Volume 23, Number 4, April 2014
US politics
The role of the vice president
Andrew Axelby
Before the recent government shutdown, American comedian Jay Leno quipped:
‘If the government does shut down, non-essential White House employees will be sent home
without pay. So more bad news for Joe Biden.’
Perhaps understandably, many of the holders of the office of vice president have been completely
overshadowed by the president. Harry Truman, Franklin Roosevelt’s third vice president, went on to
become president, but who could name Roosevelt’s first two VPs? The relative power of the post in
relation to the president perhaps explains why the post has led, for many of its holders, to virtual
anonymity.
However, Dick Cheney (2001–09), vice president to George W. Bush, took on a much more proactive
role — so much so that Joe Biden (2009–present) stated he would seek to return the office to a less
prominent position. The extent to which Biden has achieved this is debatable.
The role of the vice president has certainly changed a great deal since John Adams, the first holder of
the office. The way they are elected has too: until 1804 the vice president was elected through being
the runner-up in the presidential race, whereas today they are part of a ‘joint ticket’ with the
presidential nominee.
The powers of the vice president
The Constitution makes the vice president the presiding officer of the Senate. This gives him or her
the power to announce the results of the Electoral College in presidential elections, cast the deciding
vote in tied Senate votes, and replace the president if he or she dies or is incapacitated. While this
bestows little definitive ‘power’ on the post-holder, circumstances can elevate the post-holder to a
position of extreme importance.
The most obvious instance of this is when a president dies in office or resigns mid-term, and is
replaced by the vice president. This has happened nine times, the most recent case being Vice
President Gerald Ford, who became president in 1974 after the resignation of Richard Nixon. Ford’s
elevation raises interesting questions about American democracy, as he rose to the offices of both
vice president and then president without contesting an election for either position. In the other postwar example, Lyndon Johnson was elevated to the presidency following John F. Kennedy’s
assassination in 1963.
The passage of the 25th Amendment in 1967 clarified the succession and nomination processes of a
vice president and also the role of the vice president in case of presidential illness or inability to
‘discharge the powers and duties of his office’. Woodrow Wilson had been seriously ill towards the end
of his presidency and there was no legal provision for the vice president, Thomas R. Marshall, to
assume Wilson’s duties. Under President Eisenhower, Vice President Richard Nixon had taken control
when Eisenhower suffered from various ailments — yet there was no constitutional provision for this.
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The 25th Amendment has been invoked on this basis three times — once under Ronald Reagan and
twice under George W. Bush — in all cases when the president was hospitalised, and only for a
matter of hours.
The third instance when events can place the vice president into a position of importance is through
the vice president’s formal power of deciding tied votes in the Senate. Clearly this power is dependent
on the relative strength of the parties in the Senate. The first vice president, John Adams, holds the
record for these votes, deciding 29 tied votes in the early days of the republic. Joe Biden has cast no
deciding votes thus far. Biden’s predecessor Cheney, however, cast no fewer than eight casting votes,
including voting to protect Bush’s tax cuts in 2001. In a situation like the 107th Congress (2001–03) —
where the Senate was split 50/50 along party lines — the vice president becomes very influential,
effectively becoming a ‘51st Senator’. In a time of increased partisanship and divided government, the
position may become even more influential in the coming years.
Joe Biden’s vice presidency
Biden balanced the ticket for Obama in 2008 and 2012 in a number of ways. His 36 years in the US
Senate and chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee served as a counterweight to
Obama’s relative inexperience in both Congress and foreign affairs, while his Catholic faith, race and
‘average Joe’ personality provided balance in a different sense.
Biden has fulfilled a number of roles as vice president:

His recent visit to Asia — where he met the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chinese
President Xi Jinping, and both the South Korean president and prime minister — suggests that
Obama has real faith in Biden as a diplomat, as these high-level trade and foreign policy
meetings would normally be the preserve of the president as ‘chief diplomat’.

In national security matters Biden has been a constant presence. He was in the situation room
during the assassination of Osama Bin Laden.

His role as a congressional liaison has been vitally important to Obama on issues such as the
‘fiscal cliff’ (2013), the debt ceiling crisis (2011) and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance
Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act (2010). Aides have described him as being an ‘über
liaison’, while Carol Lee and John Bresnahan of the Politico website have suggested that: ‘no
one in the West Wing matches Biden when it comes to his ties on the Hill, depth of knowledge
on how Congress works and having the members’ trust on both sides of the aisle’. It was
Biden who brokered a deal with Mitch McConnell (the Republican Senate leader) in the last
few hours before the fiscal cliff.

Biden took on the leadership of the now-stalled gun task force following the shootings in
Sandy Hook in 2012, having experience in this area through his contributions to a 1994 bill
which banned assault weapons and put more police on the streets.

He has also been a defender of, and cheerleader for, Obama and the Democrats, showing
that he had moved on from his defeat to Obama in the 2008 Democratic primaries. Biden
toured the country in the lead-up to the 2010 mid-term elections, visiting over 90 districts
across the USA to rally support for Democrats. He has also fought the president’s corner,
apparently taking umbrage when then-Congressman Anthony Weiner labelled Obama a
‘negotiator-in-chief’ rather than a ‘leader’. Obama himself has noted Biden’s willingness to
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speak his mind in discussions, and that when Biden gives him advice he knows he will always
‘give it to him straight’.

A final role that Obama sees in Biden is that of (in the words of one aide) the ‘skunk at the
picnic’. As Obama himself puts it, ‘The best thing about Joe is that when we get everybody
together, he really forces people to think and defend their positions, to look at things from
every angle, and that is very valuable for me’.
Obama said of his vice president recently:
‘I think Joe Biden will go down in history as one of the best vice presidents ever. And he has
been with me at my side in every tough decision that I have made, from going after Bin Laden
to dealing with the healthcare issues.’
Perhaps Jay Leno has underestimated Biden’s influence.
Andrew Axelby is a former head of politics at a leading independent
school.
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