Dr. Patrick Cox of the University of Texas at Austin had this to say about former Vice President John Nance Garner regarding the position of Vice President. “When it comes to commentary about the office of vice president of the United States, no statement is more repeated than John Nance Garner’s observation that the office “is not worth a bucket of warm spit.” Garner served Franklin D. Roosevelt as Vice President during Roosevelt’s first two terms. Garner never became President of the United States. Only 14 Vice Presidents have become President of the United States. The last being George HW Bush, who served as Vice President under Ronald Reagan (1981-1989). Bush became President in 1989 and served until 1993. He lost to Bill Clinton for re-election in 1992. Clinton’s Vice President, Al Gore, was the last Vice President to unsuccessfully run for President. Gore lost to then-Governor George W. Bush in 2000.
Why haven’t there been more Vice Presidents who have become President?
Politics Matters 
Some people just go and run and they lose and they may lose and just settle for vice president. They may also see it as kind of a big thing most people don’t become president or Vice President. They also get a paycheck that is really nice. Plus I think they get a paycheck even after they are done with being Vice President. that sounds like. Nice job to me.
Al Gore should have been president because he won the popular vote. It is because the Electoral College ultimately chooses who does and does not become president. I hate Bush, he put us further down in the economy. I would have liked Gore to win but unfortunately people under 18 don’t have a say in the voting world.
Vice Presidents get an up-close and personal look at the Presidency without actually serving as the President. Getting to be so close to the office and seeing the stress it causes, it may kinda of turn them away from wanting the job. Being Vice President allows some input as to how the country is being run seeing as he or she is essentially the President’s “right hand man,” yet they don’t have to take nearly as much heat or deal with the immense pressure that comes along with being the president.
I think there is a few reasons why there have not been more Vice-Presidents to become Presidents. One, they may not be in the public favor being associated with a prior administration that was not successful or popular. Second, they may have had a chance to show what they are made of, but maybe didn’t reach levels of confidence within our own government in the post as VP, so President would just be out of the question. Last, the stress of the VP or his first hand observation of the stress of being the President may just turn them off completely for even wanting to run.
I honestly do not know why vice presidents have not become presidents. I would think that serving under the president would give them more knowledge on what it is like and make them seem like a better candidate to chose. I think it depends on who is running for president. Just as Heather mentioned, Al Gore would have won the election if it was not for the electoral votes. I think he would have made a better president than George Bush, but that is just my opinion.
The vice presidents may see what its like to be President,so being Vice president is probably their deciding factor. If they really want to go in for a 4 year term or not. Or maybe, if they didn’t make it to President, they may have settled for vice president.
Perhaps, Vice Presidents decide not to succeed into Presidency because of all the extra responsibility and work they would have to tack on. They have already had a heap load of things to tackle on their to-do lists as VP’s; it’s more than likely that they are intimidated by the President’s day-to-day lists and all of the inevitable miscellaneous baggage that comes with.
I think that obviously not every single vice president chooses to run for vice president. This may be because once they get up close and personal to the actual job of the president, they may not have the desire. They may realize that it is no longer a position they want to uphold or they may have never had that in their plan to begin with. #PSC110Online
I believe that there hasn’t been more Vice Presidents who go on to become President because they become fully aware of all the responsibilities that come with being the President. Presidents age dramatically after their term in office and I believe that Vice Presidents do not want to put themselves through the stress that comes with being the leader of the free world.