Few Americans can remember past vice presidents such as Charles Curtis, Charles Dawes or Thomas Marshall. In more recent memory, almost no one can recall vice presidential nominees who lost such as William Miller, Sargent Shriver or Lloyd Bentsen. John Nance Garner served as Franklin D. Roosevelt's vice president for two terms (1933-1941), but he nonetheless described his eight years as "not worth a bucket of warm spit." Except "spit" was a euphemism used in place of Garner's profane slang for urine. Garner was edged out of the job when leftist Henry Wallace replaced him. But later, as World War...