Can you identify the man in the photo? If able, your academic prowess is indeed impressive. Hint: He was Vice-President during the first term of Abraham Lincoln (1861-65). Still no idea? His name is Hannibal Hamlin, and his historical reputation even among Lincoln scholars is quite obscure - despite holding the second highest office in the US.
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Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are closing in on making decisions on their running mates for the fall campaign. For the Senator from Illinois, his choices range from the iconic Hillary Clinton to the nationally unknown governor of Virginia Tim Kaine. John McCain has a few interesting choices as well. While former Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge would likely add Pennsylvania to the Republican electoral column, Mitt Romney could bring needed economic expertise to the ticket in a year of high gas prices, inflation and decreasing consumer spending.
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Does the Vice-Presidential choice ultimately matter to voters or government over the course of four years?
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Historically, the VP slot has had little appreciable influence on the direction of a presidency. However, there are a few notable exceptions - especially in times of tragedy. Here a few examples:
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4 April 1841: William Henry Harrison (Tippecanoe) dies of pneumonia one month after his inauguration. John Tyler, Vice-President, became the first 'accidental president' and proceeded to chart a dubious course in politics. Unlike Harrison, Tyler was a Democratic-Republican rather than a Whig. Rather than find common ground, Tyler vetoed every bill sponsored by Henry Clay and the Whigs in Congress - including one that would have established a national bank and put the US on sound financial footing. Politically isolated, Tyler was relegated to being an unelected, one-term (minus one month) president. Before leaving office, however, 'His Accidentcy' managed to shore up enough support and votes to annex Texas in 1845. The addition of the 'Lone Star State' would encapsulate his legacy.
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6 September 1901: President William McKinley, first elected in 1896, was shot by an anarchist and died 8 days later. His successor: none other than the Mount Rushmore icon Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt. Placed into the Vice-Presidency by his political sponsors for the sole purpose of driving his reformist tendencies out of New York City, the ascendancy of TR was a veritable nightmare for the corrupt bosses of Tammany Hall. Once in power, Roosevelt remade the nation and became a top-tier president by successfully concluding the Philippine War, building the Panama Canal and enacting stringent conservation laws.
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2 August 1923: Warren Harding, one of the least regarded presidents due to the numerous scandals that occurred during his brief administration (i.e. the Teapot Dome Scandal), died of pneumonia (like Harrison) after giving a final speech at the University of Washington, Seattle. In the middle of the night at his farmhouse in Vermont, Vice-President Calvin Coolidge, is awakened with the news and sworn into office by his father - a notary public. Over the next five years, Coolidge, a reticent man with little demonstrable personality, would preside over an era of relative isolationism, Babe Ruth home-runs and the greatest American economic expansion to date. Fortunately for 'Silent Cal', the bubble would burst several months after his second term and forever equate the Great Depression with Herbert Hoover.
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20 January 2001: Upon the disputed election of George W. Bush, Richard Cheney became Vice-President. After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, Cheney, along with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, successfully swayed the president to launch an invasion of Iraq to eliminate a potential WMD attack from Saddam Hussein. By the accounts of former CIA Director James Woolsey and former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, the actual modus operandi of the Bush White House was not in fact to preclude an attack by Saddam Hussein but to create a beacon of democracy in the heart of the Middle East to pressure nearby regimes (i.e. Iran, Syria) to open-up their systems of government and end their sponsorship of militant extremists to achieve political objectives. Regardless of the outcome, Richard Cheney has had a decisive impact on the presidency and the course of world events.
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As Obama and McCain sift through potential running-mates, they ought to take the history of the more consequential vice-presidents into account. Indeed, a second-in-command can make a difference.
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J Roquen