Matt Frei in America

The BBC’s Washington correspondent has, he says, just returned from his extended summer break. Coincidentally I have just finished reading his book Only in America. In his online diary he turns his attention to the importance of that A level American Politics staple, the vice presidency. This post considers Frei’s book and highlights his take on the veep’s office

As far as matt Frei’s book is concerned, its major weakness is that it tries to ride two horses at the same time. About two thirds of the way through the book, for example, Frei delves into the world of think tank politics; the Washington of lofty ideas and intellectual theorising.

In this chapter he meets numerous people who have influenced the way that America looks at the world, but doesn’t delve deeply enough into how these people might justify their view. It strayed into areas that I wanted answers to. If they really believe that America is the best democratic framework, what do they think about criticisms of its world role? Would the world in fact be a better place if it looked like America? Overall, perhaps. But what if it looked and operated like, say, France, or Sweden? Or even dear old Blighty? Just as this chapter seems to get going it abruptly ends.

Then the next chapter examines how the American people have constructed the environment around them to make life more amenable, and Frei goes off into a world examining the weight that hangs on America – or more accurately, around its stomach and thighs – in the shape of obesity. This topic in itself is not uninteresting, but the space in the book would have been better served looking at issues pertaining more to politics and government.

In the end it was a broadly satisfying journey across the surface of America, but left me feeling that Frei probably has enough material to write two good books. Unfortunately this wasn’t one of them. It doesn’t say enough about what his experience in the USA has meant in relation to Frei personally, in a way that a book like No Place Like Home (by another British journo, Gary Younge) does. Nor does say enough about American politics that is sufficiently revelatory to merit a recommendation on that basis. Although it is a bit out of date, I think Gavin Esler (his BBC colleague) does it better in United States of Anger.

But it is worth a read on two counts. First, if you are interested in America, haven’t read that much on it and are looking for a starting off point that is relatively up to date. Alternatively, if you, like me, have found your mind wanders onto thoughts about what your time in Washington would be like if you lived the life of someone like Josh in the West Wing when watching reruns of the show, then for the snippets of insight into life in America’s capital it might prove worthwhile.

The good bits of Frei’s analysis on what it means to be VP is here:

‘John Adams lamented that “My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.”

Being vice-president is a bit like the fast-track check-in desk at airports - it is a potential short-cut to the final destination

Others have been less grandiloquent.

The most famous quote about the vice-presidency declared that the “job isn’t worth a pitcher of warm spit”. (There is a lingering discussion on the Internet as to whether the bodily fluid in the original quote was in fact piss.)

The most interesting thing about the quote is that it is far more well-known than the vice-president who made it - John Nance Garner, one of FDR’s three vice-presidents said it to Lyndon Johnson just before he was picked by JFK as his running mate.

LBJ is one of the few vice-presidents who demonstrated the merits of the job.

First, as a veteran Texan senator, his nomination may have helped to deliver the Lone Star State and thus the White House for JFK.

To my mind, there are no other clear-cut examples of a geographical balancing of the ticket working in a candidate’s favour.

Secondly, LBJ did exactly what vice-presidents are supposed to do: he resolutely failed to overshadow his boss while he was alive, but slipped seamlessly into his shoes once he had been slain.

Thirdly, he used the incumbency of the office foisted on him by tragedy to run successfully for re-election in 1964.

In US history, nine former vice-presidents have gone on to be elected to the top job in their own right.

It worked for George HW Bush in 1988.

It did not work for Al Gore in 2000.

But the statistical chances of getting into the Oval Office are much greater if you are a Veep than if you are a senator or a governor.

That makes it a bit like the fast-track check-in desk at airports - it is a potential short-cut to the final destination.

The trickiest question is about the job itself.

Other than waiting in the wings of destiny or adorning a candidate’s ticket what do vice-presidents actually DO?

And how much power are they supposed to wield?

Nancy Reagan and Hillary Clinton were more influential than their husbands’ vice-presidents.

Dick Cheney did not fall into that category.

Arguably the most powerful “Vice” in history he has been widely mistrusted as an eminence grise, pulling the strings from the undisclosed location of unaccountable executive power.

The vice-president has an unenviable balancing act.

He needs to be plausible enough to inherit the throne when it is empty without ever overshadowing it while it is still occupied.’