President in Waiting

Recently watched this documentary on dvd, and I have to say that for a production by CNN, this was very good. I did notice that they left out Donald Trump in the interviews with the presidents, and I guess I know why, but still leaves out his viewpoints. They did interview Mike Pence, and of course this was before the January 6 riots, so his viewpoints probably changed. It was interesting to see the other living presidents and vice presidents, including some footage and recordings from LBJ and Hubert Humphrey.

Its interesting how the job of the vice president has changed over time, from the founding fathers until current times. I never knew that the founding fathers didn't even want to create the post of vice president. It was a do nothing job and a post that politicians were sent to when they were seen to have too much power. Teddy Roosevelt was added to the ticket in 1900 for that reason, and as it was said, that was like playing Russian roulette. In that case, he rose to the presidency through assassination.

Between LBJ and Obama, there were drastic trust differences as well; LBJ distrusted Humphrey and apparently degraded the man, but Obama and Biden were just the opposite, like good friends. Even Carter and his vice president had great admiration for one another. Others like Cheney and Gore were great counsels to their respective presidents, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

I found this to be a terrifically interesting documentary, which is told with a significant dose of humor by all-but-one of our still living (as of December 2020) presidents and vice presidents, who best know exactly what it means and what it's like to serve our country as vice president. (Trump is the only individual within that group who is *not* included. I assume he was asked, but that he refused to participate since, quite obviously, neither Trump nor the presidency are the documentary's primary focus - and the fact that it's a CNN production would have been reason enough for Trump to refuse to be involved. Personally, I don't think his absence takes anything away from either the documentary itself, or from the audience's enjoyment of it.)

While nothing in this documentary is classified, you might feel like you're now privy to classified information simply because so little of this information has been shared before, or because what *has* been shared previously isn't easy to find or readily accessible.