Called the stunning success of Vice President most powerful in. Why do you think that . Guest actually, that was an article that i was quoted in it was an article written by somebody else. But i think that Vice President bidens Vice President would be very important and consequential. The office has grown really withficantly, beginning the Walter Mondale vice presidency from 1971 to 1981. It is no longer just a stopgap equipment. Ofis a robust, ongoing job real consequence. I think the fact that Vice President biden served himself or eight years is a very consequential as a very consequential and engaged Vice President gives him a unique appreciation of the office, and i think he is likely to interest his Vice President , to use his Vice President in important ways, and to rely on his Vice President perhaps some ways different from president obama use but to make significant of the Vice President. Aboutlets talk a little the history of the vice presidency and how the office has evolved over the years. In the articles of confederation, there was no Vice President. How did they come up with the idea of the Vice President and how was the person who was Vice President first chosen . Guest it is an interesting story. We do not really know exactly what was in the minds of the founders in creating the vice presidency. What we do know is the vice presidency was conceived towards the end of the philadelphia convention, and it came into the discussion at the same time as the electoral college. My best judgment is that the primary reason for creating the was not focused on any particular governing responsibility. I think the governors of the founders were thinking primarily that we need someone to preside over the senate or we need to have a successor. What they were really thinking of was to try to make the original electoral system work. They were worried that, after george washington, they would a national to elect president , that the electors from different states would favor their own states favored sons. So they came up with a system where they gave the electors two votes, but they provided one of the votes had to be cast for someone who is not from the electors home state. What they hoped was at the second vote would go to the consensus national president. In order to make the electors take the votes seriously, they created the Second Office of the vice presidency. In the 12th amendment in 1804, what they determined was at the original electoral system was not working, so they changed the electoral system to have separate elections for president and Vice President. Some people suggested that we no longer need and Vice President , but the Vice President survived and has grown and evolved in a way that is very different from its original conception. Host now the Vice President ial office depends on their duties they have on constitutional duty, that is to over thest to preside senate. Are there other duties specifically for the Vice President . Guest pretty much every thing else depends on the president , his or her leadership style, and the relationship between the two. The constitution says that the Vice President is the president of the senate and can break tie votes and that the Vice President is first in line of president ial succession. But Vice President s, beginning with Richard Nixon in 1953, almost never preside over the senate. Their work is done at the other end of pennsylvania avenue. And although the successor role is important we have had nine Vice President who became president where the president died or, in one case, Richard Nixon, resigned 80 of the time, the Vice President does not become president , so most of what the Vice President does depends upon two things. The patterns ive developed, beginning with the. Artermondale administration they developed a new vision of the Vice President , where the Vice President serves as sort of an acrosstheboard advisor to the president on policy, personnel, politics, and so forth. And the Vice President serves as a troubleshooter on matters that need to be handled at the highest level. What a particular Vice President does depends on what the president asks him or her to do. Rank vicehow do we president s . Is there a Vice President you can look at and say, definitively, this is a Vice President who is the most successful at being Vice President . How do they rank in history . Guest well, it is a good question. We do not really have a Vice President ial ranking. It is a little bit tricky, because for much of our history, the vice presidency was very different. It was very much of a nothing job. Topranked people used to turn it down. When Daniel Webster was asked was given the chance to be the ticket,mate on the 1848 he declined, saying i do not propose to be buried before i am dead. So really the significant vice presidency begins with Walter Mondale. I think mondale was the most significant Vice President , because he really reimagined the office. Showed that the new office he and president carter created could work. Since mondale, the other Vice President s have largely copied the model that mondale created. I wrote an article several years ago, at the end of the Obama Presidency i think it was called the stunning success of Vice President bidens vice presidency. I the key was the most successful to turn Vice President in the sense he had remain engaged at a high level, throughout the two terms. His relationship with president obama, his involvement, has been sustained up to two terms, and that was really significant. Vice president cheney was very influential, particularly in the first bush administration, but less so in the second of initiation administration as president bush came to rely much less on his advice. Host lets let our viewers join in. We will open up our regular lines. That means, republicans, your number will be 202 7488001. Democrats, we want to hear from you at 202 7488000. Independents, your number will be 202 7488002. Keep in mind, you can always and us at 202 7488003, we are always reading on social media, on twitter at cspanwj and on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. We have had a lot of whoersations recently about democratic president ial candidate joe biden will choose for his Vice President for his run against President Trump. Heres a quote from the boston globe. Take could be about any election. And since 2000, the president ial political environment between republican and democratic teams has large involved trench warfare. The marches and poles has been small. This is not where we are at biden has a commanding lead and is winning in nearly every important swing state. So i will turn to you does it matter who joe biden chooses as his Vice President ial running mate, when it comes to this election coming up in november . Guest sure. I think it always matters. It matters in several different respects. Matters in terms of the campaign. Campaigns are dynamic. We have seen come over the last few months, the political context in which we have operated has changed dramatically, so we do not really know what the world will september, october, november. Anything for take granted. Specifically Vice President ial about the messages selector, how he or she goes about making decisions, what the selectors values are, what are the themes of the campaign. In terms of sending messages about Vice President biden, the pick is important. And also in terms of engaging somebody at a high level, wherever he picks will become very active and visible during the campaign. My guess is that Vice President biden is also thinking more than most president ial candidates do about his pick in terms of what kind of governing partner the person would be, given that Vice President biden has such an andeciation of the office has seen its potential importance, i would think he is looking very hard and thinking a partnert what kind of different options would be. Of course, the third reason, the most remote reason, is there is always the possibility of president ial succession, either through a president ial death or inability. It is a remote contingency. Weis one that, fortunately, really have not had since the nixon resignation in 1974, but it needs to be in the back or really come in the front, of residential candidates minds when he or she is making a decision. Host do sorry, go ahead. Guest well also, one of the things is that, by and large, picking somebody as a running voters view as a plausible president who is somebody they can see sitting in the oval office is not simply Good Governance but also good politics. By and large, i think the most effective Vice President ial candidates have been people who anducted themselves in such impressive level during the campaigns that voters looked at them and felt a certain Comfort Level of them being president , should that happen. Host the list of women that democratic candidate joe biden is picking from seems to be from a pool of whether it is senator elizabeth warren, california senator kamala harris, whether it is karen bass or susan rice. One of our social media followers wants to ask you this question about the pool. Why is it that biden needs to choose his running mate from the pool of fellow politicians . Why can we not look at other fields of endeavor . Why not academia or Business Leaders . Maybe a woman of a major university. Limited to the cool of professional politicians. Have they been mostly politicians or do they reach outside of politics for their candidate . Guest that is an interesting question. Particularly in the modern period when president ial candidates start their process they start with a long list and they think outside the box. Considerationo Business Leaders, University President s, foundation heads, nonpoliticians. Ultimately, when they get to the invariablyg process, in both parties what is left are people who felt significant. If you look at the Vice President ial candidates who have been chosen, first time Vice President ial candidates in modern times always come from the pool of past or former senators, past or present senators, past or present governors, past or present members of the cabinet or high executives in the federal government, or members of the house of representatives. Governor 1936 when alice landon picked a newspaper publisher did somebody from outside those categories been selected by a major party as if ice president ial candidate. Ultimately, the job involves politics and government. So, typically in terms of looking for prospective people we look at people who have to high and risen levels and done well in positions of Public Service and government. Host let us let the viewers take part. We will start with freddie calling from brooklyn, new york on the democratic line. Caller good morning. How are you doing . Host good. Go ahead. Onlyr in my lifetime the person was dick cheney. Out an exploratory search for could not get takers. Pick because with cheneys qualifications he had the qualifications to be president. Dick cheney did a lot of the legwork with changing things with agencies by himself. That. Ecided to approve think dickime i cheney was the most influential Vice President. Host do you agree, joel . Caller and president bushs Vice President cheney had enormous influence and i think that was true before 9 11. Hisafter 9 11 where experience as secretary of defense during the persian war became important. Think, toward the end of the first term, president bush began to have misgivings about the advice Vice President cheney had given him and during the second listen to viceto president cheney, but increasingly Vice President cheney found himself on the losing end of the important discussions in the bush administration. By the end of the administration s Favorability Ratings were in his20s administration Favorability Ratings were in the 20s. As freddie points out Vice President cheney came into the office with enormous credentials. He had been the chief of staff to president ford as a young man. Leader inrs, he was a the house of representatives. He served as secretary of defense, he was the ceo of halliburton, he had been engaged in the period he was out of government. He had one of the best resumes of anyone selected as Vice President. Peopleere were a lot of who thought he made mistakes in terms of some of his evaluations of some of the intelligence and policies he pushed. One of the things it is a cautionary tale that just because somebody has experienced does not necessarily mean they will be successful. Abraham lincoln served one term in the house of representatives a dozen years before he was president. He had very little experience and yet, he is our consensus greatest president. Sometimes president ial caliber waysof resists the formal we try and test it. Host we have done a lot of talking this morning about the democratic Vice President ial slot. Let us talk about the current Vice President , mike pence. Pence as you rate mike a Vice President in the list of Vice President s . What does he bring to the trump ticket coming up in the fall . I will add something a follower asked which is how do you think he has handled the pandemic President Trump put him in charge of . Guest i think Vice President ce has follow the patterns of Vice President s from both parties that began with Vice President mondale. He has been an advisor, a troubleshooter, he has taken on assignments, sharing the task is then coronavirus prime example. He has also taken on diplomatic roles. Every presidency is different pence hasresident responded to President Trumps leadership style. One thing that has been distinctive about the Vice President has been that he has all Vice President s are supportive of the president and part of their job is to defend and support the administrations position. I do not recall any Vice President in history who has gone to such an extent as Vice President pence. He has been effusive in his praise of the president. He compared him to ronald reagan, theodore roosevelt, king david. He said he would be the best friend to the American Military of any president in our history, which is quite a Statement Given george washington, ulysses grant, and Dwight Eisenhower were among the president s. In terms of looking forward one of the advantages and attributes President Trump has talked about in praising Vice President pence has been his ties and relationship with the evangelical community which is an important part of the Republican Base and President Trumps base. I think that President Trump would be looking to Vice President pence in part to help thegize that base during 2020 campaign. I think the other thing Vice President pence in one of the other questions it dealt with why do we not look at people outside conventional experience . We have a president who is the only president in history who had never held any office previously before being elected.