From an article at Salon — Who will Obama choose as veep? Nope, you’re wrong:
Almost half the time over the last 40 years, in fact, the vice president has been a national embarrassment — or worse. For the last seven and a half years, we have had a power-hungry megalomaniac, radiating visible contempt for democratic norms, as our vice president. Throw in Mr. Potato Head (Quayle) and Spiro Our Hero and you end up with quite a rogues’ gallery. The losers take some explaining as well, from Tom Eagleton (who was driven from the 1972 Democratic ticket when it was discovered that he had received electroshock treatments as a mental patient) to Geraldine Ferraro (who embarrassed Walter Mondale by not revealing her husband’s shady real-estate dealings before she was named as his 1984 V.P. choice). And with each passing day, Joe Lieberman seems to have been an increasingly incongruous running mate for Al Gore in 2000.
For myself, I selected Lieberman. A better choice might have gotten Gore a few more votes and made it harder for Bush and the Supreme Court to steal the election. Given what has happened to this country since 2000, a Gore victory would have been significant.
Mondale couldn’t have won in any case. Agnew was a crook, but not historically important; he had no lasting impact.
Andrew Johnson was a pretty bad choice by Lincoln. Too bad the VP wasn’t part of the cabinet then, as Lincoln might have brought in someone stronger if he actually thought the position meaningful. Lincoln was just 55 and expected to live a lot longer.
Jefferson didn’t really pick Burr. The VP then was the person with the second most electoral votes for president.