Vice Potential

Politically speaking, it's always been fairly difficult for me to imagine the role of the Vice President. I always assumed it went something like this...

1. Look good and represent the head honcho well in elections, and do his angry bidding for him.


2. Be the head of the Senate.


3. Wait to become the real President.

Now I know that's a gross underestimation and misrepresentation of the true facts. The reality is that in the past 20 years, Vice Presidents have not had much good luck. George H.W. Bush (Reagan's VP) served 1 term before losing to "Slick Willie" in '92. Slick Willie, probably the most skilled politician of our generation failed to be able to seat his VP (Algore) who lost to George W. Bush's Vice Henchman, er, Vice President wasn't ever considered to even be in the running. So it hasn't been a good season to be a Vice President.

And today I read in The Telegraph about Joe Biden's (Obama's 1st mate) bad luck with the Catholic Church. A few things that I took away.

1. Don't jack with the Catholic Church. Seriously, I remember hearing Nancy Pelosi and her abortion statements, and I remember thinking how foolish they were. She basically forced the Catholic church to publicly correct her. When Biden followed suit, it defied logic.


2. That's not how they wanted to force the issue. It's important to draw clear distinctions between the candidates and force what would amount to a moral imperative. You want people to say and feel the conviction... "that stance on that issue compels me to vote this way." It's the classical liberal/conservative question... what's the best way to handle issues, stoke the fremarket and deregulate (conservative) or oversee and regulate (liberal). However, it seems unwise to make the division on things of faith. I still believe that for many people, faith trumps political issues. Even for athiests, their faith stance compels them to vote. For Biden to basically force the Catholic Church to denounce him puts faithful Catholics in an interesting place.


3. Where ever you go, there you are. I remember when he was announced as VP. Oh, the joy in conservative talk radio land! Biden has a well documented history of putting his foot in his mouth at the most public and inopportune times. He can't help being himself, only now he's doing it in the spotlight of a monumental election.

My guess, Biden isn't long for this world. I predict that he is either going to experience some sort of family tragedy, or for some reason or other have to disappear from the race, sadly and regretfully, but necessarily none the less. Under such circumstances, it only makes sense that the new Democratic Vice Presidential nominee would be... Billary Rodherson Clinton.

Can it happen? Legally, I don't even know if it can. She was quite publically NOT vetted. Would she have to go through the DNC some how? I don't know. Would it work? Personally, I don't think it would. I think it would smack of political maneuvering in a campaign that has staked itself to the rhetoric of change and doing things in a new way.

Interesting times. Interesting race. Interesting people.