Vice Presidents of The United States Podcast

Defender of his view of Southern rights, Vice President John Calhoun was the only VP to serve under Two Presidents. Both of those Presidents would come to dislike him strongly, as would (we think it's fair to say) most people today. That's because he undermined both Presidents he served under, and because Calhoun's defense of slavery went beyond what a majority of Southern Congressmen and Senators...

That's all TR had as Vice President, technically.  His official duties were just four days in March.  From there he spoke, wrote letters and travelled and to at least one person, complained about the restrictions of the Vice Presidency. Until the change.  In this episode we'll actually get a bit into those four days in March 1901 and what happened. They did cover a bit of American history.  And we...

Nelson Rockefeller was already a household name and a figure of some stature when Gerald Ford asked Congress to approve him as Vice President. True to form, he attempted to make the Vice Presidency a big office. 

A one-term Vice President known for being liberal on issues and associated with Hubert Humphrey, Carter's Vice President Walter Mondale changed the office more than anyone else. He moved it from the Senate to the White House, where it has been since. He also ran for President twice, and ended up with a 49-state blowout.  Yet, he never doubted what he did was right.

Those that know the full story of Chester Arthur know he became President and instituted controls on replacing workers in the civil service.  That's largely because a tragic shooting made him President and he, in a statesman-like way, implemented his sucessor's programs. But as Vice President, Arthur was all Stalwart. The Stalwarts, Half-Breeds and Independents fought each other as much as today's...

Large in his time, mostly passed over in history, George Clinton's ascention to the vice presidency would not have surprised contemporaries. If anything, he was a contender for the top office. He was a giant in New York State, and in the democratic-republican movement in the nation.  But his stand against The Constitution, his opposition to the new state of Vermont, and a parade of well-spoken com...

Elbridge Gerry was never a speaker with "thunder in his voice," per one contemporary description, and he was hard to pin down in terms of his politics, yet that may have made him persuasive. A compromiser and a critic, a pro-government and pro-liberty who hated both mobs and dictatorship.  His experience may have been 

War Hero, Congressman, State Leader, and Senator.  Kentucky's Richard Mentor Johnson was considered for the Presidency and might have obtained it in the case of his friend Andrew Jackson not seeking a second term. But timing is everything: Jackson did seek a second term, and in that term, politics changed.  Johnson did become Vice President in the shuffle, and like most 19th Century Vice President...

Henry Wilson's experience as a workingman would have a double benefit in his political career.  Not only could he identify with average people, but he could demonstrate that unlike his slaveholding oppponents, he worked his way up in a country that allowed him to do so.  His very presence from actual rags to some riches (at least for a time) compelled Republicans to place him on the ticket with Gr...

If he wasn't ever Lyndon Johnson's Vice President, HHH might have been remembered as a pretty good Senator.  And a well-regarded mayor.  But Hubert wanted more.  We take a look at the man who was almost President, his bumpy relationship with the President he served under, and the choice he was forced to make in the waning days of the election.  We also look at a mayor who took on crime and a Senat...

Dan Quayle's name conjures up images of late-night comedian jokes and verbal gaffes, but he may have offered a little-known service to the President he served.  In this episode, we discuss George H.W. Bush's vice president, including his ups and downs, and even his recent role in advising Mike Pence during the Jan 6, 2021 events.  

Though Richard Nixon's presidency would get most of the attention of history, his time as Vice President was formative.  He was one of several veeps that helped modernize the office.  He was more active on foreign trips than his predecessors.  He even came under attack and was heralded for his calm nerves.  He acted as floor leader for the GOP on civil rights legislation, up agains Lyndon Johnson....

We look at the Vice President who - maybe - described the office as a "bucket of warm spit."  That's a bit more questionable than some accounts, even my own podcast, makes it out to be.  (He never said it directly to any reporter).    The sometimes supporter of the New Deal and sometimes not VP may have been its most powerful VP occupant up to his time.  And he's responsible in a little way for ma...

A look at Schuyler Colfax, Grant's first Vice President lived a full life but died in obscurity and some shame.  We examine the smiling vice president, former Speaker and friend to Lincoln.

Grover Cleveland's first vice president barely spoke with him, did not agree on politics and was in office for political reasons.  Hendricks was the bottom half of a ticket that lost the disputed election of 1876.  His position on the martyred ticket that lost after a congressional commission decided for Rutherford B. Hayes would earn him a spot in the hearts of partisan Democrats.  It would also...

The story of John C. Breckinridge, the only vice president to take up arms against the country he served.  A charismatic and skilled speaker, he knew all of the people he ran against in the 1860 election.  He took up the banner of a party associated with disunion, though his own views were far more complicated.  

We discuss Charles Fairbanks, Teddy's Roosevelt's Vice President from 1905 to 1909.  Not only did they not see eye to eye, but Roosevelt might have given his career a little shove.  Or maybe not. And how did a Senator from Indiana get his name on a town in Alaska that he never saw?   Chris Novembrino of Don't Worry About the Government podcast joins us to discuss all of this.  

President Biden was Vice President first, and ran for President before that.  In this episode, we discuss his first doomed run for President, and his improbable win over a Republican Senator during a Republican landslide election.  

Adlai Ewing Stevenson, Vice President under Grover Cleveland in his second term, has been eclipsed in history by his famous grandson.  This is for reasons of time and memory and TV pictures but not for accomplishment.  For the original Adlai had quite the career, and made it to national office as Congressman, Postmaster and then Vice President.  He was also a story teller and a master compromiser...

Hog caller and stump speaker Alben Barkley defied all expectations.  The son of a tobacco farmer with little money to spare became Vice President and sometimes, a contender for President.  Senator and Majority Leader he prospered from his ability to speak.  It even almost got him in trouble with the President he served, Harry Truman.  The Original "Veep," the term first used with Barkley, he moder...

Dick Cheney is known as one of the most powerful Vice Presidents.  In this podcast, we look at the years before he became Veep, and how he almost threw his career away.  

Nobody would have expected local pol and newbie governor Cal Coolidge to become Vice President two years before the election of 1920.  Then a calamity happened, that made him the symbol of normalcy.

Rich, popular and diplomatic, Levi Parsons Morton was a banker-turned politician who had a knack for making connections and a penchant for raising money. He helped bankroll two Presidential campaigns before he found himself on a ticket, winning and serving under Benjamin Harrison. He would get along with the former General, but he would disappoint him on one important vote. He would also be one of...

George H.W. Bush's Vice Presidency was not spectacular; but arguably its most decisive event happened in its first months.  We discuss the day President Reagan was shot on this podcast.

Wilson's Vice President prospered through his folksy Indiana charm and humor and his status as a governor of a swing state.  But did his humor prevent him from a most serious role?