Spring Break
Does the VP Really Matter?
Deshad Cato
Issue date: 10/13/08 Section: Opinion
On Aug 29, 2008 Sen. John McCain named Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate for the Presidency of the United States of America.
On Oct 2 2008, Gov. Palin, while in a debate with Sen. Barack Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, stated what some political analysts have described as the most radical statement any vice presidential candidate has ever said.
Gov. Palin said that if she and Sen. McCain win the election, she would seek to gain more power than what has already been given to the position of vice presidency.
Since then talk of just what the powers the vice president holds has been one of the any topics on news channels across the board.
If you want to get into technical terms the Vice President's only job real job is to act as the tie breaking vote of the senate, pretty much acting as the President of the Senate, and as an ambassador for the President.
But, in reality, the role of vice president depends largely on the actions and conduct of the governing administrations.
In one instance,Lyndon B. Johnson, right after the Kennedy and Johnson ticket won the election in 1960, tried to extend his power of directing the Senate.
As the Senate majority leader for such a long time before he became Vice President, Johnson thought he would have no problem getting his way.
The new senate leader at the time, Sen. Mike Mansfield, and other democrats decided that they didn't like the idea and shot Johnson down. This is one example of when a vice president was denied power.
But then, there is Dick Cheney.
Over the past eight years Vice President Cheney has stretched the powers of a vice president beyond what most people thought possible.
He has even gone as far as being the first vice president to declare war. Some political analysts speculated that the reason for this is that Cheney is one of President George W. Bush's closet confidants.
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