Breaking one hundred fifty-two years of an all white male ticket, the Republican vice presidential pick is recently elected governor Palin. McCain's attempts at politics (i.e. women's vote, he's a maverick, etc.) instead of selecting someone who is qualified for the presidency shows the seriousness of why the vice presidency needs to be in the hands of the people.

The qualifications of the vice presidency are exactly those of the presidency. The people should have a say in who that potential leader is. Some say the president needs to be able to work with his or her vice president and so the candidate must make the pick. No. The vice president needs to be selected because they are the second best qualified to be president after the presidential candidate.

In 1988, Dan Quayle was not the second best qualified person to be president after George Bush. Quayle was a senator farther right than Bush ideologically and youthful when compared to Bush and the oldest president Ronald Reagan, then the incumbent. Sarah Palin is not the second most qualified within the Republican Party to be president. She's not from Washington. She represents change as a female. That's what mattered to McCain.

The vice presidential candidate should be selected by the voter just as the presidential candidate is. The general election would remain the same, but it's how those people end up on the ticket which should be changed. One way would be for the primary voter to have a ballot labeled "president" and one labeled "vice president," all candidates in the running would be on both ballots and could only be voted for once. The person with the most number of votes for president becomes the candidate for president and the person with the most number of votes for vice president becomes vice president.

Another way can be similar to the process of electing the president and vice president pre-12th Amendment. Before the passage of the 12th Amendment in 1804, the man with a majority of votes became the president and the man with the second most number of votes became vice president. This is why our first two vice presidents are highly qualified men and both went on to be elected president in their own right. After the amendment passed and changed how we voted, the office of the vice president was no longer filled by men of similar caliber to that of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

So in a primary, the person who comes in second to the person with the most votes becomes the vice presidential running mate. In 2004 after John Kerry toyed with the idea of a bipartisan ticket with McCain, Kerry selected John Edwards, the man who received the second most number of primary votes. Yes, in 2008 this did not happen. Hillary Clinton was not considered even though she had the second most number of votes to Obama. Worrying about the role of a former president in a new administration was too much to worry about. Yes why would Obama not want one of the smartest men to occupy the White House as the spouse of the vice president? Avoiding that question and the person who received the next most number of votes, Obama went in another direction with his selection in Biden.

We must prevent this undemocratic process from continuing. We need to make sure that the people's voices are heard. We need to prevent daring political moves at the expense of potentially dangerous and inexperienced possible-presidents from coming to power. We need to return the appointed presidency back to men like Gerald Ford.