Welcome to the Deep Dive. It's so great to have
you with us today. Yeah, thanks so much for tuning
in. Whether you are prepping for a demanding
meeting, catching up on some chores around the
house, or you simply have an insatiable curiosity
about how things actually work behind the scenes,
you are in the exact right place. Absolutely.
Today, we are analyzing a role that is, well,
it's constantly at the center of the news cycle,
yet it remains structurally misunderstood by
almost everyone. Oh, completely misunderstood.
We have pulled together a really comprehensive
stack of sources for you today, ranging from
dense historical texts and constitutional analyses,
all the way to the exhaustive official Wikipedia
breakdown of the vice president of the United
States. And it's a subject defined almost entirely
by its contradictions. I mean, you're looking
at an office that sits just one heartbeat away
from the presidency. Right. Possessing unimaginable
latent power. Exactly. Yet for a massive chunk
of American history, it was treated as this this
constitutional afterthought and honestly, a political
joke. Which feels like a massive paradox. And
our mission today is to demystify that paradox
for you. We really want to explore how this office
managed to transform from a ridiculed benchwarmer
position into one of the most powerful and critical
governing partnerships in the free world. OK,
let's unpack this right now. So to really understand
the modern vice presidency, you have to look
at its rather chaotic origin story. This goes
back to the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
Right. And the most crucial thing to grasp here
is that the framers did not have a vice president
in their original blueprint. Wait, really? Not
at all? Not at all. The position simply did not
exist in the early drafts of the Constitution.
It was hastily manufactured at the very end of
the convention. I mean, practically at the 11th
hour. Wow. Yeah. And it was handed over to an
11 -member group. That was literally called the
Committee on Leftover Business. The Committee
on Leftover Business. That is incredible. So
if they didn't originally want a second in command,
what specific roadblock forced this Leftover
Business Committee to suddenly invent one? Well,
they collided with something known as the Favorite
Son Problem. This happened while they were trying
to figure out how to elect the chief executive.
Okay, the Favorite Son Problem. Break that down
for us. You have to remember the psychology of
the late 18th century. loyalty to one's individual
state heavily outweighed loyalty to this brand
new, totally untested federal government. Oh,
sure. You were a Virginian first, an American
second? Precisely. So the framers realized that
if they created a system where presidential electors
just voted for one person, an elector from Virginia
would instinctively only vote for a Virginian.
And an elector from New York would only vote
for a New Yorker. Exactly. So the fear was that
everyone would just retreat to their regional
corners and the country would never actually
achieve a national consensus on a single leader.
That was the exact fear. So to force a broader
consensus, the committee engineered a rather
clumsy workaround. Clumsy is probably putting
it lightly. Oh, definitely. They decided to require
every elector to cast two votes for president.
And they mandated that at least one of those
choices had to be for a candidate from a different
state than the elector. OK, that makes sense
on paper. Right. But to make sure those second
votes were actually taken seriously, they established
that whoever received the most votes overall
became president and the runner up would become
the vice president. I mean, I sort of get the
logic. For you listening, it's like being forced
to vote for your second favorite movie just to
make sure some niche indie film doesn't accidentally
win Best Picture because of a weird split vote.
That's a great way to think about it. But it
sounds a bit like ranked choice voting in a modern
corporate board election, but with a massive
glaring flaw. Oh, a huge flaw. They didn't seem
to account for the fact that... The runner up
might be fundamentally opposed to everything
the winner stands for and, you know, might actively
try to sabotage them. That is exactly the flaw
that tore the system apart almost immediately.
It was a mechanism designed solely to prevent
a regional voting deadlock. It completely ignored
the reality of partisan politics. Which they
found out the hard way. Very hard. In 1796, John
Adams, who believed in a strong central government,
won the presidency. Thomas Jefferson, his fierce
rival, who advocated for keeping power concentrated
within individual states, came in second. Two
men with entirely opposing worldviews to share
the executive branch. Yep. And Jefferson essentially
used the vice presidency as a platform to frustrate
Adams' policies from the inside. And then, four
years later, that flawed math created an even
bigger constitutional crisis. It did. In the
election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson and his running
mate, Aaron Burr, ended up at a dead tie. A dead
tie. They both received exactly 73 electoral
votes. Because the system did not differentiate
between a vote for president and a vote for vice
president, the tie completely broke the electoral
process. So what happened? The decision was thrown
into the House of Representatives. It resulted
in 36 agonizing ballots before Jefferson finally
secured the presidency, leaving Burr as his vice
president. 36 ballots. That is pure chaos. Pure
chaos. That sheer chaos proved the original design
was totally untenable and it forced the country
to pass the 12th Amendment. Which finally required
electors to cast distinct separate votes for
president and vice president. Exactly. It fixed
the math problem. But even after the 12th Amendment
fixed the voting mechanics, the sources highlight
that the actual day -to -day job remained. absolutely
miserable. Oh, yeah. For over a century, being
vice president was essentially a political dead
end. I mean, it became what essayists of the
time called a sinecure, right? A position with
a title and a salary, but practically zero responsibilities.
It was heavily utilized merely as a tool to balance
a ticket geographically or ideologically. It
was not meant to bring a real governing partner
into the fold. The quotes from the historical
texts are just brutal. John Adams, having been
the first to endure it, wrote to his wife Abigail
and described it as the most insignificant office
that ever the invention of man conceived. And
he wasn't the only one complaining. No, definitely
not. Thomas R. Marshall, who served under Woodrow
Wilson, frequently told a joke about it. He said,
once there were two brothers, one ran away to
sea, the other was alleged vice president, and
nothing was heard of either of them again. The
humor was really just a coping mechanism for
the profound irrelevance of the role. I mean,
John Nance Garner, who was Franklin D. Roosevelt's
first vice president. Oh, this quote is famous.
It is. He famously provided the most colorful
assessment, claiming the job isn't worth a pitcher
of warm piss. It is such a stark contrast to
how we view the office today. It went beyond
just feeling useless. They were genuinely invisible
to the public. Completely invisible. Calvin Coolidge,
before his presidency, was so obscure during
his time as VP that when his Washington residence
had to be evacuated for a fire, the fire marshal
did not even recognize who he was. He was literally
standing outside his burning building, unrecognized.
Right. A Major League Baseball team even sent
him a package of free passes with his name noticeably
misspelled. While those anecdotes are definitely
amusing. That profound invisibility masked a
very real structural danger. How so? Well, the
Constitution was terrifyingly vague regarding
the actual succession process. Article 2 stated
that in the event of the president's death or
resignation, the powers and duties of the office
would devolve upon the vice president. The powers
and duties? Right. But it notably failed to clarify
whether the vice president actually becomes the
president or merely serves as a temporary acting
president until a new election can be held. Here's
where it gets really interesting, because that
constitutional ambiguity wasn't just a theoretical
debate for academics. It triggered a massive
crisis in 1841 that forced the country to figure
out what the rules actually were in real time.
And that crisis was the death of William Henry
Harrison. The shortest presidency in history.
Yes. He caught a cold that developed into pneumonia,
and he passed away after serving only 31 days
in office. His vice president, John Tyler, was
suddenly thrust into an unprecedented situation.
So Tyler had to make a definitive choice right
then and there about the nature of his own power.
He either steps in as a temporary caretaker or
he claims the presidency in its entirety. And
Tyler forcefully chose the latter. He asserted
that he had succeeded to the presidency itself,
not just its powers. He didn't ask permission.
Nope. He promptly took the presidential oath
of office, assumed the full authority of the
executive branch, and flatly refused to acknowledge
any correspondence addressed to him as acting
president. He just returned it unopened. Returning
the mail unopened, that is an incredible power
play. He simply forced the rest of the government
to accept his interpretation of the Constitution
through sheer stubbornness. It was incredibly
bold. Yeah. But that Tyler precedent ultimately
held the fragile young nation together during
a very vulnerable transition. Congress eventually
voted to acknowledge him as the actual president.
But it wasn't official law yet. No, it is vital
to understand that this precedent remained merely
a gentleman's agreement for over a century. It
was not officially codified into constitutional
law until the ratification of the 25th Amendment
in 1967. That structural evolution is fascinating,
but it highlights a massive gap in how the office
operated. The Tyler precedent meant a vice president
would immediately become the leader of the free
world if tragedy struck. Right. Yet the culture
of the office still treated them like the obscure,
invisible punchline we saw with Calvin Coolidge.
They were kept completely out of the loop regarding
how the country was actually being run. Which
brings us to the most dramatic wake up call in
the history of the executive branch. In 1945,
the globe is entirely consumed by World War II.
Right, the stakes could not be higher. Franklin
D. Roosevelt has just begun his fourth term,
and Harry Truman is serving as his newly elected
vice president. And Truman had been in the role
for a mere 82 days. His interactions with FDR
were incredibly scarce, and his duties were strictly
limited to just presiding over the Senate. Then,
on April 12, 1945, Roosevelt unexpectedly dies.
Truman is immediately sworn in as president.
And shortly after taking the oath, military officials
pull him aside to inform him that the United
States is in the final stages of developing the
most destructive weapon in human history. The
Manhattan Project. Yes. And Truman had absolutely
no idea it existed. He was entirely blind to
it. Furthermore, he was completely unaware of
the intricate post -war strategies Roosevelt
had been negotiating with allied leaders. So
he was handed the most powerful position on Earth
during the climax of the most significant conflict
in model history without any of the necessary
intelligence or context required to actually
govern. Exactly. The shock of that transition
is captured perfectly in his own words from the
source material. Truman told reporters, I felt
like the moon, the stars and all the planets
fell on me. What's fascinating here is how that
terrifying vulnerability permanently altered
the trajectory of the office. Truman successfully
navigated the end of the war, but he fundamentally
recognized that the deliberate isolation of the
vice president was a catastrophic national security
risk. He knew he couldn't let that happen to
the next guy. Right. He made it his mission to
ensure no successor would ever face that same
blind spot. In 1949, Truman pushed to make the
vice president a statutory member of the National
Security Council. He integrated the role into
cabinet meetings and ensured they received the
daily intelligence briefings. So what does this
all mean for the modern era? If they are no longer
kept in the dark just waiting in a parlor for
a disaster to happen, what does the actual framework
of the job look like today? Well, their strictly
constitutional duties remain quite narrow, though
they have definitely taken on greater weight
in recent years. As the president of the Senate,
the vice president cannot debate legislation
on the floor. They only possess the power to
vote in the event of a tie. And that tie -breaking
authority has become far more than just a ceremonial
quirk. With modern partisan divides, it is a
crucial legislative tool. The records show Kamala
Harris currently holds the all -time historical
record for tie -breaking votes at 33. That's
right. She surpassed John C. Calhoun, an early
19th century vice president who previously held
the record at 31 votes for over a century. The
other explicit constitutional duty is presiding
over the joint session of Congress to count the
Electoral College votes following a presidential
election. It is meant to be a profound ceremonial
demonstration of the peaceful transfer of power.
It is also arguably the most uncomfortable duty
in American politics, depending on the outcome
of the election. Oh, without a doubt. If a sitting
vice president runs for the top job and loses,
they are constitutionally obligated to stand
before the nation and officially certify their
own defeat. Which is brutal. We have seen this
happen four times in modern history. Richard
Nixon announced John F. Kennedy's victory in
1961. Al Gore certified George W. Bush's win
in 2001. And recently, Kamala Harris certified
Donald Trump's victory over her in 2025. It requires
an immense amount of institutional respect to
perform that duty under those specific circumstances.
But if we look beyond those specific mandated
tasks, we see the true evolution of the modern
vice presidency. Right. The real day -to -day
power. The pivotal transformation into a genuine
governing partnership occurred in the late 1970s.
That was with Jimmy Carter and his vice president,
Walter Mondale. Mondale fundamentally redefined
the expectations of the job. Following the 1976
election, he drafted a comprehensive memo to
Carter. He argued that the vice president should
not be relegated to cutting ribbons or attending
foreign funerals. Right. No more busy work. Exactly.
He said the VP should instead serve as a general
advisor across all executive matters. And Carter
agreed, which led to a massive structural shift.
Mondale became the first vice president to be
granted an office directly in the West Wing of
the White House. Which is a huge deal. Prior
to this, vice presidents maintained offices in
the executive office building across the street
or all the way up on Capitol Hill. Moving into
the West Wing provided immediate physical proximity
to the Oval Office. It meant integration of their
respective staffs, access to the exact same paper
flow, and the vital ability to be in the room
when critical decisions were being debated. That
geographical shift clearly catalyzed an expansion
of power that just continued to compound over
the decades. Absolutely. By the dawn of the 21st
century, you witnessed Dick Cheney operating
under George W. Bush with an unprecedented level
of autonomy. Cheney reshaped the paradigm entirely.
He staffed his office with seasoned national
security heavyweights. He actively drove major
foreign policy decisions, establishing himself
as an incredibly powerful force within the executive
branch. And that model of delegation has really
become the standard. Presidents now routinely
assign massive, complex and highly independent
portfolios to their vice presidents. I mean,
the scope of the federal government is simply
too vast for one individual to manage alone.
You see this clearly in recent administration.
We're talking historical facts here. Barack Obama
formally delegated the oversight of the Iraq
drawdown and subsequent diplomatic efforts to
Joe Biden. In early 2020, Donald Trump tapped
Mike Pence to spearhead the federal government's
entire interagency response to the COVID -19
pandemic. And Joe Biden assigned Kamala Harris
the diplomatic effort to address the root causes
of the migrant influx at the southern border.
They operate as active. deployed copilots, managing
vast sectors of federal policy and continuing
this modern lineage. As of January 20, 2025,
J .D. Vance serves as the 50th vice president
under Donald Trump. Exactly. Given how much power
the role now commands, the strategic calculus
behind selecting a running mate is intense. They
are looking for demographic advantages, geographical
swing state appeal or ideological balance. But
the historical texts reveal that the process
is still bound by some incredibly strange 18th
century constitutional quirks. The most prominent
of those quirks is found right within the 12th
Amendment. There is an inhabitant clause that
strongly discourages a presidential candidate
and their running mate from residing in the same
state. Does it trick you rule? The amendment
stipulates that an elector cannot cast both of
their votes for two individuals from their own
home state. Which requires some careful electoral
math to really understand. So for you listening,
think of it this way. If a state has, say, 38
electoral votes and both the presidential and
vice presidential candidates live in that state,
those 38 electors could vote for the president.
Right. But they would be constitutionally forbidden
from giving their second vote to the vice president
on that exact same ticket. Correct. Now, in a
landslide election, forfeiting those home state
electoral votes for the vice president. might
not really matter. But in a highly contested
race, losing those votes could easily drop the
vice presidential candidate below the required
threshold. Which would be a disaster for that
campaign. It could potentially allow the opposing
party to claim the vice presidency. And that
mathematical risk almost derailed a campaign
in the year 2000. George W. Bush, the governor
of Texas, selected Dick Cheney as his running
mate. But Cheney was living, working, and registered
to vote in Texas at the time. Right, they were
both Texans. Knowing the race against Al Gore
would be razor thin, they absolutely could not
afford to forfeit the Texas electoral votes for
vice president. Cheney had to urgently scramble
to change his official residency, his driver's
license and his voter registration back to his
previous home state of Wyoming just to avoid
triggering a constitutional crisis. It is a striking
example of how deeply the logistical frameworks
designed by the framers still dictate modern
political maneuvering. And speaking of logistics,
the day -to -day realities and perks of the office
have finally evolved to match the immense responsibilities
we have been discussing. The lifestyle has undeniably
received an upgrade since the era of Calvin Coolidge
being ignored by fire marshals. Definitely. The
compensation and accommodations reflect the modern
security and operational demands. The official
statutory salary for the vice president is currently
$284 ,600. Not bad. Though due to a federal pay
freeze implemented in 2019, the actual plentiful
salary they take home remains capped at $235
,100. And they finally resolved the housing issue.
The sources note that remarkably, up until 1974,
the United States government did not provide
an official residence for the vice president.
Which is wild to think about. They were expected
to live in their own private homes or in many
cases rent hotel suites right in Washington.
Which became an absolute untenable nightmare
for the Secret Service. Securing a private neighborhood
or a commercial hotel against modern threats
is practically impossible. So what did they do?
Congress eventually designated No. 1 Observatory
Circle as the official residence. It is a highly
secure, three -story Queen Anne -style home situated
on the sprawling protected grounds of the U .S.
Naval Observatory. And the transportation protocols
are equally intensive. For long -distance travel,
the vice president utilizes heavily modified
Boeing 757s. The moment the vice president steps
on board, the aircraft's call sign officially
changes to Air Force Two. But the short distance
travel procedures are what really stand out to
me. You're talking about the Marine helicopter
fleet? Exactly. They do not just fly a single
helicopter from the Naval Observatory to Andrews
Air Force Base. To mitigate the risk of a targeted
attack, they fly a formation of identical Marine
helicopters. And times up to five at once. Yeah.
Yeah. And while they are in transit. The pilots
execute this complex aerial shell game. They
are constantly swapping positions in the air
so that anyone attempting to track the flight
from the ground cannot possibly identify which
specific helicopter is carrying the vice president.
This raises an important question. When you synthesize
all of this, the West Wing office integration,
the massive delegated policy portfolios, the
intense Secret Service protection, and the decoy
helicopter formations. You have to step back
and appreciate the grand arc of this constitutional
history. It really is a massive shift. We're
looking at an office that John Adams openly mocked
as insignificant, a role that was originally
designed merely to prevent electors from voting
solely for their neighbors. Yet it has evolved
into a critical, indispensable pillar of the
executive branch. It really has. When you see
the vice president stepping off Air Force Two
today, you are observing an individual who is
actively shaping the trajectory of the nation
on a daily basis. They are no longer relegated
to the shadows waiting for a tragedy to occur.
It is an incredible evolution from a leftover
afterthought to a primary architect of federal
policy. Before we wrap up today's analysis, there
is one final mind -bending constitutional brain
teaser buried in the source material that we
want to leave you with. It was a good one. We
all generally know that the 22nd Amendment limits
a president to two elected terms. Once you are
elected twice, you are done. However, there is
no explicit constitutional provision that actively
disqualifies a twice -elected president from
being chosen as a vice presidential running mate.
It is a fascinating textual loophole. The 12th
Amendment states that no person constitutionally
ineligible to the office of president shall be
eligible to be vice president. Right. But the
22nd Amendment specifies only a limit on being
elected to the office of president. It does not
explicitly restrict someone from merely serving
in the capacity. Which creates a massive legal
gray area that the courts have never had to test.
Could a highly popular term limited former president
theoretically be selected as a vice presidential
running mate and potentially find themselves
back in the Oval Office through the line of succession?
Legal scholars and constitutional historians
fiercely debate the mechanics of this exact loophole.
And it is definitely something compelling for
you to mull over the next time you find yourself
analyzing an election cycle. Thank you so much
for joining us on this deep dive. We hope you
walk away viewing the second highest office in
the land through an entirely new lens.