Palin Doesn't Know VP Duties

Stand-up comic Jeff Foxworthy has become famous to a new generation of youngsters for starring in the popular TV show: “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?”

The show challenges adults with questions they should have learned in fifth grade, often with hilarious results.

This week, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is showing she wouldn’t pass muster on the show, even the third-grade version. On Monday, the Republican vice-presidential candidate said the vice president is “in charge of” the U.S. Senate and “can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes.”

This is the second time she has flunked the question, claiming a broader role for the vice president than the U.S. Constitution provides.

Palin taped an interview Monday with Denver NBC affiliate, KUSA. At the end of the interview, she was asked to participate in the station’s “Questions from the Third Grade” series, in which candidates answers questions from elementary school students.

“Brandon Garcia wants to know, ‘What does the vice president do?’” Palin was asked.

“That’s something that Piper would ask me, as a second-grader, also,” Palin responded, mentioning her 7-year-old daughter.

But sadly, Palin flunked.

“A vice president has a really great job because not only are they there to support the president’s agenda, they’re there like the team member, the teammate to the president,” Palin said. “But also, they’re in charge of the United States Senate, so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom. And it’s a great job and I look forward to having that job.”

The vice president serves as president of the Senate, according to the U.S. Constitution, but the vice president’s role is limited to casting tie-breaking votes.

Article I of the Constitution states that “The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.”

In nearly eight years, Vice President Dick Cheney has cast just eight tie-breaking votes.

The vice president can preside over floor debate in the Senate, but that role is usually filled by the Senate president pro tempore, and more often filled by first-term senators.

Palin also was asked the role of the vice president in her debate with Sen. Joe Biden. Then, she again (wrongly) cited the vice president’s role presiding over the Senate as a way to “exert a bit more authority” to work with the Senate on the president’s agenda.

“I’m thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president’s policies and making sure, too, that our president understands what our strengths are,” Palin said in the debate.

The day after the debate, when asked to explain her remarks in an interview with Fox News, Plain reiterated her view that overseeing the Senate would give her “a tremendous amount of flexibility and authority” to work with the Senate.

Sorry, Sarah. Wrong answer.

Voters are left wondering if she would try to exert more influence than the Constitution allows a vice president. She did tell Fox News that she and McCain “won’t be bleeding our authority over to the legislative or judicial branch to do our job in the executive branch as administers.”

Still, her failure to correctly answer the question fuels her perception of being an ill-informed lightweight.

And her insistence at repeatedly giving an incorrect answer that would increase vice presidential powers is troubling.

Biden also has said he would use his role as vice president to work actively with the Senate, where he has served since 1972. Citizens would expect a vice president to work closely with the Senate.

They should not expect a Constitution change allowing the vice president latitude to preside over the Senate.

If Palin can bone up on world leaders, foreign policy and McCain’s legislative history, she can learn what a vice president does and answer the question correctly.

We expect a vice presidential candidate to be smarter than a third-grader.