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Who is the Greatest VP in US History


vcczar

Who is the Greatest VP in US History  

12 members have voted

  1. 1. Who is the Greatest VP in US History

    • John Adams -- 1st VP; 2nd most tie-breaking senate votes with 29
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    • Thomas Jefferson -- Only incumbent VP to run against an incumbent president
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    • Aaron Burr -- Only known VP to kill a person while holding office
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    • George Clinton -- 1st Party Ticket VP; 1st VP to serve for two different presidents; 1st VP to die in office.
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    • Daniel D Tompkins -- 1st VP to serve two full terms as VP
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    • John C Calhoun -- 1st VP to resign as VP; Most tie-breaking Senate votes with 31.
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    • Martin Van Buren -- 1st VP to serve occasionally as an advisor to the president
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    • John Tyler -- 1st VP to become president on the death of a president; 1st VP to never cast a tie-breaking vote
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    • George M Dallas -- One of three VPs known to work regularly as President of the Senate; 3rd most tie-breaking Senate votes with 19
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    • John C Breckinridge -- Youngest VP at age 36
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    • Levi P Morton -- One of three VPs known to work regularly as President of the Senate
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    • Garret Hobart -- One of three VPs known to work regularly as President of the Senate
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    • Thomas Marshall -- 1st VP to preside over occasional cabinet meetings
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    • Charles Curtis -- 1st VP partially of another race (Native American)
    • John Nance Garner -- 1st VP to be given any sort of executive duties; Creation of Executive Office of the VP
    • Henry A Wallace -- 1st VP to be placed in charge of government programs
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    • Alben W Barkley -- Oldest VP at age 71
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    • Richard Nixon -- 1st VP to lead a major diplomatic mission (Kitchen Debate in the USSR vs Khruschev)
    • Lyndon B Johnson -- 1st VP to get an office outside of the US Senate building--and an entire building at that.
    • Gerald Ford -- 1st VP to become president on the resignation of a president; Only unelected/unnominated VP
    • Walter Mondale -- 1st VP to be a regular partner of the president; 1st VP to have an office in the West Wing of the White House
    • Dan Quayle -- Only VP since 1977 to hold relatively limited duties as VP
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    • Dick Cheney -- Only VP to make policy decisions on his own
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    • Joe Biden -- Reverted VP'y back to pre-Cheney powers; only two-term VP to never cast a tie-breaking vote
    • Mike Pence -- Most tie-breaking US Senate votes by a VP since 1873 with 13 (7th overall)
    • Kamala Harris -- 1st woman VP; 1st Black and Asian VP
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Absolutely Walter Mondale.He made the VP position into what it is today.Sad to see go,but he had a full life filled with accomplishments,his losing in a landslide to someone like Reagan is a prime example of everything wrong with America,and could be the beggining of the story of Trumpism,Palinism and other right wing idiocrats.

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3 hours ago, pilight said:

VP is a nothing job.  Being the best VP is like owning the fastest Yugo.

That's becoming less of the case. Dick Cheney didn't consider it a "nothing job." It's just Constitutionally a nothing job. De fact and de jure don't always overlap perfectly. 

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Personally George HW Bush is my favorite VP. But Mondale is definitely up there. Good man. Humble in victory. Gracious in defeat. 

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19 minutes ago, Pringles said:

Personally George HW Bush is my favorite VP. But Mondale is definitely up there. Good man. Humble in victory. Gracious in defeat. 

Probably my personal favorite VP of my lifetime was Joe Biden. He was more likable as a VP than as a Sen or Pres. My least favorite was Cheney. Here's my ranking for those from my lifetime:

  1. Biden (He seemed to always be likable as VP. Sort of the perfect politician for that role. As stated above, this was his best role. A+ VP, B- Senator, and probably a B- president so far)
  2. Quayle (He ranks far lower now, but I'm ranking them based on how I thought about them when they were in office. I thought Quayle was hilarious because he was so oblivious and ignorant. Easily the dumbest VP we've had. I think a lot of it was due to insecurity about his own competency. He seemed to make more mistakes the more attention he got. As a former VP, he seems more polished and relaxed.)
  3. Harris (She hasn't done enough to really warrant an opinion from me. I give her some points just for being the first woman VP. She was hit or miss as a US Senator, sort of like Biden was. She might also make a better VP than Senator)
  4. Mondale (too young to remember anything about him. I'm lucky I have one Carter-era memory). 
  5. Gore (I remember thinking he was boring and insincere. I like him more as climate activist)
  6. Bush (I don't remember much about him as VP. I do remember thinking he looked nerdy with the glasses. I remember not wanting him to be president in 1988, even though I was only in 3rd grade)
  7. Pence (His saving grace was breaking with Trump during Trump's insurrection. However, years of sort of towing the Trump line during some of the worst of what Trump said or did undermines any chance of resurrection.)
  8. Cheney (Worst VP. I was in undergrad when he was VP. I thought he was a terrific debater but also a Darth Vader-like character)
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1 hour ago, Patine said:

A staunch supporter of the HUAC witch-hunting and it's Blacklisting (the true predecessor, model, and inspiration for modern-day Cancel Culture)! A true champion of Constitutionally-guaranteed and -protected Freedom of Speech, the Press, and Conscience - sure! 😁

Please do tell exactly what Nixon did during his time in Congress or as Vice President to witch-hunt or blacklist anybody. All I can recall was his poking holes in the testimony of likely spy and convicted perjurer Alger Hiss? I don't take issue with this.

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When Nixon supports HUAC it's ok... but that radical liberal Bobby Kennedy... now he's something else! Wiretapping MLK smh... this proves the Democrats and Liberals were always in on it with the racists!!!!

Jk please don't take me seriously. 😛 

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19 hours ago, vcczar said:

Probably my personal favorite VP of my lifetime was Joe Biden. He was more likable as a VP than as a Sen or Pres. My least favorite was Cheney. Here's my ranking for those from my lifetime:

  1. Biden (He seemed to always be likable as VP. Sort of the perfect politician for that role. As stated above, this was his best role. A+ VP, B- Senator, and probably a B- president so far)
  2. Quayle (He ranks far lower now, but I'm ranking them based on how I thought about them when they were in office. I thought Quayle was hilarious because he was so oblivious and ignorant. Easily the dumbest VP we've had. I think a lot of it was due to insecurity about his own competency. He seemed to make more mistakes the more attention he got. As a former VP, he seems more polished and relaxed.)
  3. Harris (She hasn't done enough to really warrant an opinion from me. I give her some points just for being the first woman VP. She was hit or miss as a US Senator, sort of like Biden was. She might also make a better VP than Senator)
  4. Mondale (too young to remember anything about him. I'm lucky I have one Carter-era memory). 
  5. Gore (I remember thinking he was boring and insincere. I like him more as climate activist)
  6. Bush (I don't remember much about him as VP. I do remember thinking he looked nerdy with the glasses. I remember not wanting him to be president in 1988, even though I was only in 3rd grade)
  7. Pence (His saving grace was breaking with Trump during Trump's insurrection. However, years of sort of towing the Trump line during some of the worst of what Trump said or did undermines any chance of resurrection.)
  8. Cheney (Worst VP. I was in undergrad when he was VP. I thought he was a terrific debater but also a Darth Vader-like character)

Depending on how we're judging them, Pence might be the greatest VP of all time.  

Don't get me wrong:  I disagree with Pence on damned near everything.  I have nothing good to say about him as a person.  I don't even have anything good to say about his family -- I met his brother once, and the man had the coldest damned hands I've ever shaken in my entire life.

But he was an absolute MASTER at gaslighting Republican voters about Donald Trump.  His debates were works of art -- he would be asked a question about something Trump had done or tweeted or impregnated, and Pence would just look back baffled at the moderator.  "What on earth are you talking about?  Our lord and commander Donald Moses Trump would never do that.  He does not believe in that.  There is a darkness in your soul if you ever ever thought there was any possibility that such an allegation could possibly be true."  And if I was somebody who wasn't particularly paying attention to the news but then heard some of these allegations in passing, I'd have been very reassured by Pence's denials.  It was a masterful performance.

Of course, Trump would come out the next day and say "Yeah I did it, and I'd do it again!" undoing all of Pence's whitewashing.

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3 minutes ago, vcczar said:

He was only VP for a couple of months and wasn't even that involved in FDR's administration. 

And he fixed that, ensuring that never again would we have a VP who was not up to speed on the most important topics the President was considering (after he'd been in the dark about the atomic bomb)

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1 hour ago, Patine said:

I, myself, have called Pence the pied piper who led tonnes of self-identified Christians to vote for and continue to support the most amoral and irreligious person to ever be elected U.S. President. But really - should con artists get accolades? :S

I agree entirely.  (Hooray!)

As for whether con artists should get accolades, it of course depends on how we're judging them.  If the question is "Which Vice President was the best person, did the most good for the country, etc etc", then the answer is absolutely not Pence.

If the question is "Who did the best at doing the job their President hired them to do," I think Pence might win it hands-down.

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1 hour ago, MrPotatoTed said:

I agree entirely.  (Hooray!)

As for whether con artists should get accolades, it of course depends on how we're judging them.  If the question is "Which Vice President was the best person, did the most good for the country, etc etc", then the answer is absolutely not Pence.

If the question is "Who did the best at doing the job their President hired them to do," I think Pence might win it hands-down.

I'd argue "greatest" implies good things for the country 😛

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7 hours ago, MrPotatoTed said:

Depending on how we're judging them, Pence might be the greatest VP of all time.  

Don't get me wrong:  I disagree with Pence on damned near everything.  I have nothing good to say about him as a person.  I don't even have anything good to say about his family -- I met his brother once, and the man had the coldest damned hands I've ever shaken in my entire life.

But he was an absolute MASTER at gaslighting Republican voters about Donald Trump.  His debates were works of art -- he would be asked a question about something Trump had done or tweeted or impregnated, and Pence would just look back baffled at the moderator.  "What on earth are you talking about?  Our lord and commander Donald Moses Trump would never do that.  He does not believe in that.  There is a darkness in your soul if you ever ever thought there was any possibility that such an allegation could possibly be true."  And if I was somebody who wasn't particularly paying attention to the news but then heard some of these allegations in passing, I'd have been very reassured by Pence's denials.  It was a masterful performance.

Of course, Trump would come out the next day and say "Yeah I did it, and I'd do it again!" undoing all of Pence's whitewashing.

You're right about Pence's skills in converting voters to Trump, at least in 2016, and I'll admit, that is something I've overlooked in my previous analysis of Pence as a nominee, and VP. That said, I'd argue that makes him a good candidate for "Greatest VP Nominee of All Time" rather than "Greatest VP of All Time" since the latter would examine the perspective GOAT on their skills in the office, more so than their skills in obtaining the office, in my opinion.

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