This is an interesting topic. I never thought about it, but no VP on that list was any good. I suppose Gerald Ford was okay as he helped heal the nation after Watergate.
Ford was a decent caretaker. But then he refused to step aside, and the nation ended up with Jimmy Carter. (We could have had Reagan four years earlier.)
As for Nixon, his later embrace of China and the EPA soured me in him.
I agree with your statement about EPA. It was a political move, yes a dumb one. Regarding China, it was a chess move that helped collapse the USSR. A brilliant move in the context of the times. However, successor administrations kept playing the same move with little regard for its consequences. Of course, they were egged on by large corporations that thought they could deeply cut labor expenses loss of IP be damned; again not thinking about the long term consequences for themselves or the nation. Next quarter bottom line was all that mattered!
I agree with your statement about EPA. It was a political move, yes a dumb one. Regarding China, it was a chess move that helped collapse the USSR. A brilliant move in the context of the times. However, successor administrations kept playing the same move with little regard for its consequences. Of course, they were egged on by large corporations that thought they could deeply cut labor expenses loss of IP be damned; again not thinking about the long term consequences for themselves or the nation. Next quarter bottom line was all that mattered!
Hey - we got John Paul Stephens out of the Ford deal...
Maybe a list of First Ladies, and opinions, would get more response. They seem more active and effective.
Nixon is a 1 and no one else on that list comes close.
Before he became VP, Nixon nailed Alger Hiss and exposed the communist rot of the State Department - as bad then as the Deep State is today.
As VP he nearly got killed in Caracas, Venezuela where he strongly debated with communists and anti-Americans. The attack on his motorcade was almost like Benghazi. Eisenhower had to send U.S. troops to rescue Nixon.
He unveiled American capitalism to Nikita Khrushchev by giving him a tour of one of our supermarkets and was known for his Kitchen Debate with Khrushchev where the Russian leader decried modern conveniences that made women’s lives easier. ( he may have had a point there - just kidding ladies )
I much preferred Nixon as VP than as President.