VPOTUS could speak and debate in the Senate?

Immediate thought is that VP will be a more important position--de facto leader of the Senate (whatever the rules might say), or at least the Administration's conduit to Congress. So it will be important to have someone who will agree with the President, rather than using it purely to advantage in the campaign, and someone who can work well with the Senate. Lyndon B. Johnson would (under this system) be perfect for the JFK administration except for the little detail that he and Kennedy didn't get along at all, for example, but Sarah Palin would make no sense--she obviously would be ineffective in that role.
 
IIRC, there's nothing in the Constitution that forbids this. If the first Senate had wanted to it could have written up the rules of protocol so that he could, too much tradition to change it now.
 
Distantly related matter. There's nothing in the Constitution to require the President Pro-Tem to be a Senator, though he always has been.

Suppose the First Senate had set a precedent by inviting some "distinguished guest" like Ben Franklin to preside when John Adams was away, and this had become a common practice, esp during periods when the PPT was next in line to the White House. The Senate of 1867/68 might well have chosen General Grant, in which case Andrew Johnson would have been out on his ear - possibly impeached earlier than OTL.
 
IIRC, there's nothing in the Constitution that forbids this. If the first Senate had wanted to it could have written up the rules of protocol so that he could, too much tradition to change it now.

Yeah, I'm wondering what effects it would have if the Senate had written up the rules so that he could.
 
FDR muzzles Garner, maybe even dumps him in '36 due to his outspokenness against New Deal policies. JFK's administration actually gets its domestic program through, Nixon muzzles Agnew, Mondale has a major role, as do Bush I & Gore. Quayle is muzzled and Cheney makes the nightly news with his profanity.
 
Top