Years ago, Vice President John Nance Garner, who knew from first-hand painful experience, said that the Vice Presidency was not worth a pitcher of fresh urination – or words to that effect. Garner came from Texas; Texans have colorful ways of putting things.
Some things have changed in the vice presidency since Garner left it in 1941 and retired to Uvade, Texas. However, the dog’s body quality remains around the office of the Vice Presidency to this day.
Some things have changed in the vice presidency since Garner left it in 1941 and retired to Uvade, Texas. However, the dog’s body quality remains around the office of the Vice Presidency to this day.
THE VICE PRESIDENCY COULD HAVE AMOUNTED TO A HILL OF BEANS.
Way back in 1896, candidate William McKinley selected for his vice president a Republican party official and New Jersey state legislator by the name of Garret Hobart. Among other things, Hobart is credited with saying “What this country needs is a good five cent cigar.” He got that right: we can make bigger fortunes selling many things for a nickel than a few things for 50 cents. However, to get back on point, McKinley set out to make Vice President Hobart a sort of executive assistant president. Heaven knows what would have happened if Hobart had not suddenly died two years into the experiment. McKinley replaced Hobart in 1900 with the huge ego of Governor Theodore Roosevelt. McKinley died a few months later. Roosevelt became president. When the Great Ego finally got himself a vice president in 1905, he did not want any powerful assistant blocking his limelight. So much for an executive assistant president.
More than a hundred years later . . .
Romney decided to select as his vice president candidate a U S Representative from Wisconsin who had a nationwide reputation for fiscal conservatism of the hardest, coldest order. Paul Ryan of Janesville Wisconsin also had gone on record with plans to reduce the dreaded national fiscal deficit. Among so called Tea Party people (whomever and whatever they are) and among True Blue Conservatives of both fiscal and social varieties, Ryan was The Brilliant Star in the Midwest, The Rising Hope of the Generation.
In the weeks since Romney took Ryan to the mountaintop and showed him the Kingdoms of the World, news programs have broadcast many stories featuring people who now find themselves excited about the Republican ticket. People willingly state for the record they really did not like Romney much or did not agree with him wholeheartedly. Now they will work hard for the ticket.
Their enthusiasm, while admirable in its purity, is completely misplaced.
Romney is the presidential candidate. He is the same man who –
● was the son of a Rockefeller Republican
● labeled in the 1960s as as part of the rising generation of The New Liberal Modernized Mormons
● went from riches to richer
● created his own state health insurance requirement.
The Romney Ego will eventually notice if crowds like his veep candidate better than himself. I seriously doubt it will like it.
Ryan can say what he wants. Will Romney consult him if the voters elect them to highest offices? The Vice Presidency never did evolve into an executive assistant president: it has only a few real constitutional duties from the beginning to now. The Constitution does not specify that the President has to take his vice president seriously in fiscal consultation.
RYAN MISSED HIS CHANCE
Representative Paul Ryan should have held out for a cabinet position in a department with a lot of entitlements. Or he should have held out for director of budget. Then he would have been in a better position to actually put his ideas into effect.
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