McCain misses vote on economic stimulus

AP on Yahoo ^ | 2/6/08 | Laurie Kellman - ap

[NormsRevenge]

In the early days didn’t we sometimes have a Pres and VP from different parties?

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Yes, in the very early days.

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http://www.answers.com/topic/vice-president-u-s?cat=biz-fin

U.S. Vice President
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the vice presidents of the United States started out as strong and independent national executives. The U.S. Constitution of 1787 created the office largely as a realistic backup in the very likely event of a president’s death or disability. While it was true that, apart from serving as a backup, the vice president had no other official function than to preside over the Senate and break its tie votes, he was initially elected independently—in a separate election—by the electoral college. Just how significant that could be, quickly became clear. The first two vice presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, were subsequently elected president. Each election forced a political crisis, and the Constitution had to be amended to water down the independence of the office (the Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804).

When Vice President John Adams ran to succeed George Washington as president in 1796, he won a close election in the electoral college. His running mate on the Federalist Party ticket, Thomas Pinckney, who should have become vice president based on number of popular votes he received, did not become vice president because he could not officially run as a subordinate part of that ticket. Instead, Thomas Jefferson, who received second highest number of votes, became vice president. There were thus four official candidates for president in the eyes of the Constitution, whatever the political parties and the voters thought. So in 1797, despite what the popular vote mandated, the Democratic-Republican presidential candidate, Thomas Jefferson, the political opponent of Adams, won more electoral votes than Pinckney and became vice president.

[TornadoAlley3]

and some conservatives do not want to vote for McCain because he is an ultra-liberal pretending to be a conservative.