United States vice presidential selection, 1973 Gerald Ford of Michigan, who was popular among the members of Congress and who was good friends with Nixon. Ford won the approval of both houses by huge margins, and was sworn in as the 40th Vice President of the United States on December 6, 1973. In 1974, Ford ascended to the presidency after the Watergate scandal led to the resignation of President Nixon. United States vice presidential selection, 1973 In 1973, Republican Vice President Spiro Agnew was forced to resign following a controversy over his personal taxes. Under the terms of the 25th Amendment, a vice presidential vacancy is
Vice President of the United States in the office of the vice president. Vice President Cheney held a tremendous amount of power and frequently made policy decisions on his own, without the knowledge of the President. During the 2008 presidential campaign, both vice presidential candidates, Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, stated the office had expanded too much under Cheney's tenure and both claimed they would reduce the role to simply being an adviser to the president. This rapid growth has led to calls for abolition of the vice presidency from various constitutional scholars and political commentators such as: Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Matthew Yglesias, and Bruce