Consider some of the men who held the job and remained unelevated by either death or election: Daniel Tompkins (Monroe), Hannibal Hamlin (Lincoln's first), Garret Hobart (McKinley's first), Thomas Marshall (Wilson). Now consider how many of those you've actually heard of.

Not surprising. The Sundance Kid aside, American culture often grants meager props to the right-hand man. Playing Ed McMahon to Johnny Carson, Jimmy Olsen to Superman, Robin to Batman or, for that matter, Dan Quayle to George H.W. Bush is not always the most epic of endeavors.

Here, courtesy of Lott, are some of the ways the vice presidency has been trivialized over the years by its occupants: "a wreath layer," "a nullity," and, from the ever histrionic John Adams, "the most insignificant office ever the invention of man contrived."

The earthiest quip of all came from FDR's vice president, John Nance Garner: The second-highest office in the land, he scoffed, is "a warm bucket of spit," giving Lott his book title. Whether Garner actually said "spit" is much disputed.

The most recent of those comments was a half-century ago. In recent decades, the vice president has spoken less softly and sometimes even carried a bigger stick. The office has evolved, as has a changing perception hammered home by the realization that, over four months in 1945, Truman went from first-term v.p. to ushering in the atomic age.

More subtle evolutions followed, each based on a specific personality — from power broker Lyndon B. Johnson to cranky Spiro Agnew to the diplomatlike Walter Mondale to the low-key power of Cheney.

Today, according to political scientist Chris Dolan, it's "a significant advisory position."

"It's become almost a quasi-National Security Council, especially on foreign-policy issues," says Dolan, a scholar at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa., who studies the vice presidency.

John McCain seems to see the potential for this model. In a Republican debate late last year, he said he wasn't surprised that, in the aftermath of 9/11, a still-inexperienced Bush looked to Cheney to complete him.

"I wouldn't have to do that," McCain asserted, though he allowed that he might rely on a vice president to be his more informed partner in other issues. But, the Arizona senator concluded, "The vice president of the United States is a key and important issue." Particularly, perhaps, when the president is 72 and has been treated for cancer.

Barack Obama is optimistic about the possibilities, too. On the day he announced Biden as his running mate last month, he said, "Joe won't just make a good vice president — he will make a great one." Given history, that may be a tall order.