Walter Mondale, former Vice President to ex-President Jimmy Carter, has a must-read editorial in today’s Washington Post. Mondale details how he partnered with then President Carter to re-define the role of the Vice-Presidency, from backwater political office to the President’s closest and most trusted advisor.
Carter & Mondale’s re-definition continued through both Republican and Democratic Presidencies. Mondale argues that Dick Cheney has re-defined the office yet again. According to Mondale (& I heartily agree), Cheney’s re-definition has taken the VP office in a disturbing direction, from trusted advisor to a powerful political office that attempts to actually limit the policy options presented to the President.
Yet another scathing examination of a Presidency in tatters. What will be the future ramifications of Cheney’s Vice Presidency? Who knows? The best possible outcome is that it is forgotten, a grimmer possibility is a permanent politicization of the office and for future Presidents the loss of another trusted objective voice.
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