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Most people—including, it sometimes seemed, the vice-presidential candidate himself—lost sight of Agnew's strengths during the campaign. A relatively progressive, pragmatic Governor, he has shown skill in administration and a taste for innovation. His proposal for uniform national-welfare payments certainly deserves consideration as a practical means of stopping the flow of rural poor, white as well as black, to big-city slums. While he is appallingly insensitive and callous, few can deny Agnew's personal decency and quiet sense of humor. Most independent observers agree that the New York Times made much out of little in charging that his Maryland financial dealings made him unfit for the Vice-Presidency. And despite his harsh indictments of black rioters and looters, his record on race relations has in general been sensible.
Surprise. Still, the campaign left many uneasy doubts about Agnew. Though he said before his nomination that he would delegate important domestic chores to his Vice President, Nixon is unlikely in the near future to give Agnew more than symbols of power. Nixon, suggested some of his lieutenants, had expected far better from Agnew and was surprised by his performance. Even before the votes were tabulated, Nixon staffers were speculating about the name of the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 1972.
The first Vice President, John Adams, once compared himself to "a mere Doge of Venice." Thomas Marshall, the 28th, said that "the Vice President is like a man in a cataleptic state: He cannot speak; he cannot move; he suffers no pain; and yet he is perfectly conscious of everything that is going on about him." That classic view of the office has changed drastically, partly because the chief executive's job has become so burdensome that genuine help from the Vice President might be highly useful, but more obviously, because John Kennedy's assassination has dramatized the fact that the Vice President really must be considered the President's heir. Both Agnew and Nixon now face the challenge of erasing the doubts about the 39th Vice President and preparing him for the potential role his office is designed to fill.