American Experience

Mr. Vice President, are you prepared to take the oath of office a president of the United States?

I am, sir.

It's this weird situation with the vice presidency.

Its historically seen as a political death sentence.

The Founding Fathers really didn't give the vice presidency much thought.

All I have I would have given gladly not to be standing here today.

Mortality is a major factor here for presidents.

You want to be sure that there's no gap in term of where the executive power is.

And it's sort of shockin that we don't pay more attention to the seriousness of the office.

The vice president has two roles Be there in case something happens to the president and cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate.

But there was no provision in the Constitution for dealing with a situatio where the president is disabled.

I expect to be back at my accustomed duties, although they say I must ease my way into them.

This became sort of a cloud that hung over the country, whenever there was a presidential inability.

Today in this crisis ridden era, there is no possible justification for ever permitting a vacuum in our national leadership.

To not have a provision to replace the vice president creates a significant break in the line of succession.

In the age of nuclear weapons You just can't live in a worl with ambiguity around succession Today, we can announce a solution to a constitutional gap which has existed fo the best part of two centuries.

It really reflected a new vision of the vice presidency, so that a transfer of power would go smoothly.

Our Constitution works.

Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men.

To take an office that for most of our history has been lampooned, and to turn it into a consequential position is really one of the great modern successes of our system of government.