Vice Presidency

Report Outline
Politics and the Vice Presidency
Evolution of Vice President's Office
New Awareness of Vice Presidency
Special Focus

Politics and the Vice Presidency

When calvin coolidge won the Republican vice-presidential nomination in 1920, he received a telegram from the incumbent Vice President, Thomas R. Marshall. “Please accept my sincere sympathy.” it read. Marshall's wry message could have been written by almost any of the 39 men who have been Vice President of the United States. Virtually all of them have found the office to be frustrating, devoid of real authority and, on occasion, demeaning.

Vice President Spiro T. Agnew appears to be an exception to the rule. By speaking out boldly on controversial issues, Agnew has established his own reputation in much the way Richard M. Nixon achieved nationwide prominence as Vice President in the Eisenhower administration. Thus, the comment of Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy (D Minn.) about Agnew—that he is “Nixon's Nixon”—may be more apt than perhaps the senator intended. Like Nixon during his vice presidency, Agnew himself has become an object of controversy.

Because he carried the main burden of the Republican campaign in 1970, Agnew is being both credited and blamed for the outcome of certain key races. For example, the Vice President is believed to have helped the GOP ticket in New York and to have hurt it in neighboring New Jersey. The Wall Street Journal stated on Nov. 5 that Agnew, “having failed to purge most of his ‘radical liberal’ targets from the Senate, could be confronted with a campaign by GOP liberals and moderates to dump him from the 1972 ticket.”