Confirmations of Barack Obama's Cabinet and Biden Vice President of the United States. The Obama-Biden ticket won 365 electoral college votes to McCain-Palin's 173, and had a 53–46 percent edge in the nationwide popular vote. Biden became the 47th Vice President of the United States on January 20, 2009, when he was inaugurated alongside President Barack Obama. He succeeded Dick Cheney. Biden is the first United States Vice President from Delaware and the first Roman Catholic to attain that office. Biden's oath of office was administered by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. As the presidential transition of Barack Obama began, Biden said he was
Vice President of the United States Roosevelt raised the stature of the office by renewing the practice of inviting the vice president to cabinet meetings, which every president since has maintained. Roosevelt's first vice president, John Nance Garner, broke with him over the "court-packing" issue, early in his second term, and became Roosevelt's leading critic. At the start of that term, on January 20, 1937, Garner had been the first Vice President to be sworn into office on the Capitol steps in the same ceremony with the president; a tradition that continues. Prior to that time, vice presidents were traditionally inaugurated at a separate ceremony in