What's The Most High-Profile, Insignificant Job In America?

Jessica Jaffe
Thu, 11 Oct 2012 01:29:45 +0000
Elections voting, Democracy

1. A lot of people — including actual vice presidents — think it's a stupid job.

| John Adams called it "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."
John Nance Garner, vice president to FDR, said the position was "not worth a bucket of warm piss." |
| Daniel Webster, in turning down the nomination, said "I do not intend to be buried until I am dead."

2.?Until 1967, we didn't even care if there wasn't a vice president at all, and the position was left vacant 16 times.

Times we didn't have a VP:

1812-1813 | George Clinton died in office
1814-1817 | Elbridge Gerry died in office
1832-1833 | John C. Calhoun resigned from office
1841-1845 | John Tyler became President upon the death of William Henry Harrison
1850-1853 | Millard Fillmore became President upon the death of Zachary Taylor
1853-1857 | William King died in office
1865-1869 | Andrew Johnson became President upon the death of Abraham Lincoln
1875-1877 | Henry Wilson died in office
1881-1885 | Chester Arthur became President upon the death of James Garfield
1885-1889 | Thomas Hendricks died in office
1899-1901 | Garret Hobart died in office
1901-1905 | Theodore Roosevelt became President upon the death of William McKinley
1912-1913 | James S. Sherman died in office
1923-1925 | Calvin Coolidge became President upon the death of Warren G. Harding
1945-1949 | Harry Truman became President upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt
1963-1965 | Lyndon Johnson became President upon the death of John F. Kennedy
1973 | Spiro Agnew resigned from office
1974 | Gerald Ford became President upon the resignation of Richard Nixon

3.?The position apparently leaves enough free time for veeps to shoot people.

MORE THAN ONE of them has done this while in office. First Burr:

Then Cheney:

1. And why it actually matters a lot? Being VP leads to being president a lot more often than you'd think.

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush all became president after serving as vice president.