Nation: Some Day You'll Be Sitting in That Chair

The office of Vice President has often been deemed, especially by men who held it, a job fit only for a nonentity. It was called "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived" (John Adams, the first Vice President), "a fifth wheel to the coach" (Theodore Roosevelt), "as useful as a cow's fifth teat" (Harry Truman), and not worth a "pitcher of warm spit" (John Nance Garner).

But as Lyndon Johnson would readily agree, and as the U.S. may rest assured, he is far from being a nonentity. Perhaps still another Vice President best described his skills. "He is,"...