Good evening. The timing for tonights Program Program is prescient, as is always the case, as we are on the verge of seeing who the current nominees of the presidency will select as their running mate. Copies ofu picked up articles from the wall street journal on the impact of Vice PresidentVice President ial nominees. We are having extra copies now and will have them for yet in the program. Discuss not just the electoral process, but the evolving role of debt role of the presidency. Fraser goldstein is the author of a new book, the white house vice presidency a path of significance. Professor goldstein is a highly respected scholar of constitutional law who consistently is sought out by International Media outlets for commissary and insight especially during the president ial campaign. The 2012 article in the new york times, he was quoted as saying, my wife says i am an exotic plant that blooms every four years. [laughter] professor goldstein is best known for his work on the vice presidency. Came out of his doctoral work, dissertation, and led to was thet book, which transformation of an institution he offered numerous articles on the executive ranch, constitutional law, and received a doctorate in Political Science where he set studied as a rhodes scholar. Editor forwas an harvard review. He joined in 1994 as an associative faculty for three professorship in 2005 p are one scholar commented the american vice presidency is long revaluationa robust and the premier chronicle of that special office has done a brilliant job in this perceptive and wide ranging book here that i can out for that. Please help me join professor goldstein. [applause] professor goldstein thank you very much. Thank you so much for that wonderful introduction. I did research for my book and it is wonderful to have the opportunity to be here. Most of you think about president ford, you probably think of him as a man who served 25 years in the house of representatives with the minority leader of the house of representatives for eight years. Him, i thinkabout about the fact that he was our 40th Vice President , held for nine months, probably the least happy time of his public service. He was the first Vice President appointed to the position which came about in the part second person to make an appointment as Vice President under the 25th amendment. He was the ninth and the most recent Vice President to succeed to the president presidency following an unexpected president ial vacancy. To only one of those people succeed following a president ial resignation. He is the only president in our history to seriously consider serving as Vice President after he had already served as president. Although president forss presidency and vice presidency really came before the time i called the white house vice presidency, he played an important part developing and creating the office that we have today. We live in a time now where we have a robust vice presidency. What is so striking about that, in addition to the checkered history of the vice presidency is most of our district, that the vice presidency has grown to its current importance at a time when many of other Major Political institutions are being met with increasing dissatisfaction. Vice President Biden is year ofng the final presidency. Inyou look at what hes done the past week or so, to support the military mission against the she went to italy, where he met with officials of the Italian Government and he met with officials of the vatican, including pope francis. He spoke at a vatican conference. Hes met privately with president obama on numerous times during the past week, including receiving the president s daily briefing. Each day he had a private lunch with the president today and did two other events with him. He joined the president s meeting with secretary kerry within the last week, he met with the leaders of el salvador, guatemala, honduras, and panama to discuss how to advance security and economic matters in central america. Bidenssident predecessor, who First International attention as president force chief of staff, many his vice presidency people said they thought the Vice President had become too powerful and spoke of an imperial vice presidency. Although i think Vice President cheneys power was exaggerated in the sense that i think he never was president or never was copresident , and that is during thedeclined second term of president bushs administration he clearly was a very significant Vice President. It did not start with biden and cheney. The last six Vice President s over the last 40 years, since Walter Mondale was president , have performed significant positions within the executive branch. The change in the vice presidency is in its usual, not personal. Become oneency has of our governments most important and contributing institutions in the executive branch, not simply as the first president ial successor, but a critical instrument of the presidency on an ongoing basis. It wasnt always this way. Woodrow wilson was a political scientist before he became a president , and in 1885 he wrote about the chief embarrassment in discussing the vice presidency is that when you have said how little is to be said about it, youve said all there is to be said. His Vice President was thomas retirement of mr. Marshall said, i dont want to work anymore, but i would not find i would not mind being Vice President again. Ford he camesident our 40th Vice President when he was sworn into that position on december 6, 1973, he reformed to the limited powers and duties of the vice presidency. His Vice President disparaged his office as quote, simply standby equipment in 1976. So how did we get from the all theo president ford limited powers and duties of the vice presidency, and rockefeller referred to as simply standby equipment in the mid1970s, with a very different, Robust Office that we have today. Nexti want to do in the two minutes is give a brief overview of the vice presidency. Then to sketch the office as it exists today, what i call the white house vice presidency, and then to make a few suggestions as to what i think we can learn from this transformation. Wasnt oneesidency of the Founding Fathers great successes. It was created for reasons that are now obsolete. The founders were concerned that after george wasngton, it would be impossible to elect a national president. They were worried that parochial considerations would force electors in the different states to vote for their states favorite fund rather than to elect a national president. To combat that concern, they created the original president ial election system and they gave each electorate to votes for president. But they required that one of those votes had to be cast for somebody who wasnt from the electors home state. What they hoped would happen is that the second vote, the vote that wasnt going to be home state favorite son would actually produce a National Consensus of residence. In essence, they created the vice presidency to provide an incentive for electors to vote seriously so there would be a consequence to their vote, somebody who would be elected to the second office. Hugh williamson from north carolina, delegate for the philadelphia convention, at the convention said the vice presidency wasnt wanted, it was created simply to facilitate a valuable mode of residential election. Alexander hamilton, who recently has experienced a resurgence, wrote in federalist 1968 that the president ial electoral system including the vice presidency is if not perfect, at least excellent. I hesitate to take mr. Hamilton on in his current standing, but i think history would demonstrate that he was wrong. By 1796, National Parties had begun to form, and what they were doing was slating tickets of one candidate for president , one candidate for Vice President. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson and ehrenberg were running together her the understanding that was the Vice President ial candidate. All the jefferson per electors voted for each one of them, so they ended up in a tie. Although jeffersons votes were really for president and burrs for Vice President , it resulted in a tie. It took the house of representatives or to six ballots to break the tie. 36 ballots to break the tie. They arranged to have the constitution amended into a 12th amendment to the constitution, which separated the election of president and Vice President so that the electors would vote not Vice President original reason to have the vice presidency and discussions over the 12th amendment. Some people said, we should get rid of the vice presidency now. They decided it was simpler to keep it then get rid of it, and so the vice presidency continued. In the legislative office. The Vice President s saul responsibility was to preside over the senate. Philadelphia convention, Robert Sherman from connecticut said, if the Vice President is not the person in the senate, hes not going to have anything to do. We agreed the Vice President would be the Vice President of the senate and that is what Vice President s up until elven barkley they spend most of their professional time presiding over the senate. The senate did not elect the Vice President and they could not remove the Vice President , so the senate was never interested in letting the Vice President have much control. The Vice President would decide but have no power over the senate. The other function of the Vice President was to serve as a as the president ial successor. That was a contentious role. For most of our history the vice presidency was pretty insignificant. Vice president s have little to do, so they look for other things to do to keep themselves busy. Martin van burens Vice President spent much of his time when he wasnt providing over the Senate Running a tavern in washington. Wrote history books during his vice presidency. , who said heevelt would rather be anything than Vice President , it was too little work for a man of only 42 years old, thought that he might spend his vice presidency going. O law school in the 19th century and up to the 20th 1 3 of century, the candidate did not choose his running mate. They often, generally chose the running mate in order to balance the ticket, either on ideological grounds or geographical grounds. Sometimes you would have president ial candidates and Vice President ial ended its who disagreed, were on opposite sides of major issues of the day. Sometimes the vice presidency was used as part of a deal to secure the president ial nomination for a candidate. Sometimes a politician from a swing state was chosen as the Vice President ial candidate. 1916, there and were eight Vice President ial candidates. Five of them were from the state of indiana. Times the 19th century were undistinguished people. Chester arthur, the Vice President before he succeeded president garfield, before he became Vice President , the highest position heat ever held since the director of customs had never held any Public Office other than state legislature in the state of new jersey. Did have a lot of experience, but he was very sick when he was chosen to be Vice President. So sick that he resigned from the senate. He died soon after his election. Being Vice President s wasnt a good career move for somebody in most of the 19th century. Only 3 19 century Vice President s were elected to a second term and none after 1836. Although five residents from 1820 82 1900 were elected to a second term, none with the same Vice President. The four Vice President s who succeeded in the 19th century, none of them were elected to their own term as president. The vice presidency wasnt a good president ial springboard. When Daniel Webster was offered ticketion on the 1848 with zachary taylor, he refused, saying, i dont propose to be buried until im dead. It wasnt the wisest move of websters career. He always wanted to be president s. Some months later zachary taylor. Ied 1840 six, when Martin Van Buren was elected city Vice President to succeed andrew jackson, intel 1988 when george w. Bush was elected to succeed ronald reagan, no Vice President no sitting Vice President was ever elected to the presidency. Other than John Breckenridge in 1856, none was nominated to seek the presidency by a major party until Richard Nixon was in 1960. The beginning of the 20th century, there was a common joke that was told about the parents who had two sons. The sea, the other became Vice President , neither were heard from again. At the beginning of the 20th century, the vice presidency began to take some baby steps forward and forced the executive ranch. Invitedt Warren Harding his Vice President to meet with the cabinet. The move was controversial at the time, but Vice President coolidge did meet with parties cabinet, and that became something of a tradition. Frank when roosevelt used garner as a legislative liaison. President roosevelt used his second vice resident, henry wallace. It made him the head of the board of Economic Warfare during world war ii. President roosevelts third Vice President , harry truman, offered limited contact with president roosevelt during the 82 days of president trumans vice presidency. President truman wasnt told about the Manhattan Project until some days after he had succeeded president roosevelt, when one of his advisers took him aside and said, mr. President , i think theres something you need to know about. The changes in american government, and politics, associated with the new deal and ended up having an effect on the vice presidency. They strengthened the presidency, weakened the political party, and they had the effect of cooling the vice presidency into the executive branch. As expectations of the presidency increase in the nuclear age and the cold war, as the president was expected to conduct a more robust foreign policy, and Technology Made foreign travel a bit more possible, Vice President s began to be sent on Diplomatic Missions. They began to take on other tasks in the executive branch. Beginning in 1940, the president got the power to designate who his running mate would be at the convention. Vice president nixons office was still at the capitol building. Unlike his predecessors, nixon spent time presiding over the senate regime spent most of his time in meetings in the branch. E ranch eisenhower oftentimes would go for a month or 2 months on a foreign trip, doing political work for the president , and so forth. Vice president nixons essentially followed the nixon model. Their office moved into the executive office building. They took on more functions in the executive branch, chairing trips for theking president , doing political work. Other than Vice President agnew, all of these people were among the leading political figures of their political generation. And the vice presidency became a better president ial springboard and became attractive to april people for that reason. Nixon and Hubert Humphrey were nominated. Spiro agnew was the front runner for 1970. Growth duringthis from nixon to rockefeller, there still were limitations. Primary focus of the vice presidency was on providing a president ial successor. The executive branch worked. The Vice President s were not part of the president s inner circle. Vice president s tended to feel underutilized and pretty frustrated with their positions. President eisenhower wanted to dump Vice President nixon from the ticket. In 1956 he suggests to him that