Any discussion of the office of Vice President that does not include Walter Mondale (still kicking into his nineties) is an incomplete discussion. Mondale invented the modern Vice Presidency insisting on using the office for something other than seat warming and he had Carters complete confidence in this endeavor.

I think this is both good and bad. Good when responsible people (Mondale, Gore, Biden) occupy the role and bad when irresponsible people do (George H. W. Bush and the aforementioned Darth Cheney) That this falls along party lines might, itself be a clue to how dire the straits...