American Political System: Difference between revisions
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** A case might be made that Joe Biden was chosen for this reason, as while [[Barack Obama]] was a Senator before becoming President, he had only been in DC for four years at time of election, while Biden was a six-term (36-year!) Senator with far more connections.
** To give you an idea of how common this has become: while Obama was the first sitting member of Congress elected President since Kennedy, and indeed every President elected between Kennedy and Obama had either been a state governor or Vice President, every Vice President save Spiro Agnew elected since LBJ has been a Washington insider of some description: LBJ, Humphrey, Gore, and Biden were all sitting Senators, while Bush Sr. and Cheney were old hands who had served in the House and Executive Branch.<ref>Bush had been Ambassador to the [[United Nations]], then ambassador-in-all-but-name to [[Red China]], and then [[CIA|Director of Central Intelligence]]; Cheney had been White House Chief of Staff and Secretary of Defense.</ref>
** Former Indiana state governor Mike Pence is an unusual combination of both the first and second types for President-Elect Donald Trump, being both a ticket-balancer (Pence is a strong conservative while Trump is a New York classical liberal) and a political advisor (Trump has never before held elective office while Pence is a former governor, and Pence has also been made chief of President-Elect Trump's presidential transition team).▼
* The third kind was more common in the past—someone who ran for President and lost the nomination would be given the running mate's slot to soothe his ego.
** LBJ is the closest thing to this in recent history, as it was well-known that he wanted the top job himself. Along with the ticket-balancing issue and his Washington connections (which were a bit more extensive than Kennedy's), he was the perfect VP candidate. [[Be Careful What You Wish For|His actual presidency]] makes this situation either [[Hilarious in Hindsight|hilarious]] or [[Harsher in Hindsight|more gut-wrenching]].
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** Joe Biden might also have been picked for this reason, as despite his serious case of [[Open Mouth, Insert Foot|foot-in-mouth]] [[Did I Just Say That Out Loud?|disease]], he had run two (kind of half-hearted) campaigns for President (in 1988 and 2008) and was seen as something of an elder statesman in the Democratic Party.
** There is some speculation that Mitt Romney may do this with [[Ron Paul]] to prevent a third-party or independent run from Paul.
▲** Former Indiana state governor Mike Pence is an unusual combination of both the first and second types for President-Elect Donald Trump, being both a ticket-balancer (Pence is a strong conservative while Trump is a New York classical liberal) and a political advisor (Trump has never before held elective office while Pence is a former governor, and Pence has also been made chief of President-Elect Trump's presidential transition team).
[[John Adams]], the very first vice president, described his office as "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived." John Nance Garner, Franklin D Roosevelt's first Vice President, was [[Brutal Honesty|more direct]], describing the vice presidency as "not worth a bucket of warm piss". (Ironically, FDR is one of the few presidents to have died in office, although Roosevelt had ditched Garner long before.)
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