PLANK JANUARY 5, 2013
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“Joe Biden: The Most Influential Vice-President In History?” asks Michael Hirsch in the Atlantic, repeating a question he previously asked in National Journal in April. Three months ago in Foreign Policy, James Traub pronounced Biden the second-most powerful veep in history, recycling an insight first written in 2009 for the New York Times Magazine. Number one remains Dick Cheney, though HuffPost Live says Biden rivals Cheney in influence.
This latest wave of most-powerful stories is a predictable reaction to Biden’s central role in crafting the fiscal-cliff compromise (though if you ask me a more impressive demonstration of clout would have been not to let Mitch McConnell choose his dance partner). But these stories are also, as my friend Jack Shafer has documented, an evergreen, and not just when written about Biden.
Conventional wisdom has seen fit to decree every vice president going back to Walter Mondale the most powerful in history, save for George H.W. Bush and Dan Quayle. These two were, during their times as number two, mocked as lapdog (“FDR had Fala, Nixon had Checkers, Reagan has George Bush”—Michael Kinsley) and dunce (I’m still unreasonably proud of my translation of the St. Crispin’s Day speech into Quaylespeak). Yet Shafer reminds us that even Poppy Bush and J. Danforth Quayle were touted (albeit unsuccessfully) as More Powerful Than You Know by White House press secretary Jim Brady (Bush) and the Washington Post’s David Broder and Bob Woodward (Quayle). (In fairness to Broder-Woodward, the message of their best-forgotten newspaper series on Quayle was less “most powerful veep ever” than “not entirely as stupid as you thought,” a revelation that hardly justified--even in that more expansive era--40,000 words in the Post nor subsequent publication as a book.)
What we can say with some confidence is that the vice presidency has always been worth a good deal more than a bucket of warm piss, and that at least since Harry Truman became president in 1945 it’s been a pretty reliable steppingstone to the presidency. In the modern era vice presidents have tended to be powerful even when they didn’t become president, probably because their selection has been based less on party loyalty or geographic, demographic, or ideological balance and more on perceived aptitude and compatibility with the chief executive. I agree with the consensus that Dick Cheney was history's most powerful veep (not least because he did the hiring), though Cheney experienced a rapid loss of altitude during George W. Bush’s second term. The other contenders—Mondale, Gore, and Biden—have all been powerful to roughly the same degree. The vice president lampooned as Alexander Throttlebottom on Broadway or, more recently, Selina Meyer on HBO, has for more than a generation been a hoary anachronism. Powerful veeps aren't news. Time to stop pretending that they are.
9 comments
Biden is the uncle best kept in the attic. I watched Biden swear in the new Senators on Thursday (why am I watching this, I asked myself during the event). He's like watching a stage actor, his gestures, mannerisms, speech (Bidenisms), everything, exaggerated. And don't they have decent barbers in DC? Anyway, the event was non-eventful, until he swore in Senator Scott, the new, African American, Republican Senator from SC. As Scott's very large entourage of family members assembled with Biden for the obligatory picture, Biden's speech became mocking (some would say racist), as he said "man" at least ten times (as in "hey man" and ""good to meet you, man"). Good grief, addressing a Senator's family with jive talk. It was like watching the scene in the movie Airplane when the old lady translates the jive talk of two African American passengers. Biden is no racist, and I know he meant no offense, but Biden is a buffoon, with all the necessary qualifications to be the most influential vice-president in history.
- rayward
January 5, 2013 at 7:51am
It would seem odd that, just a few short years after the ascendancy of Dick Cheney, people could claim that Biden's power was greater -- but some reality of a few years ago has never stopped pundits or politicians from saying stupid things. Speaking of politicians saying stupid things, you *should* be proud of the Quayle version of the _Henry V_ speech. Good stuff. Finally, I once played Throttlebottom on a high school stage on the eve of the Quayle era. True story.
- frippo
January 5, 2013 at 11:19am
"...but Biden is a buffoon, with all the necessary qualifications to be the most influential vice-president in history." Absolutely right, rayward, but his predecessor, Cheney, was a buffoon in a very dark and murderous way. As someone who shot a friend in the face and sent many thousands of Americans to Iraq, where mutilation and death awaited them, all without apology, Cheney is the epitome of the dark force in human nature. At least Biden is not a mass murderer. As for Scott, a black Republican from South Carolina, he is the epitome of Uncle Tom. He doesn't believe blacks in America have any civil rights problems, and he has stated that his main goal as Senator is to deregulate our economy. While he's steppin'-'n'-fetchin' it for corporate America, more blacks will be going down the drain. As a U.S. Senator, I wish Scott nothing but the worst. And maybe Biden was getting in a sly dig at an Uncle Tom with the use of the word "man." Our Vice President can be clever that way.
- magboy47.
January 5, 2013 at 11:58am
I disagree with this contention, I suppose it depends on the definition of power. Acting as somekind of roving manager overseeing a lot of things is a kind of power but not as great as actually setting policy. We all know Cheney helped craft a ton of policies at the White House, where are the Biden policies? And more importantly where are the Biden policies that went on to become law? Answer these questions and then we can decide who is so powerful.
- blackton
January 5, 2013 at 12:07pm
What about LBJ? Powerless? Obviously not; and, I think Biden has some of his kind of clout - the ability to get along and with Congress (at least, some of Congress, ahem.) As for policy I think Biden's arguably more progressive than Obama. Have we heard full-throated support for union labor, for workers in general, from Obama? No, alas. We hear about "the middle class" which seems to mean people making $400,000/anum, $450,000 per couple, which is "middle class" in Washington and apparently to President Obama. Which is nuts.
- Sophia
January 5, 2013 at 1:32pm
Interesting how Quayle prepared the way, in terms of language and rhetorical skills, for Palin.
- ironyroad
January 5, 2013 at 1:56pm
First Gore was the most powerful VP in history. Then Cheney. Now Biden. Truth is, none of these men have any real power. They have influence or they do not, but the power resides in the presidency. Either they have some pull with the man who put them on the ticket or they don't.
- DC Spence
January 5, 2013 at 4:11pm
LBJ was actually quite powerless while he was veep.
- Timothy Noah
January 6, 2013 at 1:18pm
Good point Mr. Noah! Why - does anybody know?
- Sophia
January 6, 2013 at 9:53pm