Vice President-How Important is the Vice President
Jack Garner vice president when Franklin Roosevelt was serving (1933-1941) was quoted saying that the Vice Presidency was not worth a bucket of ‘warm spit’. Many agree with this because the constitution itself only outlines two roles for the Vice President. The first is that if the President dies, resigns, or is permanently incapicated the Vice President takes over. The second is that the Vice President is speaker in the Senate. However, these roles are both very important especially the latter, for the Speaker of the Senate can carries some important responsibility. The vice President can perform the task of informing and persuading the rest of the Senators about the President’s proposals and the merits of the proposal. In addition, in the event of a tie in Senate the Vice President gives the final verdict. This last happened in 1993, when Bill Clinton had difficulty in passing the budget. Al Gore his deputy broke the deadlock and voted in favor of the budget and thus the President. In addition, the Vice President also has a vital role by ‘balancing the ticket’ and compensating for perceived weakness in the Presidential candidate. For example, Barrack Obama largely inexperienced about matters of Foreign Affairs chose Joe Biden as his running mate whom has large experience regarding foreign policy. In addition, the President may also have an important advisory role to the President. For example, Al Gore on environment policy-such as the Kyoto Protocol. The vice president is also important as he is a ‘heartbeat away’ from the President and must be ready to take over in the case of an emergency. However, some vice presidents have played no significant role in American Politics such as Dan Quayle (1989-1993) George Bush’s deputy and was only allowed ceremonial duties. Therefore, the importance of the President and his advisory position largely depends on the President in power. Nevertheless, the President is seen as having an important role in the execution of Domestic Policy.
