Vice Presidential Role Quotes
References comments Bob Dole made at a campaign rally.
“he” refers to Thomas Jefferson his political enemy. This quotation illustrates two things. First that the Vice Presidency was perceived as a minor post with no power even by the generation who wrote it. Second, that many of the Founding Fathers viewed political parties—then called “factions”—as dangerous. The “Federalists” were not really an organized political party and certainly they did not think of them as such. But Jefferson thought differently and America’s first and now oldest political party was created by him and his colleagues who thought that the Federalists were not leading the country in the right direction. Note that Adams used the term “poisoned”.
The irony of this statement is that Kennedy then selected Lyndon Johnson as his running mate. Johnson, most experts agree, was able to swing Texas into the Democratic tally, and many of those same experts generally agree with Kennedy’s point but believe that his election was the only exception to the general rule in modern times.
