50 Years Of Republican Vice Presidential Nominees Tells Us A Lot About The GOP!

When one looks back at the history of Republican Vice Presidential nominees in the past 50 years, one realizes a lot about the attitude of the Republican Party toward that office, just a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

The Republican Party has chosen true disasters for an office that has seen two people in that office go on to become President, and three others run for and lose the Presidency in the past fifty years.

Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush are the two Vice Presidents who went on to become President, while Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale and Al Gore were defeated for the Presidency.

But look at the Vice Presidential nominees chosen by the GOP since 1964:

William E. Miller Congressman (NY) 1964
Spiro Agnew, Governor (Maryland) 1968, 1972
Bob Dole, Senator (Kansas) 1976
George H. W. Bush, former Congressman (Texas) 1980, 1984
Dan Quayle, Senator (Indiana) 1988, 1992
Jack Kemp, Congressman (NY) 1996
Dick Cheney, Congressman (Wyoming) 2000, 2004
Sarah Palin, Governor (Alaska) 2008
Paul Ryan, Congressman (Wisconsin) 2012

Out of this group of nine Vice Presidential nominees, the ONLY ones that could be considered truly competent and qualified to be President would be Bob Dole, George H. W. Bush, Jack Kemp, and Dick Cheney. And many might consider Kemp more glorified since his death than in life, and Cheney as a corrupt, arrogant, dangerous man in office, the true motivator of the Iraq War. Also many might consider Paul Ryan competent, but when one examines his hypocrisy and lack of compassion for those less fortunate on a broad scale over his years in Congress, one has to wonder.

The others are true disasters, with Miller considered mediocre at best; Sarah Palin purely stupid and ignorant; Dan Quayle an embarrassment to the office of Vice President, making many shudder when President Bush had health issues in office; and Spiro Agnew a crook, as well as being totally terrifying in his nearly five years as Vice President, until his criminal activity was known and he was forced to resign. Imagine having to pray for Richard Nixon’s health during Agnew’s Vice Presidency, and being relieved by Gerald Ford becoming the successor to Nixon, instead of Agnew!

Also notice that five of the above nine, along with Gerald Ford, came from the House of Representatives, when usually no one would consider the lower chamber a place for future Presidential leadership! By comparison, the Democrats have never nominated a House member for Vice President since the disaster of John Nance Garner, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first two terms Vice President from 1933 to 1941, with the one exception, also a disaster, of Geraldine Ferraro being the VP nominee for Walter Mondale in 1984.

So when one compares the Democratic nominees for Vice President, we see true competence and a sense of their understanding of the importance of that office:

Hubert Humphrey 1964
Edmund Muskie 1968
Sargent Shriver 1972 (after Thomas Eagleton withdrew)
Walter Mondale 1976, 1980
Geraldine Ferraro 1984
Lloyd Bentsen 1988
Al Gore 1992, 1996
Joseph Lieberman 2000
John Edwards 2004
Joe Biden 2008, 2012

All of the above, except the disastrous Ferraro, and Shriver were US Senators, and even if one does not agree with Edwards’ ethics and morals, it can be honestly said that all nine, including the withdrawn Eagleton, were totally competent and qualified to be President of the United States, if such responsibility had been thrust on them! No one would contest Shriver’s qualifications for the office either, as he stands out as the most prominent non elected office holder ever to be in public life since World War II!

So the lack of respect for the Vice Presidency of the Republican Party in the past 50 years reveals another problem for the party, the promotion of mediocrity by a party once proud of its leadership, and the likelihood of another GOP Vice Presidential nominee in 2016, who will make us roll our eyes and pray for the Presidential nominee’s good health, being highly likely!

14 comments on “50 Years Of Republican Vice Presidential Nominees Tells Us A Lot About The GOP!

  1. D March 8, 2014 7:36 pm

    Had Dick Cheney been an actor, he would have been perfect as Darth Vader.

    Sarah Palin has a mind rejected by Mattel.

    And Paul Ryan is a sociopath.

    These have been the Republican vice-presidential nominations since the year 2000. A turn-of-the-century move toward hell—without any sign of coming back. It wouldn’t surprise me if 2016 becomes yet another hole dug deeper in v.p selection from the GOP. (Perhaps they could run John Bolton.)

  2. Mark March 8, 2014 7:45 pm

    What we are all hoping for 2016 is Rand Paul/Ted Cruz.

  3. Ronald March 8, 2014 11:01 pm

    D, the thought of John Bolton a heartbeat away is enough to make one shudder.

    Mark, I hope you are correct, so we can dispose of both Rand Paul and Ted Cruz at once, but I doubt either one would be a good number 2, particularly NOT Cruz, who is a megalomaniac of the Joseph McCarthy variety, a very dangerous and unprincipled man who is basically a nightmare to the GOP!

  4. Mark March 8, 2014 11:52 pm

    Bolton will blow up the world. We agree on the neocons.

  5. Mark March 8, 2014 11:52 pm

    Cruz is extremely principled. You might disagree with his principles though.

  6. JOB March 9, 2014 12:14 am

    “What we are all hoping for 2016 is Rand Paul/Ted Cruz.”

    At least the Republicans that VOTE, right Mark?

  7. Engineer Of Knowledge March 9, 2014 10:31 am

    As a person whose family has 150 year legacy within the Republican Party, I can say that Mark’s comments are only speaking for one small mentally diseased segment of the current Civil War going within the Republican Party today. If his suggestion should come sbout, It’ll be another massive Republican loss at the polls. For the more moderate in the Party, they are an unfortunate embarrassment which he has demonstrated many times on this blog.

  8. Mark March 9, 2014 2:20 pm

    Dude, Rand Paul is not going to win by one vote, so I of course wouldn’t bother voting. But nevertheless I hope he wins because he is the lesser of the evil people running for President in both parties.

  9. Mark March 9, 2014 2:28 pm

    “As a person whose family has 150 year legacy within the Republican Party”

    Dude, why the fuck that matters? Reagan’s abominable children are nothing like him. Warren Buffet’s father isn’t a leftist wacko like his son.

    So whatever your Republicans ancestors thought it irrelevant to who you are.

  10. Ronald March 9, 2014 2:39 pm

    Mark, I would strongly prefer civil language on here, so do NOT use the word “dude” which I consider rude, and certainly NOT use the F word on here, and if you continue, I will block you from commenting, so do you get the message? 🙁

  11. Mark March 9, 2014 2:45 pm

    ok prof

  12. Ronald March 9, 2014 2:53 pm

    Thank you, Mark!

  13. Engineer Of Knowledge March 9, 2014 3:15 pm

    Mark, my family was there at the formation of the Republican Party. It then went on to become the logical, critical thinking Man’s Party.

    I am respected within the Party to actually have had a “one on one” talk with Jack Kemp, Vice Presidential candidate. I warned the Party back then that it was mistake to embrace the reactionary extreme right and bring them into the party giving them a voice emulating respect.

    Extreme reactionary viewpoints have no longevity and hence we are now seeing the destruction of the Republican Party today.

    This is my duty to purge this cancer and restore respectability to the party.

    So Mark I am saying very kindly… You are the problem…Not the solution of the direction the Party needs to go.

  14. Ronald March 9, 2014 3:43 pm

    Well said, Engineer, as usual! 🙂 I wrote a book on the Progressive Republican Senators during the New Deal, principled men who often went beyond name calling and destructive rhetoric to support Democrat FDR during the Great Depression, only breaking with him primarily on foreign policy–isolationism vs internationalism, with Rand Paul a remnant of the isolationist wing, also represented by Robert Taft in that era, but opposed in the Cold War years by Arthur Vandenberg.

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