DDH - Grow A Penis

“What is the vice presidency? The Constitution dictates only two duties: casting the deciding vote if the Senate is deadlocked and replacing the president if he dies or is impeached. Apart from waiting for those two things to happen, you made the rest up and were duly forgotten by history. The exception being Aaron Burr, who shot someone, decisively lowering the bar for the rest of us.” ― Austin Grossman

“If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.” – Dan Quayle

“Freedom of speech is useless without freedom of thought.” – Spiro Agnew

“One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice-president, and that one word is ‘to be prepared’.” ― Dan Quayle

“Remember, no one decides who they’re going to vote for based on the vice president. I mean that literally.” ― Joe Biden

In 1968, Richard Nixon selected as his running mate the Governor of Maryland, Spiro T. Agnew. He was known for being a very tough “Law & order” Governor, who had little love for the civil rights chaos sweeping the nation. He fully expected – because Nixon had said so – to be the most active and involved Vice President in the history of the United States.

In some ways, he was. But for the most part, he did what most Vice Presidents do, got up every morning and asked how was the President? Day, after day.

As the President’s relationship with the press deteriorated, he was sent out as the attack dog for the Administration. In speeches and in press conferences, he became the face of the Nixon Administration’s adversarial relationship with the media, the public and anybody who didn’t think that the President was doing a good job at literally anything.

And then came the day when he was accused of corruption and of accepting a bribe. All his expectations and hopes for continued service to the nation evaporated into mist. President Nixon, already deeply embroiled in his own accusations, sent his representatives to tell Agnew to “go quietly.” On October 10, 1973, he resigned as Vice President. But he would never forgive those who he believed had ruined his career.

In the aftermath the nation got reminder of why a Vice President is a dual sided coin. It is both completely unnecessary and yet, at the same time, a critical piece of the political infrastructure.

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