As U.S. presidential candidates clamor over each other in the race for commander in chief, I can’t help but feel they’re missing the best position in the White House – vice president.
Second in command is the real gem of a job. Understated, just out of the spotlight and glare of the media, it’s an ideal gig with access to all the insider information. Much can get done behind the scenes.
The bar to become vice president is high but not as high as one for the presidency. It’s just a notch lower to limbo under. In background checks, if something relatively minor or embarrassing shows up – funny in a moment that didn’t stand the test of time – it’s not a big deal.
A little benign trouble even supports that catchy nickname with a little bad girl or bad boy flair. As in, “Hey, vice.” (Best said with a sideways glance and nod.)
Besides, we don’t all have to be No. 1. It still looks great on a résumé to have been vice president of the U.S. Just ask Joe Biden.
It’s often said that vice presidents are that breath or heartbeat away from becoming the most powerful person in the free world. But other White House positions hold more authority and weight than the vice presidency, including White House chief of staff, speaker of the House and secretary of state. Potential for the “big job” is there without the day-to-day strife these other positions hold.
It’s insignificant in good ways. Maybe the vice president can even catch that occasional afternoon yoga class or matinee movie.
Over time, things sure have changed in that crazy run to the U.S. Capitol. In the original system for electing presidents before 1804, when the 12th Amendment was ratified, each member of the Electoral College voted for two people for president. The candidate receiving a majority of votes would become president, while the runner-up became vice president.
Too bad a candidate can’t run independently for second in command. In exploring this point further, here’s an official content/trigger warning for survivors, years ago, not asked to the high school dance. The person for vice president is unknown until the front-runner handpicks a running mate. Like waiting for the phone to ring weeks before the prom, vice presidential contenders are sitting around, hoping to be asked. And strangely, the presidential candidate makes this decision before even getting the actual job.
Something is off in this situation.
Sure, a vice president has assigned and relevant tasks, including breaking a tie in the Senate. But other official job duties are murky. There’s some freedom in this.
Besides doing things the president doesn’t want to do, we want a No. 2 who will stretch into impactful work. Much of governance happens out of sight, advising, managing and negotiating, effectively broadening the reach and scope of the presidency. In all that gets done, it’s difficult to discern where the president’s work ends and the vice president’s begins.
In the case of Kamala Harris, a large part of her job was completed in the moment when Biden won his first term. Political scientists would call Harris’ role “descriptive representation,” bringing concerns of women and people of color into governing priorities. Harris heads up specific policy areas, such as reproductive rights and is Biden’s spokesperson on abortion. She’s been strong there.
I would, though, like more details about what’s going on with voting rights and, especially, immigration, where policies aren’t improved or helpful for Biden’s second bid for office. Immigration remains a mess and Harris could really make her mark here, were she to turn it around. It wouldn’t hurt her chances, either, if she decides to one day run for president.
Still, even significant work done while vice president doesn’t always pay off in becoming president. Just look at former Vice President Al Gore. In the right place at the right time, popularizing the term “information superhighway,” precursor to the internet, and being involved in the creation of the National Information Infrastructure.
Gore also launched the GLOBE program, which increased students’ awareness about the environment and climate change. While in Washington, D.C., he laid groundwork to eventually co-win a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for “informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change.” His efforts were featured in the Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”
But Gore’s achievements didn’t pave the way to the presidency. He lost to George W. Bush in 2000, confirmed more than a month after the election. Boy, those were the good old days of voting recounts, when Florida election officials held magnifying glasses to dimpled and hanging chads, the fragments of paper left behind in punch card ballots.
More isn’t always better and the job of president probably isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. From far away, the position of vice president looks a whole lot better.
Ann Marie Swan is Opinion Editor at The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez. These views are hers alone and not the editorial board’s.
