Vice Presidents are a heartbeat from the Oval Office, but matter very little.

Last night Virginia Senator Tim Kaine and Indiana Governor Mike Pence met in the only vice-presidential debate of the 2016 election. But how important are vice-presidents and vice-presidential debates? Thomas Leeper argues that neither are of much consequence during elections and as part of presidential administrations. While the position can often be a stepping stone to the presidency, he writes, it has little budget and no formal powers – an irrelevance that is baked into how the office was defined by the Constitution.