For Gore, Getting to the White House Is No Sure Thing

Al Gore’s formal announcement that he is running for president surprised no one; it’s been a national political assumption for seven years. The real news here is that we currently take it for granted that a vice president has the inside track for his party’s nomination and a reasonable chance of gaining the highest office. But it wasn’t always that way.

In the 19th century, after Martin Van Buren gained the White House in 1836, the vice presidency was considered a political burial ground. Even the vice presidents who gained the presidency through the death of a president--John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson and Chester Arthur--found no groundswell of support for a presidential bid at the end of their unelected White House terms.

The accepted wisdom was that vice presidents were neither to be seen nor heard. John Adams, the first vice president, called the job “the most insignificant office the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” Martin J. Dooley, Finley Peter Dunne’s cartoon character, captured the traditional view of things when he said that the vice presidency was “not a crime exactly. You can’t be sent to jail for it, but it’s kind of a disgrace.”

Even Theodore Roosevelt, who made a highly successful transition from vice president to president after William McKinley’s assassination, did not convince Americans that vice presidents should be considered seriously for the Oval Office.

Thomas Marshall, Woodrow Wilson’s vice president, liked to tell the story about the two brothers: One went to sea, the other became vice president; nothing was heard of either again. Wilson himself declared that after you’ve acknowledged how little there is to be said about the office, there’s nothing more to say.

In the 1932 hit musical, “Of Thee I Sing,” Vice President Alexander Throttlebottom received the nomination when straws were drawn and he lost. He was afraid to mention his new job lest his mother learn about it. John Nance Garner, FDR’s first vice president, famously described the office as not “worth a pitcher of warm piss.”

But all this has changed since 1945. Five vice presidents have become president--Truman, Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Bush. Three others made unsuccessful bids for the highest office--Henry Wallace, Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale. And two others--Alben Barkley and Nelson Rockefeller--tried and fell short of presidential nominations.

Why the change? The greater visibility of the vice presidency through television and other national media as well as its enlarged role in an America beset by overseas’ dangers goes far to explain the shift. The presidential successes of Truman, LBJ, Nixon and Bush have also played a part in convincing Americans that the second-highest office is a good training ground for the larger responsibilities of the presidency.

Are there any lessons here for Gore? Several. Running for the presidency as a sitting vice president guarantees nothing, as Nixon learned in 1960 and Humphrey in 1968. Each had personal political baggage that undermined his appeal. Their many years on the national scene made it impossible for them to shed images that did not sit well with voters. Specifically, distrust of “Tricky Dick” and Humphrey’s identification with liberalism at a time of resurgent conservatism made it more difficult to sell themselves to voters in 1960 and 1968, respectively.

As Gore is learning on almost a daily basis, his eight-year tenure as vice president has its downsides. Impressions of him as a wooden personality or as lacking in charisma, especially alongside Bill Clinton’s feel-your-pain persona, are not easy to change.

In 1960, Nixon was never able to trump the warmth and affection people felt for the avuncular Ike. Nor could Humphrey alter the belief that he was a weak character who had been pushed around by LBJ and might not have the strength of personality to stand up to the communists or other foreign and domestic adversaries.

Gore, like Nixon and Humphrey, will also have to struggle against some of his president’s legacy. It is current wisdom that Clinton has worn out his welcome. For all the good economic news, polls consistently show public eagerness for a fresh start under a new administration. That could of course be a Gore presidency. But unless he finds the means to separate himself from the “bad” Clinton and keep his identification with the “good” one, he will be in for a rough campaign. It’s a high-wire, high-risk balancing act that also will test his skill to be an effective president.