Making Headlines

He's been called "the nation's No. 1 expert on the No. 2 job," and he gets hounded by reporters hot on the campaign trail every four years. This quadrennial media authority is none other than Saint Louis University School of Law's very own Joel K. Goldstein, the Vincent C. Immel Professor of Law and internationally renowned expert on the vice presidency.

During the lengthy presidential election season, Goldstein is up at 6 a.m. and on his computer searching everything vice presidential. Not content with mere food, he consumes The New York Times, The Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly, National Journal, Politico.com and TheHill.com for breakfast. A daily diet rich in punditry, political gossip and solid campaign trail reporting is essential for Professor Goldstein, who fields calls from many of those same media outlets before lunchtime.

More than 100 reporters from around the world have interviewed Professor Goldstein since the first day of classes in August. In the weeks leading up to the election, he often responded to dozens of media requests weekly from reporters at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, NPR, The Associated Press and USA Today. Goldstein was even quoted twice by The New York Times and The Washington Post in one weekend.

"I enjoy the entire interviewing process," Goldstein says. "I also really find it to be a two-way street: Hopefully, I have something interesting to say that is useful to the media, but I also learn from their questions. Talking with reporters really makes me think about the issues. It's a treat to find that others want to talk about a subject of such interest to me."

When he's not being interviewed, Goldstein is conducting his own interviews for a new book that will focus on how former Vice President Walter Mondale transformed the once ridiculed office into one of the most substantial positions in U.S. government.

Goldstein's first book, The Modern American Vice Presidency: The Transformation of a Political Institution, helped establish Goldstein as the world's foremost authority on the vice president — and it's still considered the consummate book on the American vice presidency.

Goldstein's new book will trace the development of the vice presidency from Mondale's term onward, looking at the selection process, election and duties of vice presidents. It will feature extensive interviews with Mondale, whom Goldstein considers the "model modern vice president."

"I have spent a lot of time with Mondale and with many people who worked on his and former President Carter's staff," he says. "It is fascinating to learn about how they approached American politics. I am trying to capture some of those lessons and discuss what those developments can teach us about American government in general."

Goldstein explains that he views Mondale's vice presidency as a major turning point in the history of the office and the two terms of Vice President Dick Cheney as the most influential. He also predicts that Vice President Joe Biden will play a role parallel to Mondale's by serving as a senior advisor and troubleshooter across the board. He also adds it's unlikely that vice presidential power will ever expand to the level it did under Cheney.

"Cheney used his knowledge of government to stretch the power of the office to new dimensions," Goldstein explains. "I would be shocked if that ever happens again because I can't imagine a president delegating that much power to a vice president."

Analyzing the roles of American vice presidents is fertile historical ground for this former Rhodes Scholar whose "veep" passion began as a subject for an undergraduate research paper at Princeton University. Spiro Agnew's resignation sparked Goldstein's interest in presidential succession more than three decades ago.

With President Nixon's resignation, the issue of succession was national news; voters and the media began to realize what Joel Goldstein already knew: The vice president was worth watching.

"The vice presidency is now worth far more than a warm bucket of spit," Goldstein told Congressional Quarterly. Franklin Roosevelt's first vice president, John Nance Garner, famously compared his office to that derogatory bucket, but times have changed as Goldstein explained to the publication:

"Here's an office in which there's just a long list of disparaging comments from John Adams on … and yet I think that it has become an office in which the ongoing responsibility has really become significant. The office has gone from being something of a nothing office to one that is sometimes described as imperial."

Reporters repeatedly ask Goldstein: What makes a good vice president? They've got to be presidential is Goldstein's short answer.

"There are so many incoming missiles that the president is really going to need help no matter how he structures his presidency," he explained more extensively to The New York Times. "We need to know whether the vice president is ready to occupy the highest office, can handle a crisis and be trusted with the nuclear codes. But, equally important, do they have something to offer that will be meaningful in helping the next administration succeed?"

Improved stature and heightened visibility of the "No. 2 job in the land" has led to increased scrutiny when it comes to choosing vice presidential candidates. In his new book, Goldstein plans to devote an entire chapter to the selection process of choosing running mates.

Sen. John McCain's unconventional choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate, backed by Cheney's unprecedented expansion of the office, set the stage for the 2008 debate at Washington University in October to be the most highly anticipated vice presidential debate in U.S. history. Media outlets around the world flocked to St. Louis to cover the landmark debate.

As the debate drew closer, Goldstein was fielding numerous media queries daily, but he still found time to hold several lectures and discussions on the vice presidency at Saint Louis University and Washington University to better prepare audiences for the upcoming VP debate.

Media interest in the vice presidential candidates further intensified after both Sarah Palin and Joe Biden misstated the role of the vice president in the Senate at the St. Louis debate.

Those comments, fueled by Cheney's ongoing argument that the vice president is not an entity within the executive branch because of his role in the Senate, soon stirred heated national debate about the constitutional power and authority afforded to the vice president.

And once again reporters around the nation looked to Goldstein's expert opinion and scholarly analysis on the role of the vice president.

"Vice presidents, particularly beginning with Walter Mondale, have made important contributions as senior advisers to and troubleshooters for their presidents," he explains in an editorial he penned for The New York Times. "It would be folly to abandon that function, which represents a positive development in our political institutions."
But neither the heightened interest in the 2008 vice presidential candidates nor the ensuing debate over the power of the office are what truly made November's landmark election monumental for Goldstein.

"The 2008 vote ranks in the top five elections, certainly," he explained to The Associated Press. "The combination of Obama being African-American, possessing unusual gifts as a speaker and leader, and enormous challenges coming from a number of different directions — the elements are all lined up for this to be one of the most significant elections we've ever had."

Achieving expert status requires judicious observation and acute analysis of the issues — skills Professor Goldstein has perfected over years of talking to the press. But all the international media attention hasn't gone to Professor Goldstein's head. He remains a curious student of the law and of politics and never strays far from his scholarly roots.

Last semester, Goldstein conducted research at the Edmund Muskie archives in Maine for a biography he is writing on the former senator, secretary of state and one-time presidential candidate. He's also working on a project about Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and will be teaching a seminar on Brandeis next spring.

Over the years, Goldstein has written books as well as numerous chapters and articles on the executive branch, constitutional law and admiralty law for prestigious legal journals.

On the first day of classes at the law school last fall, Goldstein managed to squeeze in a radio interview with CBS and interviews with the National Journal, Los Angeles Times and Gannett Newspapers before facing a live audience of third-year law students.

"There has been a lot of interest in the vice presidency this year," he explains. "It's fun to talk to the media and to students about this race. It's another way to shape the public's insights into the office. It's like teaching to a larger classroom in a way. It makes you think about things from a different angle, and explaining the issues to both students and to reporters really sharpens your thoughts."