So in 1980 former President Gerald Ford (R) not only wanted to be on the ticket with Ronald Reagan he wanted the office of vice president to be essentially elevated to co president. Reagan obviously didnt accept and went with George HW Bush,However what if he had accepted Fords offer ? From that point forward the US had a co presidency in action if not in law.Would there have been a constitutional amendment to codify this into law ?How would it have played out ? Ford clearly thought he had the bigger chops to be president than Reagan so would it always be clear to the public who the "real" or "main " president was ? Does this change speed up the first non white or female president ?
The notion of a co-Presidency has never been brought up again since
historyofyesterday.com
Excellent post!
Reading through the article, it says that Ford wanted to deal with foreign policy, while leaving domestic policy to Reagan, which considering Reagan’s escalations with the USSR during his first term… would be a good idea. If it were just this, there wouldn’t need to be a law or anything of the sort to establish this, it would just sorta happen, with Ford being able to succeed Reagan once his two terms are up.
If this were to become a theme in American politics, I don’t think you’d see other former presidents join up on the tickets of new candidates, so I think that discussion can be put aside. If anything, the more realistic outcome is that the Presidency is then made into a domestic policy position, while the Vice Presidency is turned into a foreign policy position with the Vice President basically becoming America’s top ambassador, which would lead to 1) more attention placed on VP candidates, and 2) the selection of VP candidates with ambassadorial/foreign policy experience, so possibly we might actually get Condolezza Rice or John Huntsman as a serious contenders for the VP slot, and the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee might be seen as a pool of candidates for the VP slot as well.
There is a bit of precedent, both past, and semi-recent of the VP slowly transforming their role from one of just “President of the Senate” to the second in command, especially under Cheney, though LBJ did as well, like when he tried to transfer the authority of Senate Majority leader to himself when he became president since the position made him President of the Senate.
In more recent terms, (not to get too much into current politics) but there were reports back when Trump won the 2016 primary that he offered John Kasich the VP slot, and would allow him to handle domestic
and foreign policy (so basically be President), and that he would just give rallies for the 4 years, which of course, Kasich refused.
That wouldn’t have required a law, since technically the President can hand over as much authority to the Vice President (or the Cabinet) as they want as long as it’s their signature on the Executive Orders, and on the pieces of legislation, as well as his signing off on military orders.
