[CommerceComet]

Sitting Vice Presidents traditionally do well in elections. Even Algore almost pulled it off.

I'm not sure that being VP assures much of anything. George H. W. Bush won in 1988 but Nixon lost in 1960, Humphrey in 1968, Mondale in 1984 (as former VP) and Gore in 2000. Johnson won in 1964 and Ford lost in 1976 as former VPs who were elevated to POTUS and ran as incumbents.

Being VP gives a person visibility but doesn't seem like they do any better than would be expected from strong, experienced candidates.

[Hawthorn]

>> Sitting Vice Presidents traditionally do well in elections <<

I can think of exactly two who won, Martin van Buren and George H.W. Bush. Any others?

(And don’t forget that “sitting” distinction.)

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Sitting Vice Presidents traditionally do well in elections. Even Algore almost pulled it off.

I'm not sure that being VP assures much of anything. George H. W. Bush won in 1988 but Nixon lost in 1960, Humphrey in 1968, Mondale in 1984 (as former VP) and Gore in 2000. Johnson won in 1964 and Ford lost in 1976 as former VPs who were elevated to POTUS and ran as incumbents.

IMHO we have plenty to worry about, with Obama possibly packing Ohio with refugees who vote (D). But I don’t think Obama has enoughin

I don’t consider former VP and sitting VP to be the same thing at all. The office of VP is inherently of tenuous value; the VP is the political heir of the POTUS. That is the effect of the 12th Amendment. Since then there have been several VPs who inherited on the death of the POTUS. But men who, after the 12th Amendment, got elected POTUS as sitting VP are thin on the ground. Andrew Jackson saw his sitting VP win election. And so did Ronald Reagan. I think you won’t find another.

According to

Nixon:

A Life

Nixon had five things go wrong which easily could have turned the squeaker 1960 defeat into a victory. One disappointment was that the popular President Eisenhower stayed above the fray rather than putting any of his prestige behind his VP. IMHO that would have been different if someone had told Ike that if Nixon won Ike would be the first POTUS since Andrew Jackson - whose picture is on the $20 bill - to see his sitting VP become POTUS.

I’d say, worry about ballot stuffing by immigrants in Ohio, and elsewhere, before you worry about Obama’s sitting VP having a tailwind from people wanting a third Obama term.