Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the person who is "a heartbeat from the presidency." As first in the Presidential line of succession, he becomes the President of the United States upon the death, resignation, or removal by impeachment of the President. Along with the President, the Vice President is one of only two nationally elected officials. The only duty required by the U.S. Constitution is that the Vice President also serve as the President of the Senate.
The Vice President and his family reside at Number One Observatory Circle, on the grounds of the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC.
Constitutional requirements
To hold the office, the Vice President must satisfy the same constitutional qualifications as the President; that is, the Vice President must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, thirty-five years of age, and a resident of the United States for 14 years. Since the ratification of Amendment XII in 1804 clarified the electoral process, the President and Vice President have been elected together as a ticket by the U.S. Electoral College.
As President of the Senate (Article I, Section 3), the Vice President oversees procedural matters and is given the ability to cast a vote in the event of a tie. There is a strong convention within the U.S. Senate that the Vice President not use his position as President of the Senate to influence the passage of legislation or act in a partisan manner, except in the case of breaking tie votes. The Vice President is constitutionally prevented from voting except in the case of ties. In practice, the Vice President rarely presides over day-to-day matters in the Senate; in his place, the Senate chooses a President pro tempore (or "president for a time") to preside in the absence of the Vice President.
The Constitution also provides that if the candidates for President and Vice President come from the same state, the electors from that state cannot vote for both. This might result in the Vice Presidential candidate receiving insufficiently many electoral votes for election even if the Presidential candidate is elected. In practice, this requirement is easily circumvented by having the Vice President change the state of residency as was done by Dick Cheney who changed his legal residency from Texas to Wyoming in order to serve as Vice President for George W. Bush.
Role of the Vice President
The formal powers and role of the Vice President with a healthy, functioning President are limited to the Presidency of the Senate, including a casting vote in the event of a deadlock. This was important in the first half of 2001, as the Senators were divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats and thus Dick Cheney's casting vote gave the Republicans the Senate majority.
Their other functions are as a spokesperson for the administration's policy, as an adviser to the President, and as a symbol of American concern or support. Their influence in this role depends almost entirely on the characteristics of the particular administration. Cheney, for instance, is widely regarded as one of George W. Bush's closest confidantes. Often Vice Presidents will take harder-line stands on issues to ensure the support of the party's base while deflecting partisan criticism away from the President. Other times their primary role seems to be meeting heads of state or attending state funerals in other countries, at times when the administration wishes to demonstrate concern or support without having to actually send the President himself to do so.
Historically, the office of Vice President has been viewed as political suicide. John Nance Garner famously described the office as "not worth a pitcher of warm spit." The natural stepping stone to the Presidency was long considered to be the Secretary of State. It has only been fairly recently that this notion has reversed; indeed, the notion was still very much alive when Harry S Truman became the Vice President for Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Normally, candidates for President will name a candidate for Vice President when they are assured of the party's nomination. Since the Presidential candidate is now generally known before the party convention, this announcement is now typically made in the first day or so of the party convention. Generally the choice of running mate is made by the Presidential candidate alone and often is done to create balance on a ticket. It is common for the Vice Presidential candidate will come from a different region than the President or appeal to a slightly different ideological part of the party.
Changes with the 25th Amendment
Since the adoption of the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1967, "Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress." (Prior to that time, if the Vice President died in office, resign, or succeeded to the Presidency, the office of Vice President remained vacant until the next Presidential election.)
 Al Gore45th Vice President
(1993-2001)
Gerald Ford was the first Vice President selected by this method, after the resignation of Spiro Agnew; after succeeding to the Presidency, Ford nominated Nelson Rockefeller as Vice President.
The 25th Amendment also provides means for the Vice President to become Acting President upon the temporary disability of the President. This procedure has been activated twice: once on July 13, 1985, when Ronald Reagan underwent surgery to remove cancerous polyps from his colon, and again on June 29, 2002, when President George W. Bush underwent a colonoscopy requiring sedation.
Prior to this amendment, Vice President Richard Nixon replaced President Eisenhower on an informal basis three times for a period of weeks each time when Eisenhower was ill.
Vice Presidents of the United States
Notes: ¹Died in office. ²Resigned. ³Succeeded to the Presidency.
Prior to the ratification of the 25th Amendment in 1967, no provision existed for the selection of a Vice President in the event of a vacancy in the office (by death, resignation, or succession to the Presidency). Consequently, the position remained vacant until the next election and inauguration.
Vice Presidential facts
Seven Vice Presidents have died in office:
Two Vice Presidents have resigned from office:
- John C. Calhoun resigned in 1832 to take a seat in the Senate, having been chosen to fill a vacancy.
- Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973 upon pleading no contest to charges of accepting bribes while governor of Maryland.
Nine Vice Presidents succeeded to the Presidency:
Of those who succeeded above, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry S Truman, and Lyndon Johnson would later be re-elected in their own right as President.
Five Vice Presidents did not succeed to the Presidency but were later elected President in their own right:
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