Auxiliary president. The vice-president is the stand in for the president for a particular purpose. It looks like between 1992 and 2000, Albert Gore was vice-president of the United States, which officially puts his duties somewhere around
thumb twiddling, but in case somebody should have
assassinated president William Clinton, Mr. Gore would have defaulted to the presidency, effectively making him the most powerful man in the world.
The vice-president is a contingency plan, but in some cases (such as 2000-2004) may not prove to be very reliable. It seems as though
Dick Cheney, who is probably the next United States vice-president, has a heart problem. If it kills him before his term is up, then that's a contingency plan that hasn't seen all possible
contingencies.
Also, SatireWire once referred to the
PresiRAT, which apparently refers to a U.S. President who is a DemocRAT. This begs the question: Is there a
vice-presiRAT for those occasions when something dreadful should happen to the current
presiRAT?