About The Veeps
John Adams once said the position of vice-president was “most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” He should know. He was our country’s first veep.
Both presidential candidates selected people to be their running mates that are the things they are not. The young mixed-race guy picked an old white guy. The old white guy picked a young woman. Make no mistake, both choices are cold, calculated, strategic decisions. Both are identity politics run amok.
The difference is that Joe Biden, the democratic VP choice, has been in politics for 35 years. That’s as long as I’ve been alive. Sarah Palin, the republican VP choice, has been a governor for 18 months. John McCain, who she’d be veeping for, would be the oldest president ever, and has had cancer multiple times. If the primary task of a vice-president is to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, then the quality of the heartbeat in charge, and the resume of the person next in line, become kinda important.
I wonder if Adams would still think the vice-presidency was insignificant with the prospect of a far-right, anti-choice, book-banning, self-described “hockey mom” looming over the nation he helped found.