When John Adams was vice president from 1797 to 1801, he called his position “the most insignificant office.”
Soon after Jack Garner accepted his vice presidential nomination in 1932, he said “The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.”
And on July 31, 2008, just weeks before she accepted the Republican vice presidential nomination, Sarah Palin asked on CNBC: “What is it exactly that the VP does every day?”
The U.S. Constitution has an answer to Palin’s question. If elected as vice president on Nov. 4, either Palin or Democratic nominee Joe Biden would only be required of three duties:
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Count electoral votes in presidential elections.
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Preside over the Senate and vote if there is a tie.
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Assume the presidency if the president dies, is unable to serve, is removed from office or resigns.
Except for those constitutional roles, explained Syracuse University history professor Margaret Thompson, “What the vice president does is pretty much what the president wants the vice president to do.”
That ranges from serious policy tasks to ceremonial duties like attending state funerals or dinners.
Many vice presidents have been largely symbolic figures, said Danny Hayes, a political science professor at Syracuse University. They “didn’t do much more than go represent the president at dinners,” he said.
But voters in the United States do care about who the vice presidential candidates are, Hayes said, because the presidential candidates make a big deal out of picking a running mate. And they can still be significant even if they don’t assume the presidency, he added.
As president of the Senate, the vice president must cast a vote in the event of a tie. John Adams cast the record number of tie-breakers at 29. Dick Cheney, the current vice president, has broken eight ties, according to the Senate Historical Office.
Nine vice presidents have assumed the presidency before the end of a term. The most recent was Gerald Ford, who became president when Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Eight vice presidents became president have been because of the president’s deaths.
Four of those were assassinations, according to the historical office.
Vice presidents have officially taken over presidential powers temporarily only three times. Most recently, President George W. Bush transferred his powers to Cheney in July 2007 in anticipation of undergoing anesthesia during a colonoscopy, according to The American Presidency Project.
But the modern vice presidency has expanded beyond the Constitutional demands, say some experts.
Joel Goldstein, an expert on the vice presidency and law professor at Saint Louis University, said the “big bang” of vice presidential responsibility happened when Walter Mondale served under Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. For the first time, Mondale got a vice presidential office in the White House’s West Wing.
Mondale, Goldstein said in an e-mail interview, “established an expectation that the vice president would play an important role as a senior presidential adviser and troubleshooter.” Goldstein added, “His successors retained those resources and all have had considerable access and involvement, although their relative influence has varied.”
But, vice presidents don’t necessarily make a difference on election day, said SU political science professor Hayes. “I don’t think there’s any evidence that vice presidential candidates really have that much to do with the outcome,” he said.
Presidential candidates usually choose running mates, said Hayes, who are supposed to ease voters’ fears about perceived shortcomings on the ticket.
For example, Democrat Barack Obama selected Biden — a longtime veteran of the Senate, two-time seeker of the presidential nomination, a prominent Senate voice on foreign affairs — as an antidote to allegations that Obama lacked experience. Republican John McCain looked to Palin to energize his party’s conservative base and revive his image as a maverick reformer.
“So they both pick people who could hopefully assuage voters’ concerns in that respect.,” said Hayes. “My guess is those things cancel each other out.”
(Megan Saucke is junior with dual majors in newspaper journalism and political science.)
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