For months we have known the nominees for president from the two political parties. Now, in the last few days, we have learned their choices for vice presidential running mates. We now know “who.” That leaves us to speculate on “Why?” Why would anyone want to be vice president?

Theodore Roosevelt called the vice presidency of the United States “a stepping stone to oblivion.” The more expressive Lyndon Johnson said “It wasn’t worth a bucket of warm spit.” (This is also variously attributed to Harry Truman and Theodore Roosevelt’s vice president, John Nance Garner).

When the Constitution of the United States was written, it almost seems that the vice presidency was an afterthought inserted when someone asked the question, “What will we do if the president dies?”

It is one of only six positions described in the Constitution: president, vice president, speaker of the House, speaker pro-tem of the Senate, senator and representative). But the description gives it no executive authority or responsibility.

Early in our history, the vice presidency was ceded to the person who placed second in the balloting for the presidency. George Washington was pretty well elected to the presidency by acclimation, but John Adams received the second most electoral votes and became vice president. Eight years later, Thomas Jefferson ran against John Adams and became vice president. When the Thomas Jefferson versus Aaron Burr presidential election of 1800 ended in a bitter tie, Congress realized that the two combatants couldn’t work well together and changed the system to the one we use today.

Until the late 1800s, it was usual for the two candidates running as a team never to have met each other. When Abraham Lincoln was elected president, his vice presidential candidate was Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. After the election was over, Lincoln wrote a letter to Hamlin suggesting that, “Since we have both been successful and are going to be working together, it might be prudent if we met.”

Why would someone want that job? Is the vice presidency the best route to the presidency? History tells us that only seven candidates for president have ever been elected after serving as vice president. The political landscape is littered with the names of former vice presidents no one remembers today.

However, from time to time, someone comes through the vice presidential route and becomes a great president like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt.

Then there was the former vice president who lost the election for president and was quoted as saying, “In the United States any child can grow up to win the popular vote.”

If you missed that bit of Americana, the speaker was Al Gore.

Anderson resident Mark Hopkins is the former president of three colleges, including what was then Anderson College. He is a consultant in international higher education.