Bush Senior did enough as a VP that he was elected to follow Reagan. Bush Sr. chose Quayle as his VP, but that guy was such a lightweight that he became a laughingstock and nobody really cared what he did. Clinton and Gore really did seem like a partnership. Gore was doing some pretty visible things as VP and Clinton didn’t mind sharing the spotlight. Cheney was pretty infamous as a VP.
It’s more the last 2 VPs that were relatively low profile. With Biden that wasn’t much of a surprise, he was an older dude chosen for his connections serving under a very charismatic guy who was a great orator. With Pence… well I don’t think it’s any surprise that the spotlight was on Trump, and that Trump didn’t want to actually give Pence anything to do.
Bush Senior did enough as a VP that he was elected to follow Reagan. Bush Sr. chose Quayle as his VP, but that guy was such a lightweight that he became a laughingstock and nobody really cared what he did. Clinton and Gore really did seem like a partnership. Gore was doing some pretty visible things as VP and Clinton didn’t mind sharing the spotlight. Cheney was pretty infamous as a VP.
It’s more the last 2 VPs that were relatively low profile. With Biden that wasn’t much of a surprise, he was an older dude chosen for his connections serving under a very charismatic guy who was a great orator. With Pence… well I don’t think it’s any surprise that the spotlight was on Trump, and that Trump didn’t want to actually give Pence anything to do.