The office of the Vice Presidency has become an office of real substance and significance since the time of Richard Nixon as Vice President under Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953-1961.
Before that, the Vice Presidency was an office ignored and forgotten, except when a President died in office.
Only three Vice Presidents, all early on in American history (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren) had been elevated to the Presidency by election, rather than succession due to death of the President.
Only when George H. W. Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan by election in 1988, did we again have a Vice President elected directly to the Presidency.
However, we did have Nixon lose the Presidency after Eisenhower, only to win it eight years later in 1968. And we did have Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, and Al Gore run for President and lose.
Now, we have former Vice President Joe Biden having a good chance to be the Presidential nominee of his party in 2020.
But in many ways, even more significant now than the Presidential race, is the reality that the odds of a future Vice President succeeding during the term is magnified by the fact that all four leading individuals who might be President in 2021 are old men–Donald Trump at 74, Joe Biden at 78, Michael Bloomberg at 78, and Bernie Sanders at 79, when the term begins in January 2021.
All except Bloomberg have known health issues–Trump both mentally and physically, Biden mentally, and Sanders physically. Bloomberg at this point seems free of any mental or physical health issues.
But the reality that the three Democrats will reach 80 in either the first or second year of the next term is alarming and worrisome, and magnifies the importance of choosing the right Vice Presidential choice, with the odds growing that whoever it is, he or she is likely to occupy the Oval Office before January 2025.
It is a sobering thought, but one must face reality, so the choice of a running mate is more crucial than ever before.
LOL! Only place Bloomberg has won so far is American Samoa.
Yes, Rustbelt Democrat, a contribution to retirement of Tulsi Gabbard, who is not running for reelection, but deserves a smack for her outrageous ideas, and her lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, a mockery, which will be thrown out in court!
Tennessee’s poll closing has been extended to 9 because of the tornado that hit Nashville.
I hear the death toll from the tornado is up to 25.
That coronavirus is getting too close to home now. There’s a new case in North Carolina, about 2 hours drive away from us.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/03/us/north-carolina-coronavirus-case-washington/index.html
Texas and California are having long lines. May not hear from those until after midnight.
From what Steve Kornacki was saying about turnout, it sounds like Biden’s getting more voters to turnout than Sanders is.
They’re saying Biden could possibly win Texas.
Suburban women and African Americans want Trump out, not a “revolution”, and they are making that known tonight.
Biden won Massachusetts. Warren couldn’t even win her own state.
When the most important factor in a Presidential Election is who the Vice Presidential candidates are, something is terribly, sadly, and sickly wrong with America’s $ 1 = 1 Vote system of government and governance.
And what upset The Hillary so much was Gabbard’s calling it like it is, was, and ever will be: that she was the ONLY candidate attacking her own party for promoting the “deeply destructive†policy of “regime change wars.” For which she was criticized by all the Dems’ heavy hitters for being an “isolationist.
And what really ticked off BillyBob’s Wife was Gabbard’s calling her “the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party.â€
Which is exactly what Clinton is, was, and ever will be.
Jeffrey, you need to take your medication, lol.
What you just said about Hillary is part of a disease, the HillaryHatred Syndrome.
You forget she WON the popular vote by 2.85 miilion, more than Carter, Nixon, JFK, and other Presidents!
She lost because of Russian collusion and voter suppression!
She would have been an outstanding President, certainly better than Trump!
Are you now going to start the JoeBidenHatred Syndrome? 🙁
And Tulsi Gabbard IS a despicable person, supportive of Assad in Syria, and many think she might run as an independent candidate to help Trump defeat Biden!
Her lawsuit is preposterous, and she has lost all credibility! 🙁
She will NEVER have an accomplished career as Hillary Clinton has had, and has plenty of skeletons in her closet! 🙁
“Jeffrey, you need to take your medication, lol.”
The only people who need their meds are those who use them to forget what Clinton did to the peoples, lands, nations, and countries of Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Syria [to say nothing of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, among others[, as she picked up the Cheney/Bush the Lesser Forever War and carried it forward with so much success.
“What you just said about Hillary is part of a disease, the HillaryHatred Syndrome.”
i didn’t say it; Tulsi Gabbard said it; and i happen to agree with her 100%. And, eh, how much purchase do You think that Syndrome gets over in ~ again, yet, and still ~ Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Syria?
“You forget she WON the popular vote by 2.85 miilion, more than Carter, Nixon, JFK, and other Presidents!”
So what? She lost the Electoral Vote, Doc. And that’s how the system works. I wonder how frothed You folks would be if the results were exactly reversed, and Trump had won the popular vote but lost the College.
“She lost because of Russian collusion and voter suppression!”
Ahhhhh. And that’s all in the Mueller Investigation, is it? Or is someplace else? The primary reason she lost is because she alienated all those Deplorables in all those here-to-fore always Red States.
She also lost Not because this nation wasn’t ready for a Woman President; she lost because this country wasn’t ready to have THAT particular Woman to be President, particularly if it meant having BillyBobb as America’s “First Gentleman.”
“She would have been an outstanding President, certainly better than Trump!”
Well, that certainly sets a very low bar for her, so I guess You might be right on that point.
“Are you now going to start the JoeBidenHatred Syndrome? ”
Biden is already covered under my HateAllCareerCorporatistPoliticalHacks Syndrome. No need for a duplication of effort. 🙂
“And Tulsi Gabbard IS a despicable person, supportive of Assad in Syria, and many think she might run as an independent candidate to help Trump defeat Biden!”
“Despicable,” eh? Is that anything like a Deplorable? And Trump doesn’t need Gabbard’s help to defeat Biden. Biden and the Democrats are already doing that for him.
“Her lawsuit is preposterous, and she has lost all credibility! ”
Yeah; just like the ruling that Hillary be deposed for her e-mails, eh? PREEEEposterous.
Ms Gabbard has never had any credibility with anybody in the Democratic Party Corpocratic Ruling Class that has, from Day 1, supported and supports [and perpetrated and perpetuates] The Forever War.
“She will NEVER have an accomplished career as Hillary Clinton has had, and has plenty of skeletons in her closet! ”
Yeah…. That’s true. She will probably never be in a position to do to the peoples, lands, nations, and countries of Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Syria that The Hillary did.
And would You like to lay out on Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to The Hill all the skeletons in Madame Clinton’s closet? I do not think so.
Bloomie is out and endorsing Biden.
5 takeaways from Super Tuesday –
1. South Carolina really did matter.
2. Bernie Sanders lost late-deciding voters.
3. Bloomberg spent $500 million and only won American Samoa.
4. Elizabeth Warren’s game plan is looking a lot more tenuous.
5. Sanders’s gender gap problem.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/super-tuesday-2020-takeaways_n_5e5f4b04c5b6732f50ea39f3
[Speaking of Tulsi Gabbard, I wonder if Biden, Warren, the Dropouts, The Hillary, or any other Corporatist Democrat would dare pen this op-ed for The Hill. I wonder if Sanders would?]
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/485051-tulsi-gabbard-presidential-candidates-must-also-condemn-election
Presidential candidates must also condemn election interference by US intelligence agencies By Tulsi Gabbard
[She concludes]: The question facing any potential Democratic nominee is this: Am I going to allow myself to be manipulated and forced into a corner by overreaching intelligence agencies and the corporate media where, in order for me to win the presidency, I’m going to have to do what I know is not in the interests of the American people and world peace?
Or will I stand up to the corrupt neocon and neoliberal establishment, condemn their lies and smears, and act with the integrity and foresight necessary to forge a rational policy that will serve all our interests?
The problem with Trump is that he talks tough against the media and the intelligence agencies, but he was not strong enough to stand up to their pressure. He was cowed into trying to prove that he’s not a puppet of Russia and as a consequence has brought us closer and closer to nuclear war. The Democratic nominee cannot make the same mistake; our country and the world are depending on it.
The voters are having their say. They aren’t interested in Tulsi. I expect her to drop out soon.
Jeffrey, you clearly have lost your mind in bitterness, and have accepted conspiracy theories, which marks you as very troubled, indeed.
If you are that upset by my viewpoint, you are welcome to stop commenting, or you can continue to do so, and be ignored as a troll!
Your choice, Jeffrey!
Ronald, You have been exposed to about 1/10 of the bitterness ~ make that contempt ~ that i have toward the Obama Regime’s embrace of the Cheney/Bush the Lesser’s Forever War, particularly The Hillary’s and Uncle Joe’s.
And i have been “ignored as a troll” ever since i showed up here; so what else is new?
If it will make You feel any better, i have been similarly ignored as a troll at such outstanding News and Views Silos and Echo Chambers as Common Dreams, HuffPost, and WashMonthly, among others of Y’All’s ilk.
But; i have also been ignored [even banned a couple of times] from Briefbarf.
Guess i must be doing something right, eh?
And to which “conspiracy theory” are You alleging that i subscribe?
You certainly subscribe to the “conspiracy theory” of Russian collusion and voter suppression in 2016. Does that make You “very troubled indeed,” as well?
Or is that difference that Your conspiracy theory is a proven, demonstrable “fact”?
Well, in this age of “alternative” truths and facts, i guess it could be.
Jeff, you can go on your merry way and say whatever you want, as I do NOT believe in censorship, but rather freedom of speech!
But I will NOT answer any more of your drivel, and I doubt others who comment will do so!
But if it makes you happy, go ahead and comment! 🙁
Well; to be perfectly honest, Ron: All my posts and all the responses are part of a chapter in a book i’m writing: “Conversations with The Left in a Time of Chaos and Collapse.”
The Coalition That Joe Built
After four years of Donald Trump, 2020 will not be a repeat of 2016.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/03/04/the-coalition-that-joe-built/
Last April, Edward-Isaac Dovere explained the strategy that Bernie Sanders developed to win the Democratic primary.
[He’s counting on winning Iowa and New Hampshire, where he was already surprisingly strong in 2016, and hoping that Cory Booker and Kamala Harris will split the black electorate in South Carolina and give him a path to slip through there, too. And then, Sanders aides believe, he’ll easily win enough delegates to put him into contention at the convention. They say they don’t need him to get more than 30 percent to make that happen.]
Of course, that began to break down when Buttigieg challenged Sanders in both Iowa and New Hampshire. By the time the race got to South Carolina, Booker and Harris were out, but African American voters helped Biden sweep the state. As we saw on Super Tuesday, however, Sanders continues to hold on to the 30 percent his campaign hoped would get him enough delegates heading into the convention.
The question that remains is whether that will be enough. As David Atkins pointed out, Biden’s performance on Tuesday demonstrates the makings of a winning coalition that will challenge the strategy adopted by the Sanders campaign. Let’s take a look at how he did that.
With all that’s happened since Biden first entered the race, some people seem to have forgotten that the initial take on him was that he was the guy from Scranton that could win with working class voters. According to the poll aggregates assembled by the Economist, Biden continues to garner the support of non college-educated voters.
The reason a lot of people forgot about Biden’s strength among working-class voters is because, from the moment he announced his presidential campaign, he has had overwhelming support from African Americans—especially in the South. We’ve already talked a lot about why that is happening. But as someone on Twitter recently put it, African Americans know that Biden has evolved in a way that is “dear to our hearts.†It isn’t just that he served as Barack Obama’s vice president. In a way that is uncommon for older white men, he did so by being second-in-command to a black man and never trying to undermine him in the process. That, and speeches like this earned Biden the loyalty of African American voters.
[We are at an inflection point. We can choose four more years of Donald Trump’s poisonous rhetoric and divisive politics — or we can take the next great step forward as a nation.
It won’t be easy. But we can do it, together.
— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden)]
Heading into the 2016 election, all of the chatter was about how angry voters were. Initially it was assumed that the anger was fueled by economic anxiety. But over time, it became clear that a better word to describe what happened is grievance—especially the kind felt by the nostalgia voters who supported Donald Trump.
The president and his enablers will once again court that sense of grievance in the 2020 election, while candidates like Sanders and Warren have been attempting to tap into the economic anxiety that Americans feel. But all of that might be a miscalculation.
After four years of Donald Trump, 2020 will not be a repeat of 2016. Beyond the issues that are of primary concern to some voters, it is becoming clear that an awful lot of people are tired of the anger and division. Along those lines, Washington Monthly writer Julie Zebrak confirmed why suburban women turned out in force for Joe Biden on Super Tuesday.
[Suburban women (like me) want safety, calm, security, trustworthiness, and honesty right now. We want a woman, but more than anything we want Trump out. We trust @JoeBiden to do that and we darn well don’t want a revolution.
— @JulieZebrak (@JulieZebrak)]
Women are tired of a politics that is all about identifying an enemy and going on the attack. They’re even more tired of the effect Donald Trump’s bullying is having on their children—not to mention the cruelty of policies like locking little ones up in cages.
That is something else that Joe Biden tapped into. While a lot of people credit the endorsement of Rep. Clyburn for Biden’s sweep in South Carolina, this video captured a significant moment just two days before the primary. (See YouTuibe video in article.)
Cynical political pundits might be dismissive of that moment, but keep in mind that during the remainder of that town hall discussion, two people who rose to ask questions indicated that Biden had won their support that night. What that tells us is that voters are tired of cruelty and are hungry for empathy. That hunger isn’t restricted to suburban moms. A lot of people are ready to restore some humanity to the White House. Those folks are a big part of the coalition Biden is building.
The group where Biden’s coalition demonstrated weakness on Super Tuesday was with young people. As Martin Longman has already noted, they are not turning out to vote so far in the primaries, perhaps demonstrating that, while the revolution Sanders is proposing appeals to some of them, it isn’t necessarily what the majority of young people are looking for. What would galvanize them to get out and vote is definitely an issue that still needs to be addressed.
Given the fact that Bloomberg has now dropped out of the race, the Sanders strategy of getting to the convention with 30 percent support is increasingly looking like a miscalculation. As has always been the case in Democratic politics, building a coalition is always a better bet.
Thanks for that, Pragmatic. Here’s the video from the article, by the way.
In addition to winning Texas overnight, Biden has won in Maine. Those results were recently announced.
[One last bit of drivel.]
Coronavirus vs. the Mass Surveillance State: Which Poses the Greater Threat? by John W. Whitehead
“If, as it seems, we are in the process of becoming a totalitarian society in which the state apparatus is all-powerful, the ethics most important for the survival of the true, free, human individual would be: cheat, lie, evade, fake it, be elsewhere, forge documents, build improved electronic gadgets in your garage that’ll outwit the gadgets used by the authorities.â€â€”Philip K. Dick
March 04, 2020 “Information Clearing House” – Emboldened by the citizenry’s inattention and willingness to tolerate its abuses, the government has weaponized one national crisis after another in order to expands its powers.
The war on terror, the war on drugs, the war on illegal immigration, asset forfeiture schemes, road safety schemes, school safety schemes, eminent domain: all of these programs started out as legitimate responses to pressing concerns and have since become weapons of compliance and control in the police state’s hands.
It doesn’t even matter what the nature of the crisis might be—civil unrest, the national emergencies, “unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disastersâ€â€”as long as it allows the government to justify all manner of government tyranny in the so-called name of national security.
Now we find ourselves on the brink of a possible coronavirus contagion.
Continued at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53070.htm
Drivel. Perfect word to use for the nonsense the loony troll spouts. LOL!
Ezra Klein nails it regarding one of Bernie’s issues: If you treat voters and officials in the party you want to lead as the enemy, a lot of people in that party aren’t going to trust you to lead them.
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/4/21164091/sanders-biden-super-tuesday-endorsements-primary-2020
Bernie is like those two old men in the balcony on the Muppets.
HAHA!, Southern Liberal! 🙂
Professor,
It’s very obvious that this nut you’ve picked up here gets his “news” from conspiracy websites.
He clearly fits in with the kind of nuts who are spreading conspiracy theories around on Facebook and Twitter that the coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab.
Or the nuts who believe that climate change is a hoax.
And so on and so forth.
I very highly doubt he got kicked off of Breitbart because that’s exactly the type of junk you see at Breitbart.
Yeah. Let’s see: Bloomberg, the WSJ, NYT, Reuters, antiwar.com, ICH, The Economist, BBC, and al-Jazeera are most definitely “conspiracy websites,” eh? Wrong #1.
And, sorry pal; but i stopped using social media a long time ago; right after Snowden revealed what Obomber’s NSA was up to with its warrantless mass surveillance. Wrong #2.
The only “conspiracy theories” that I subscribe to are: 1. That individuals, agencies, and institutions within the US government were involved in the planning, resourcing, execution, and cover-up of 9/11. 2. That the 2008 financial “crisis” and subsequent bailout of our “too big to fail” banks was an inside job perpetrated by Wall Street and the politicians it owned and operated [and still owns and operates] in Swampland. 3. That the COVID-19 would provide Trump with a great excuse to declare a national emergency, martial law, and himself President-For-Life.
Wrong #3.
And You ~ Former Republican ~ are completely ignorant if You presume to call me a climate change denier. If You’d like proof, send me Your e-mail, and I’ll send You a copy of the several items I have had published about that very topic. Some of which are on this blogsite, as i recall. Wrong #4.
As to your doubts about whether or not I was kicked off Briefbarf: They would be laughable, if they weren’t so pathetic. Wrong #5.
If I’m a “nut case,” what does that make You? Besides Wong 5 times over.
Just curious: What were You before You became a “Former Republican”? Let me guess just what kind of a Republican You were…. .
Heh…. I can only imagine.
Seconded, Former Republican. All trolls who come here are not trustworthy.
The thing is, the troll is not posting from any reliable news sources, like the BBC or NYT or any of the other news sources the Professor has listed here. He posts quite frequently from Information Clearing House. I spent time browsing the website. It’s full of paranoia and fake science. The troll may enjoy that, but I do not recommend it.
Princess Leia, you are ONE HUNDRED PERCENT correct!
Information Clearing House is a conspiracy theory and propaganda source, not worth any intelligent person’s time!
This coronavirus is not something to be joking about. From what I hear, it’s deadlier than the flu. People who are most at risk of dying from the disease are the elderly, people with weakened immune systems, people with underlying chronic illnesses.