When people think of the role of vice presidents, only a few rather menial positions come to mind: They act as the presiding officer of the Senate, they serve on the president’s cabinet and they are next in line to become president if something should happen to the current president. From this job description, it seems to make sense that John Adams once described the vice presidency as “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man created.”
This opinion about the vice presidency is not an uncommon one; the majority of people throughout history think rather despairingly about the position. Despite these adverse opinions, however, the fact of the matter is that the vice president plays a much more important and influential role in the government than one usually thinks.
It is common knowledge that the most trusted confidant of a person is usually someone who can best reflect that person; the confidant usually shares the exact same values and ideas as their counterpart and can be seen as an extension of them. As the right-hand man to the president, the vice president embodies this role very effectively. Their actions can directly affect the public viewpoint and opinion of the president, and should the VP do something that entices a positive or negative reaction, that same feeling will be reflected back onto the president. One of the most obvious examples of this role in action can be seen in the 2008 presidential election, when Barack Obama chose Delaware senator Joe Biden and John McCain chose Alaska governor Sarah Palin as their prospective vice presidents. In the two to four months prior to election day, the two candidates were relatively even in the polls, with an occasional 2 to 5 percent difference. While Obama’s nomination of Joe Biden did not significantly affect his polling numbers, McCain’s nomination of Palin most definitely did. Only 10 days after McCain’s nomination of Palin on August 29, McCain gained a high of 10 percent more in the polls over Obama. This intense race continued for a while, up until Sarah Palin began to expose herself more to the public eye, and her true qualities and knowledge capability were revealed. During her first interview with Charlie Gibson on Sept. 11, 2008, Palin demonstrated her lack of knowledge on the Bush Doctrine, and the uneasiness it gave voters presented itself in the poll numbers. In the week following this interview, Obama’s poll numbers increased by 4 percent, and this trend steadily continued. Obama’s lead became permanent, however, after the vice president debate on Oct. 2, when Joe Biden was declared the winner and voters as well as the news media continued to express concern over Palin’s ability to be a leader.
In this scenario, it can be argued that part of the reason why John McCain lost the presidential race in 2008 was because the actions of Sarah Palin elicited a negative reaction from the American voters. Since McCain picked Palin as his running mate and seemingly approved and supported of her leadership capabilities and political ideas, the voters reflected their negative feelings toward her onto him, and ultimately decided to not vote for him. This truly portrays what an important role the vice president can play in affecting the people’s viewpoint of the president.
As previously mentioned, the vice president usually serves as the right-hand man to the president. In this role, they are one of the people who work most closely with the president and are able to provide the president with a trusted opinion. It is in this position that another important and influential role of the vice president is revealed; in their close position to the president, they have the power to be able to influence the president’s decisions. This power can be seen most closely during the presidency of George W. Bush, with Dick Cheney serving as his vice president. Cheney has been described as the “gold standard” of vice presidents, a “political black hole,” who exerts massive force in political decisions, yet still remains largely hidden to the public eye. During the 2006 midterm elections, polls showed that the majority of Americans expressed desire to end the war in Iraq and begin to stop sending in more troops. Democrats and some Senate Republicans expressed their desire to decrease troops numbers in Iraq, as well. Despite these obvious oppositions, however, President Bush announced on Jan. 10, 2007 that he would be sending more than 20,000 troops more troops into Iraq. When the midterm polls first came out, Cheney expressed uncertainty with their numbers, claiming the polls “changed day by day,” and that he “didn’t think the President [could] afford to make any decisions of this magnitude according to the polls,” which further led people to believe that Cheney provided heavy, if not the main, influence on Bush’s decision. A Washington Post article from 2007 analyzes this situation very well; Cheney’s massive influence on Bush’s decision created a rift between Bush and the rest of the executive branch and Congress on the Iraq issue and further decreased the chance of any bipartisan decisions being made on the matter. This issue provides a perfect example of how much the vice president can influence decisions made by the president.
Although many people do not think much of the vice president, it is clear they provide a significant role in politics and the workings of the government. With the 2016 presidential election right on our heels, it is important to consider the large role vice presidents play when candidates begin announcing their VP picks. Always remember: You’re not just voting for one person, you’re also voting for the baggage that comes along with them.
