The last two Vice Presidents of the United States have shown how the office has grown in significance, but also it demonstrates the massive contrast between these two individuals!
Both Joe Biden and Dick Cheney are well qualified to have become President of the United States.
Both Joe Biden and Dick Cheney had experiences and stature to become Vice President, among the best in those regards of all our 47 Vice Presidents!
Once we get past those facts, there is no comparison between Joe Biden and Dick Cheney, who are diametrical opposites!
Joe Biden is warm, friendly, congenial, charming, charismatic, genuine, a great orator, relates well to ordinary people, while Dick Cheney has NONE of these assets!
Joe Biden is like a friendly neighbor who is there to help you, a person who adds positive vibes everywhere he goes. Biden can engage in such situations as to be invited to a high school prom and handle it gracefully and with class; or to do a spoof on the HBO series “VEEP”; or to swear in new Senators by charming their mothers, their wives, their children! No one is like Joe Biden in this ability to be funny, considerate, and to be someone who feels as if he is not a politician, certainly not a typical one!
Dick Cheney is totally the opposite of everything stated, in many ways a forbidding, scary man who has become fanatical, willing to support torture through water boarding and to come across as a “Darth Vader” type, and extremely dominating and bossy, to the point where even his “boss”, George W. Bush, started to separate himself from him in his second term as President.
Barack Obama has no such problem, as Joe Biden knows he is not the President, and contributes to the administration in an appropriate manner, and is well liked by everyone, even if they do not agree with him on every issue.
How could anyone NOT like Joe Biden personally, and how could anyone NOT dislike Dick Cheney personally, even if one acknowledges his experience, knowledge, expertise and ability to take over the Presidency, had that been necessary?
Thank goodness Dick Cheney never became President, but at the same time, we could do far worse than a President Joe Biden, as he would inspire many Americans, would become a very popular President, and would prove to be a Harry Truman in attacking the opposition, a “give them hell Joe”, who would speak for the interests of the vast majority of us, and add to the legacy of TR, Wilson, FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, Carter, Clinton, and Barack Obama in the White House!