Time Magazine names the "Worst Vice Presidents in U.S. History."
It's explained: "As the nation waits for John McCain and Barack Obama
to announce their running mates, TIME looks back at the worst ever to
occupy the nation's second highest office."
Any such list by its very nature is nothing more than subjective
opinion. And in Time's opinion, every vice president in this century
who warrants such scorn is a Republican. Calvin Coolidge, Richard
Nixon, Spiro Agnew, Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney are on the list.
Perhaps Time overlooked one of Franklin Roosevelt's vice presidents,
Henry Wallace. Surely Time knows about Wallace; in 1965 the magazine
described him as having been in 1948 "a candidate and captive of the Communist-dominated Progressive Party."
And what of Lyndon Johnson, who mysteriously became a
multimillionaire why earning only a modest government salary? And
"won" a major election under equally mysterious circumstances. As Time itself reported, Johnson in one county received 4,622 votes. His opponent got 40.
Then there's Walter Mondale. Time disdains Dan Quayle for his
alleged stupidity, but it was Mondale who brilliantly proclaimed "that
four years of Ronald Reagan has made this world more dangerous. Four
more will take us closer to the brink." He also asserted that "Reagan
operates from fundamentally flawed premises about preventing war and
keeping peace."
Finally there's the miracle man, Al Gore. He was able to collect
huge donations from Buddhist monks and nuns who had taken vows of
poverty. Even Time reported:
Vice President Al Gore claims to have been entirely
unaware that an April luncheon he attended at a Buddhist temple in
California was an illegal fund raiser. With a face as straight as only
his can be, Gore said in a radio interview last week that he thought
the function, organized by Huang and the D.N.C., was a
"community-outreach" event. More observant guests, however, have said
it was plain to them that what was reaching out was an open palm.
Attendees included deep-pocketed members of the local Asian-American
community. The D.N.C. says it collected $140,000.
Maybe, just maybe, there could have been a Democrat who qualified
for Time's evaluation. But no. Time's list of terrible vice
presidents should be taken no more seriously than many of the other
articles it publishes.