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The White House Vice Presidency: The Path to Significance, Mondale to Biden
“I am nothing, but I may be everything,” John Adams, the first vice president, wrote of his office. And for most of American history, the “nothing” part of Adams’s formulation accurately captured the importance of the vice presidency, at least as long as the president had a heartbeat. But a job that once was “not worth a bucket of warm spit,” according to John Nance Garner, became, in the hands of the most recent vice presidents, critical to the governing of the country on an ongoing basis. It is this dramatic development of the nation’s second office that Joel K. Goldstein traces and explains in The White House Vice Presidency .
The rise of the vice presidency took a sharp upward trajectory with the vice presidency of Walter Mondale. In Goldstein’s work we see how Mondale and Jimmy Carter designed and implemented a new model of the office that allowed the vice president to become a close presidential adviser and representative on missions that mattered. Goldstein takes us through the vice presidents from Mondale to Joe Biden, presenting the arrangements each had with his respective president, showing elements of continuity but also variations in the office, and describing the challenges each faced and the work each did. The book also examines the vice-presidential selection process and campaigns since 1976, and shows how those activities affect and/or are affected by the newly developed White House vice presidency.
The book presents a comprehensive account of the vice presidency as the office has developed from Mondale to Biden. But The White House Vice Presidency is more than that; it also shows how a constitutional office can evolve through the repetition of accumulated precedents and demonstrates the critical role of political leadership in institutional development. In doing so, the book offers lessons that go far beyond the nation's second office, important as it now has become.
The rise of the vice presidency took a sharp upward trajectory with the vice presidency of Walter Mondale. In Goldstein’s work we see how Mondale and Jimmy Carter designed and implemented a new model of the office that allowed the vice president to become a close presidential adviser and representative on missions that mattered. Goldstein takes us through the vice presidents from Mondale to Joe Biden, presenting the arrangements each had with his respective president, showing elements of continuity but also variations in the office, and describing the challenges each faced and the work each did. The book also examines the vice-presidential selection process and campaigns since 1976, and shows how those activities affect and/or are affected by the newly developed White House vice presidency.
The book presents a comprehensive account of the vice presidency as the office has developed from Mondale to Biden. But The White House Vice Presidency is more than that; it also shows how a constitutional office can evolve through the repetition of accumulated precedents and demonstrates the critical role of political leadership in institutional development. In doing so, the book offers lessons that go far beyond the nation's second office, important as it now has become.
- GenresPresidents
440 pages, Paperback
Published March 3, 2017
About the author
Joel K. Goldstein
11 books1 followerJoel K. Goldstein, the Vincent C. Immel Professor of Law at St. Louis Zuniversity, is the most widely renowned scholar on the United States vice presidency.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 7, 2020
Within living memory, the vice presidency has made the ascent from an insignificant and often derided legislative office to a crucial and powerful executive one. “The White House Vice Presidency” is the chronicle of that transformation.
Designed late during the Constitutional Convention to facilitate presidential elections, throughout most of its history it remained a largely legislative position, the only duty of which was to preside over the Senate. In the words of its first occupant, John Adams, “I am nothing but I may be everything”, it was a reminder of his mortality to the president and a frustration to its occupant. Chosen by party leaders, not the presidential nominee, vice presidents were excluded from high level councils and rarely worked with their presidents.
Change came gradually. Calvin Coolidge was invited to cabinet meetings, by 1940 Franklin Roosevelt was strong enough to seek his running mate and Richard Nixon made several significant overseas trips and was a major player in the Eisenhower administration.
After stagnating during the Johnson, Humphrey, Agnew, Ford and Rockefeller tenures, the right mix of needs and personalities coalesced in 1977 with the election of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. Carter, the outsider, brought Mondale, the Senate veteran, into the White House. From his West Wing office (the first VP to have one) he became a trusted generalist advisor who had access to the president and the respect of his staff. Subsequent presidents and vice presidents have modified the role while maintaining the basic Mondal model. The claim of an imperial vice presidency during the first Cheney first term is given appropriate scrutiny.
This work is blend of history, political science and legal analysis. Professor Goldstein has crafted a thorough exposition of a wide range of issues relating to the vice-presidency. He studies the vice presidential selection process (which has changed from a last minute afterthought to an extensive vetting and media rollout), the potential of the VP as a successor, either through vacancy or election, the political future of vice presidents and the benefits and problems associated with the position.
Arranged by topics, the author addresses each subject with the pros and cons, occupant by occupant in, in my opinion, a fair and unbiased manner. Although at times trending toward an academic tome, Professor Goldstein guides the narrative into a channel in which the informed non-specialist can swim with the flow.
I really like this book because it has changed my thinking about history and government. I am fortunate to know Joel Goldstein and have often discussed the vice presidency with him often. We have talked about how the Mondale model propelled the office into a new era through practices without a constitutional amendment in what he characterizes as “a nonjudicial version of the common-law process.” “The White House Vice Presidency” pulls it all together in an easily understood read. The focus on the Carter-Mondale team suggests that even failed presidents can make helpful contributions to American democracy. If you consider this a cheap shot, fear not. You will find nothing like this in Goldstein’s text.
I recommend this for anyone interested in relationships between the two national officers we elect each quadrennial.
Designed late during the Constitutional Convention to facilitate presidential elections, throughout most of its history it remained a largely legislative position, the only duty of which was to preside over the Senate. In the words of its first occupant, John Adams, “I am nothing but I may be everything”, it was a reminder of his mortality to the president and a frustration to its occupant. Chosen by party leaders, not the presidential nominee, vice presidents were excluded from high level councils and rarely worked with their presidents.
Change came gradually. Calvin Coolidge was invited to cabinet meetings, by 1940 Franklin Roosevelt was strong enough to seek his running mate and Richard Nixon made several significant overseas trips and was a major player in the Eisenhower administration.
After stagnating during the Johnson, Humphrey, Agnew, Ford and Rockefeller tenures, the right mix of needs and personalities coalesced in 1977 with the election of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. Carter, the outsider, brought Mondale, the Senate veteran, into the White House. From his West Wing office (the first VP to have one) he became a trusted generalist advisor who had access to the president and the respect of his staff. Subsequent presidents and vice presidents have modified the role while maintaining the basic Mondal model. The claim of an imperial vice presidency during the first Cheney first term is given appropriate scrutiny.
This work is blend of history, political science and legal analysis. Professor Goldstein has crafted a thorough exposition of a wide range of issues relating to the vice-presidency. He studies the vice presidential selection process (which has changed from a last minute afterthought to an extensive vetting and media rollout), the potential of the VP as a successor, either through vacancy or election, the political future of vice presidents and the benefits and problems associated with the position.
Arranged by topics, the author addresses each subject with the pros and cons, occupant by occupant in, in my opinion, a fair and unbiased manner. Although at times trending toward an academic tome, Professor Goldstein guides the narrative into a channel in which the informed non-specialist can swim with the flow.
I really like this book because it has changed my thinking about history and government. I am fortunate to know Joel Goldstein and have often discussed the vice presidency with him often. We have talked about how the Mondale model propelled the office into a new era through practices without a constitutional amendment in what he characterizes as “a nonjudicial version of the common-law process.” “The White House Vice Presidency” pulls it all together in an easily understood read. The focus on the Carter-Mondale team suggests that even failed presidents can make helpful contributions to American democracy. If you consider this a cheap shot, fear not. You will find nothing like this in Goldstein’s text.
I recommend this for anyone interested in relationships between the two national officers we elect each quadrennial.
August 22, 2016
From New Books Network: Since the vice presidential choices have been made, it is time for a big book about the vice presidency. Goldstein has written that big, tracing 40 years of the evolution of this position. He focuses much of his attention on the innovative vice presidency of Walter Mondale. With the consent of President Carter, Mondale moved the office for the first time to the center of the White House, taking on a role in appointment decisions, policy, and on-going work of the president. Ever since, vice presidents have been following the Mondale model, growing the office in significance and potentially increasing the importance of who is nominated to how voters evaluate the ticket.
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June 14, 2016
No other scholar has a better understanding of the development of the modern Vice Presidency. This important and timely book, by the use of innumerable interesting examples, renders this subject readily accessible to all interested readers.
April 13, 2016
Professor Goldstein does an exemplary job outlining the modern dynamic of the Office of the Vice President.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews