Solving the vice presidential dilemma: The elections of Martin Van Buren and George Bush

The purpose of this dissertation is to explain the elections of Martin Van Buren and George Bush to the office of President of the United States. Both shared the position of incumbent vice president seeking the presidency. Only four incumbent vice presidents have become president since 1789. The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1804, altered the method of electing the president and vice president and has resulted in only Van Buren and Bush reaching the presidency. A comparison of their careers helps explain how Van Buren and Bush solved the dilemma facing an incumbent vice president. The dilemma is how to run successfully for president while being vice president.; This study compares the lives and political careers of both men. Reaching the vice presidency and the position of heir apparent was instrumental to their ultimately becoming president. The presidents they served, Andrew Jackson and Ronald Reagan, were important to both men. The fates of Van Buren and Bush were determined by their relationships with their predecessors.; An examination of the election campaigns of Van Buren and Bush will help explain why these vice presidents achieved success at the polls, while John C. Breckinridge, Richard Nixon, and Hubert Humphrey failed. This comparison of elections must include the campaigns operated by the opposition in 1836 and 1988. Both opposition parties, Whigs and Democrats, ran poor campaigns with weak candidates to oppose Van Buren and Bush. In the end, the elections of Van Buren and Bush may have been the result of the opposition more than their efforts.; This dissertation will draw on political science models following this detailed comparison of Van Buren and Bush to explain why the voters elected them. Political scientists discuss voting behavior and presidential leadership as cycles which can be duplicated even a century and a half apart. These models offer another source in answering the question posed in this study of incumbent vice presidents.