Presidential Transition1. The presidents have been re-elected have mostly either been the Founding Fathers, presidents during wartime, or presidents during especially tranquil times, but when the country was deeply divided, presidents were rarely re-elected.
2. The vice president has assumed the presidency eight times due to the death of his predecessor.
i. John Tyler was the first, and when he became prez, there were questions on whether he should be president in name only or actually lead the country and do all the real, gritty actions that a president should do; he decided to do the second choice, and ever since, all VP’s who’ve assumed the presidency after a president’s midterm death have done the same.
ii. However, very few VP’s have been elected to presidency (some who assumed the presidency after their predecessors died were elected to another term, though).
iii. The vice president position is rather empty job that really doesn’t lead anywhere politically, but many people still have struggled for the nomination.
iv. The VP’s only official task is to preside over the Senate and vote if there’s a tie, and even that job is rather boring, since ties rarely occur, so the VP is rarely there either!
3. There are two problems that deal with the VP as well: what if the president doesn’t die but becomes too ill or handicapped to act as president, and if a VP becomes a president, who’s the new VP?
i. Solutions were proposed before that ranked certain Congressional members in line for succession, but the 25th Amendment most solved the dilemma by allowing the vice president to serve as “acting president” whenever the president or a majority of the cabinet members declares that the prez is unable to perform his duties to his fullest capacity and by letting a VP who becomes prez to nominate a new VP who must be approved by Congress.
a. 2/3 of Congress must approve if the president disagrees w/ the VP and his cabinet over whether or not is can assume his duties or if he’s too ill.
ii. The VP nomination thing has occurred twice—and in the same term—in history: when Nixon’s VP Spiro Agnew resigned amid criminal charges, Nixon chose Gerald Ford to be the new VP, and Ford rose to the presidency when Nixon resigned due to Watergate, so Ford then chose Nelson Rockefeller to be his VP; amazingly, there was little public outcry.
4. All “civil officers of the United States” can be removed through impeachment (trying a president or official) AND conviction (deciding he’s actually guilty).
i. Impeachment doesn’t mean automatic removal from office; it’s simply the voting of charges by the house and the trial in the Senate, but the Senate must have 2/3 majority to convict.
ii. Andrew Johnson was impeached and acquitted by only one vote; Richard Nixon probably would have been impeached had he not resigned, and Bill Clinton was impeached but also acquitted.
a. Johnson’s impeachment was partisan in nature, done by people who simply didn’t like him, not because he committed any real crime.
5. Critics of the Constitution feared that presidential transition would be violent or controversial, and while their fears may have been understandable, they were proven wrong.
