Ever notice that supposedly intelligent faculty members from supposedly elite schools often make some of the stupidest proposals to solve non-problems? Law professor Bruce Ackerman provides a new evidence to support this observation with his proposal to abolish the vice presidency.

For two centuries, presidential nominees have used the office to balance the ticket by naming a running mate from a different region, or one who speaks with a different ideological accent to a specific constituency. This means that a president's death generates a double shock: The nation not only mourns a fallen leader, it must deal with a replacement who may push politics in a new direction.

In making such a proposal, Ackerman makes no proposal for how to deal with the succession issue. Would the successor be the Speaker of the House? The Secretary of State? Who would be the proper successor to the dead leader? And most importantly, how would this alternate successor avoid the “shock” of changed politics and personalities? The answer to this last question is that the change of succession would not do that at all – and that the good professor is seeking to solve a problem that exists only in his mind.

Posted by: Greg at 12:59 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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