The Importance of the Office of VP in a Globalized World Posted by Max Bergmann

With the pick of Sarah Palin as Vice President, there has been a lot of talk about the importance of the Vice President's office. Many pundits and conservatives have claimed it isn't that important. McCain after the 2000 primary campaign made his thoughts clear on the office when he said the main job of the VP was to check every day on the health of the president and attend funerals for dead dictators. And even Sarah Palin asked out loud in an interview "what does a vice president even do?" Well, they do foreign policy.

The notion that the Vice President's office is irrelevant represents a highly outdated view of the world that fails to recognize both the increasing complexity of global affairs since the end of Cold War and the high demand for U.S. involvement in crisis after crisis. In fact,  the Vice President's office is most relevant, not on domestic policy, but on foreign policy - where a Vice President can effectively represent the administration and the country.

With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. has had a role in almost every international issue and crisis, which has placed heavy demands on the American foreign policy appartus. Additionally, the rise of an increasingly interconnected world after the Cold War has led to a dramatic proliferation in high-level international meetings and forums that require high-level U.S. participation and attention. There are currently so many high-level foreign policy issues to tackle that any single one could completely dominate a President's time. From Israel-Palestine, Afghanistan-Pakistan-Kashmir-India, Iraq, Iran, energy, climtate, North Korea, disease and development in Africa, and Russia and reinvigorating the NATO alliance.

There is little doubt that Joe Biden as Vice President will have a key role in addressing these issues and will perhaps take the lead on any one of them, while the Secretary of State addresses another. For instance, instead of Obama spending from day 1 almost all of his time on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, perhaps Obama puts Biden in charge, so he can focus on domestic issues and Iraq, etc. Gore and Cheney both did this - Gore most notably on the environment, and Cheney was critical to Bush administration (albeit crazy) foreign policy, especially during the first term - when he traveled extensively meeting with with leaders in the Middle East and with President Musharraf in Pakistan.

But there is almost no possibility - and I have not heard any conservative suggest - that Palin could be used in a similar way. If a foreign policy crisis erupts no one expects Palin to be involved in the decision-making or the implementation of U.S. policy. Is McCain really going to ask her for advice when she has presicely zero foreign policy experience? As Michael wrote below, this pick is not about putting the country first, it is about doing anything possible to become president. 

Comments

[Dan Kervick]

McCain is partly right, but he should have been less flippant. The chief role of the vice president is not just to "check every day on the health of the president", but to be prepared to assume the office of the presidency, quickly and in an emergency, with no time for a transition. This is a very serious job. Not everyone is qualified for it. Judged according to suitability for this role - which is the only really important and constitutionally warranted role for the vice president - the Democratic Party's nomination of Biden seems like a solid decision, while the Republican Party's anticipated nomination of Palin does not seem like avery good decision at all.

All this other nonsense about the vice president's alleged role in all-purpose global gallivanting in the new "globalized world" is completely made-up stuff based on some recent, but by no means firmly established tendencies, rooted in nothing deeper than the vicissitudes of the personal relationship between the president and the vice president. The president isn't even the vice president's boss. The vice president is an elected official, and is not part of any executive branch chain of command. The president can say, "Hey Mr. or Ms. Vice President, will you go to Turkmenistan to help handle this crisis." But the vice president can always just say "no." Of course we might hope that the president and the vice president have a better working relationship, but the work we're talking in this case consists in highly informal presidentially requested tasks that are no part of the vice president's official duties.

The president is not even required to invite the vice president to cabinet meetings and to keep the vice president in in the loop on other important matters, although reason would seem to dictate that this is is a good practice, since it helps assure that the vice president is well-prepared to assume the presidency.

If the president wants the vice president to fill what is in effect a staff position, then he should create such a staff position, and name the vice president to that position. Barack Obama can make Joe Biden an "executive assistant to the president" or "the president's representative" or something. Assuming this passes constitutional muster, that's fine with me. But the public is entitled to have some sort of official accounting of what those additional non-vice presidential duties comprise. Every other job in the White House has some such job description. If we are going to have some woman or man running around Washington and the world, routinely performing jobs on behalf of the president, jobs which are no part of the vice president's constitutionally appointed role, then we need something more formal. It really burns me to see the vice president assume all sorts of extra-constitutional powers, and perform random executive branch chores at the president's whim or indulgence, without any sort of checks and balances; without any sort of official job description, and without any congressional advice, consent or oversight.

[Dan Kervick]

McCain is partly right, but he should have been less flippant. The chief role of the vice president is not just to "check every day on the health of the president", but to be prepared to assume the office of the presidency, quickly and in an emergency, with no time for a transition. This is a very serious job. Not everyone is qualified for it. Judged according to suitability for this role - which is the only really important and constitutionally warranted role for the vice president - the Democratic Party's nomination of Biden seems like a solid decision, while the Republican Party's anticipated nomination of Palin does not seem like avery good decision at all.

All this other nonsense about the vice president's alleged role in all-purpose global gallivanting in the new "globalized world" is completely made-up stuff based on some recent, but by no means firmly established tendencies, rooted in nothing deeper than the vicissitudes of the personal relationship between the president and the vice president. The president isn't even the vice president's boss. The vice president is an elected official, and is not part of any executive branch chain of command. The president can say, "Hey Mr. or Ms. Vice President, will you go to Turkmenistan to help handle this crisis." But the vice president can always just say "no." Of course we might hope that the president and the vice president have a better working relationship, but the work we're talking in this case consists in highly informal presidentially requested tasks that are no part of the vice president's official duties.

The president is not even required to invite the vice president to cabinet meetings and to keep the vice president in in the loop on other important matters, although reason would seem to dictate that this is is a good practice, since it helps assure that the vice president is well-prepared to assume the presidency.

If the president wants the vice president to fill what is in effect a staff position, then he should create such a staff position, and name the vice president to that position. Barack Obama can make Joe Biden an "executive assistant to the president" or "the president's representative" or something. Assuming this passes constitutional muster, that's fine with me. But the public is entitled to have some sort of official accounting of what those additional non-vice presidential duties comprise. Every other job in the White House has some such job description. If we are going to have some woman or man running around Washington and the world, routinely performing jobs on behalf of the president, jobs which are no part of the vice president's constitutionally appointed role, then we need something more formal. It really burns me to see the vice president assume all sorts of extra-constitutional powers, and perform random executive branch chores at the president's whim or indulgence, without any sort of checks and balances; without any sort of official job description, and without any congressional advice, consent or oversight.

[Zathras]

I have tried, without success, to imagine Max Bergmann writing this post during an election campaign in which the order of the Democratic candidates on their ticket was reversed.

We seem to have passed some kind of milestone in American government. It is now assumed that a winning Presidential candidacy requires a candidate devoted completely to the campaign for years before the actual election and therefore likely to have enormous deficiencies in the knowledge and experience we might other wise like a new President to have. This creates an obvious political liability, and first Bush and now Obama have thought it necessary to address it by making the No. 2 man on the ticket someone with much greater experience than they had themselves.

In the Bush-Cheney administration the result was a shadow President within the West Wing -- sometimes visible, sometimes not, sometimes making decisions in the name of the President, sometimes overruled by him or outmaneuvered by other factions within the administration, never at any time accountable to anyone except the man who put Cheney on the ticket in the first place. Whether an Obama-Biden administration would function in the same way is up to just two people, Obama and Biden.

Since a job in the next administration is not among my ambitions, I feel free to suggest that this is a dangerous innovation in American government. It is one inherent in the office of the Vice Presidency, one that 41 Presidents before Bill Clinton were able to avoid by having the common sense to refrain from assigning significant governmental responsibilities to the one subordinate they could not fire and who was not accountable to anyone else. The Vice Presidency functioned perfectly well in its previous incarnation -- of the five 20th century Vice Presidents who succeeded to the office upon the death or resignation of the elected President, none were conspicuously inferior as Chief Executives to the men they replaced, and four went on to win election in their own right. During that entire time, no issues were raised comparable to those that Dick Cheney has forced us to consider. And we didn't have to put up with any superficial, tendentious commentary about how a development clearly driven by how Presidential campaign politics have evolved in this country is really all about our "globalized world [sic]," either.

[Mike W]

I have been wondering this question for a period of time. I am mid-forties and my wife and I and others we know even older than us, remember learning about the "roles of government". We all seem to come to the same conclusion the day to day of the president was foreign affairs, commander in chief and to have final say on policy issues. We all believe we were taught that the vice president's role was all about domestic issues and working on them.

somehow we all think this is what we were taught over 25 years ago and are wondering was this ever true? I can't find it on the web. Either way it makes alot of sense to us if this WAS the case, not in light of VP picks but that role would get more done for all of us. As it seems that VP may have no direct role day to day it would seem logical that someone would take over the lead and vision for domestic affairs vs foreign affairs. No company has VP's just sitting around pushing pencils or traveling waiting for their CEO to kick, not sure why our US Government does... Thank you for reading.

[Hellgate London Palladium]

Welcome to our game world, my friend asks me to buy some Hellgate London gold . I do not know how to use the Hellgate gold ; my friend tells me how to use. I will thank for my friends bringing me in this world. I am not regret to buy buy Hellgate Palladium . We all love game, if you want to play it, please cheap hellgate gold and join us. Please do not hesitate to have game.

[cheap requiem lant]

When you have requiem gold, you will become strong. With requiem lant, you can upgrade and admire by others. You can use requiem money to start the journey of the world. So, do not hesitate, let us move to buy cheap requiem lant

[twelve sky Gold]

I know that 12Sky Silver Coins is your life. So I will try my best and do not let you pass away. In my mind, I think I have 12 sky gold is the fate.

[maple mesos]

Do want to know the magic of online games, and here you can get more maple mesos. Do you want to have a try? Come on and mesos can make you happy.

[Asda Story gold]

I like to play Asda Story, because I like its name, also I like Asda Story gold. My friend told me that she would buy Asda Story money for me, and I was so happy.

[Valention bags]

like to play Asda Story, because I like its name

[fake Tiffany Necklace]

I like to play Asda Story, because I like its name, also I like Asda Story gold. My friend told me that she would buy Asda Story money for me, and I was so happy.

[luxury watches]

I am so with you,rolex watch
luxury watch

[cheap coach handbags]

Thank you for your sharing! I like i very much!

[sohbet odaları]

This is a very good site..

sonra bedava chat
burasıda var bedava sohbet

[watches]

It's etched and inked with a very nice rendition of the Blancpain Replica Watches which, as an engineer and pilot myself, has always been one of my favorite planes. The alarm is good, though not as loud as the 80dB Omega. Luminox managed this compromise while still maintaining 100m water resistance, though, which is a good tradeoff and a strong point in their favor.The face and dial are, in contrast to the Raptor just reviewed, quite sparse and understated. Stark white hands, minimal text and graphics, and a reverse LCD display; it all adds up to outstanding legibility. The sapphire crystal minimally domed with an inner camber and inner A/R coating also helps quite a bit. And, of course, at night the tritium tubes rock. Note, however, that the digital portion is not backlit, and therefore not useable in the dark. The Swiss Chanel Ceramic Watch has some really unusual features you might enjoy like the compass, and the "week of year" and tachymeter modes. I like that you can select a display mode that suits you: time, full date (day/date/year/month), seconds only (very clean), time, second or third timezone, alarm or countdown timer. It's an extremely functional Japanese Rolex Replica, and as with the Bedat & CO Replica Watches, the large curved segments are easy to read and use. The buttons and pushbutton crown are well-sized and spaced, and work fine even with gloves on; that's one advantage for the crown design. Case and packaging are quite good; it comes in a very nice travel pack with padding and cleaning cloth that you can actually use as opposed to something you store on a shelf or discard. It also has internal pockets to hold the manual and warranty card another thoughtful touch.The bracelet is good and fully PVD coated, including the inside bits of the clasp. It has snap closure, fliplock, four micro-adjustments, solid links with pins, and solid end links a good match for the Zenith Replica Watches, and with standard lugs on the case so you could try your own strap if you want. I suspect it would work well with a dark leather strap, as well.On the wrist, this is a fun Patek Philippe Replica to wear: substantial, but not massive, uniquely styled, and tremendously legible day or night. The sculpted bezel and profile mean that it's more cuff-friendly than you might expect which is one more thing to like about the design. List price on the Blackbird is $1,500, consistent with Luminox's recent push into higher-end Rolex Ladies Replica Watches. For a Tudor Replica Watches that compares well to the X-33, that seems like a reasonable price, especially given the discounts usually available, and how much easier the Luminox will be to find.If you like analog-digital Piaget Replica Watches as much as I do, this one is a clear winner: more waterproof than the X-33, tritium illumination, good alarm, tons of functions, cool inner bezel, cuff-friendly profile, and a clean, understated dial.Our thanks to Luminox USA for the review loan.By Paul Hubbard; For updates on content, follow Franck Muller Replica Report on Twitter.

[Cross Country Home Services]

It really burns to see the vice president assume all sorts of extra-constitutional powers, and perform random executive branch chores at the president's whim or indulgence, without any sort of checks and balances; without any sort of official job description, and without any congressional advice, consent or oversight.

[designussion.com]

The rise of an increasingly interconnected world after the Cold War has led to a dramatic proliferation in high-level international meetings and forums that require high-level U.S. participation and attention.

[Mykalai Kontilai]

this was a really quality post. In theory is to write like this too taking time and real effort to make a good article... we know even older than us, remember learning about the roles of government..

[California Assisted Living]

Instead of Obama spending from day 1 almost all of his time on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, perhaps Obama puts Biden in charge, so he can focus on domestic issues and Iraq, etc.

[Vacation Rentals]

No company has VP's just sitting around pushing pencils or traveling waiting for their CEO to kick, not sure why our US Government does... Thank you for reading.

[qvod]

很难有发展前途做人体艺术美，看的眼光不同，人也不同
务的受人体艺术是确是很难
做人体艺术这项工作了女so you him
其实有空还不如去看看人体艺术有意思，再不然也可以去浏览下有不错的人体艺术指导，难道看到的古惑仔全集系列要去
short haircutssms jokesshort hairstylessdog groomerswhy

[Fed Mod]

The Vice Presidency functioned perfectly well in its previous incarnation -- of the five 20th century Vice Presidents who succeeded to the office upon the death or resignation of the elected President, none were conspicuously inferior as Chief Executives to the men they replaced, and four went on to win election in their own right.

[cheap jordans]

Don't part with your illusions . When they are gone you may still exist , but you have ceased to live.

[safdsf]

Smart Phone Parts Leading smart phone parts, PDA Parts, data capture parts, Cell Phone Parts, mobile phone parts, iPhone Parts, LCD screen and digitizer supplier offers experienced,Data Capture Parts, timely, cost competitive, GlobalDirectParts,worldwide logistics support. We are the reliable parts supplier that delivers competitive price & quality assurance,Global Direct Parts, on time.

[Lorie Dabney]

Nice one, The president is not even required to invite the vice president to cabinet meetings and to keep the vice president in in the loop on other important matters, although reason would seem to dictate that this is is a good practice, since it helps assure that the vice president is well prepared to assume the presidency.Thank you,

[Capital Gold Group]

I have not heard any conservative suggest - that Palin could be used in a similar way.

[J Hass Group]

They might hope that the president and the vice president have a better working relationship, but the work they're talking in this case consists in highly informal presidentially requested tasks that are no part of the vice president's official duties.

[Tadas Dabsys]

Easy option to get useful information as well as share good stuff with good ideas and concepts..As it seems that VP may have no direct role day to day it would seem logical that someone would take over the lead and vision for domestic affairs vs foreign affairs.

[Gatehouse Academy Reviews]

Vice President's office is most relevant, not on domestic policy, but on foreign policy!

[Organic Baby]

Well the Instead of Obama spending from day 1 almost all of his time on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, thanks for sharing with us this good post.

[Gatehouse Academy Reviews]

There are so many high-level foreign policy issues to tackle that any single one could completely dominate a President's time..

[Johnson City Toyota]

McCain after the primary campaign made his thoughts clear when he said the main job of the VP was to check every day on the health of the president.

[Total Protect Home Warranty]

If a foreign policy crisis erupts no one expects Palin to be involved in the decision-making or the implementation of U.S. policy

[Carlsbad Dentists]

If we are going to have some woman or man running around Washington and the world, routinely performing jobs on behalf of the president, jobs which are no part of the vice president's constitutionally appointed role, then we need something more formal.

[Buy Me Private]

It seems that VP may have no direct role day to day it would seem logical that someone would take over the lead and vision for domestic affairs vs foreign affairs.

[Max Furniture]

Well its true the McCain is partly right, but he should have been less flippant. The chief role of the vice president is not just to "check every day on the health of the president..Thanks for sharing with us....

[led miner cap lamp]

Specialize in manufacture explosion proof light, including: explosion proof floodlight, led flashlight, spot lamp, led mining light, led searching light with rechargeable battery in China.

[2010 Hyundai Accent parts]

The vice president is an elected official, and is not part of any executive branch chain of command...Thanks

[Network]

thanks for sharing Sohbet many people are pay more attention to one's swearing than before, especially a watch.Muhabbet.
Perhaps when you went to some place far away Sohbet you must borrow it from friends you can get everything you want in this game Chat money to invest in other industry which will return you good profit. Sohbet when you look at Chat
the surface of the watches viaload great any cool Exsohbet from the city you live in and thought you knew nobody there Egitim Fourth, there were various signs of political conflict among shia. If they split 3 ways or 4 ways, the sunnis and the kurds could often be the Sohbet swing votes in the politics. If they felt they had political clout out of proportion to their numbers, they could settle in Sohbet and do politics and not feel oppressed.

[smallyfish]

thank you for traveling to the lengthy operate. I bet this wonderful Oil Mill Machinery Supplier may be the great helper to your life style sooner or later.

[smallyfish]

we need to base our people attraction efforts on building open conversations about our communities Flaking Mill