By Austin Hill
Sunday, September 02, 2012
The Republican convention ends. The polls tighten. Romney
visits storm-ravaged Louisiana. President Obama visits military families in
Texas.
And then the American news media was disrupted with this
wacky little headline: “Biden Does Retail Politics, Kisses Supporter On Lips.”
Last Friday afternoon, in the midst of all the other
important things going on in the world, Vice President Joseph Biden made a
“surprise” campaign stop in Canfield, Ohio. Standing around greeting attendees
at the annual Canfield Fair, Biden served-up his usual repertoire of
everyday-guy quips and goofy-uncle type witticism. According to one reporter he
shook hands with a young boy sporting a short “buzz” style haircut and told him
“I used to have hair like that. Look what happened…”
Mr. Biden has provided lots of comic relief during his
term as Vice President, a term that bears a striking contrast to the unusually
stoic and substantive eight years of Dick Cheney. But what if the unthinkable
were to happen and Joe Biden had to step-up and be President? Is America ready
for a Biden Presidency? And is Biden up to the task?
Presidential elections are not won or lost according to
the number two nominee on the ticket. But Republican vice presidential nominee
Paul Ryan is most certainly being viewed through the “what if he became
President?” filter. It is likewise fair and reasonable to raise these same
types of questions of Joe Biden – even if he is the incumbent.
So let’s put Joe Biden in his proper vice presidential
context, and begin with some facts about the office. Of the forty-seven vice
presidents who have served in the U.S., only fourteen have gone on to be
President. Out of those fourteen, only five of those VPs actually got elected
president; the rest of them ascended to the presidency as a result of a
President’s death or resignation, and then either refused to run again for
their own term, or ran for their own term and lost.
This is to say that being Vice President of the United
States is in some respects a “dead end job.” VP’s can certainly leverage their
stature for great professional pursuits when they leave office (Vice Presidents
Dan Quayle, Al Gore and Dick Cheney have all done well for themselves), but in
terms of political pursuits, it’s usually the end of the road.
To this end, it’s interesting to note some of the
visceral rejections that presidential candidates have received when extending a
running mate opportunity. For example, when former -U.S. Senator Harry Truman
was initially contacted and asked about being FDR’s vice presidential running
mate, Senator Truman replied “tell him he can go to Hell.”
Similarly, many of the men who served as Vice President
lamented the dull and boring nature of the position. John Adams, America’s
first Vice President, once noted that “my country, in its wisdom, contrived for
me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or
his imagination conceived.” Thomas Marshall, the 29th Vice President serving
under President Woodrow Wilson, commented about his service on the Smithsonian
Institute’s Board of Regents (one of the tasks of the Vice President) saying
“it’s an opportunity for the Vice President to compare his fossilized life with
the fossils of all ages.” And George H.W. Bush, Vice President to Ronald
Reagan, once noted about the VP’s job of attending the funerals of foreign
dignitaries, “you die, I fly…”
This is to say that, according to many of the men who
have served in the office, being Vice President is not only a dead-end job, but
it can also seem quite boring. Yet Vice President Biden seems thrilled with the
job-why is this so?
Most who observe him carefully laugh at Mr. Biden’s
propensity for gaffes. He famously mispronounced candidate Obama’s last name
back in 2008, introducing him on stage as “Barack America.” He has publicly
used racial humor, noting once that “in my hometown in Delaware you can’t go in
to a 7 Eleven or a Dunkin Donuts without hearing an Indian accent.” And he
recently drew fire when speaking to a largely African-American audience,
suggesting that Republicans want to be slave owners, and, as he stated, “want
to put y’all back in chains.”
But Vice President Biden is not just famous for gaffes.
In 2010, during a White House reception, he was caught on microphone responding
to a question about how he likes being Vice President. “It’s easy!” Mr. Biden
exclaimed, “You don’t have to do anything! It’s like being the grandpa, and not
the parent…”
Do the gaffes - and the exuberance over not having to “do
anything” – really add-up to a presidency? These remarks can easily be
dismissed as “missteps.” Yet the “mis-stepping” has at times spilled over in to
areas of foreign policy. Speaking with PBS Television’s “The News Hour” on
January 27th of 2011, Mr. Biden emphatically insisted that Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak was not a dictator and should not resign his presidency, despite
calls to the contrary from the Muslim world. Eight days later on February 4,
President Obama announced America’s new, official foreign policy stance with
Egypt, which was completely contrary to the stated positions of his Vice
President, and called on Mubarak to resign so as to make way for the more
radicalized Muslim Brotherhood government.
Gaffes, offensive jokes, a love of doing nothing and
bungled foreign policy pronouncements – these are all a part of Joe Biden’s
service as U.S. Vice President. Voters should be cognizant of this baggage,
before they go to vote in November.
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