The Role of the VP

I think it's safe to say that we all know that the biggest perk of being the VP is that, should the President die, resign, or lose his marbles, they get to run the show (which has happened a total of 9 times). If you didn't know that until right now, then you've been living under a rock because, from what I understand, everyone is freaking out about McCain because he's kind of an old dude and everyone worries that if he dies and Palin takes over the world will explode. Or something similar to that.

But aside from that, do you know what the VP does? I don't ... really. I mean, I know that I took government last semester but that kind of stuff fades real fast when you barely learned it in the first place. So, I decided that I wanted to know just what was going on behind that fancy office door that I'm sure the VP gets as a consolation prize for not getting a neato office named after a shape, and this is what I found:

• The VP is also the president of the Senate, but they don't get to vote unless there is a tie that needs to be broken. Which means that the VP really doesn't spend a whole lot of time in the Senate. (John Adams is the current record holder with 29 total votes)
  
• The VP receives and opens the state ballots, in the presence of the House and the Senate, and get to announce the next president. (4 VP's have had the honor of announcing themselves as the new President)
• The job has evolved into more of an executive position and the VP now works much more closely to the President than in the past.
• They get to attend cabinet meetings, sessions of the National Security Council, meetings of the president’s chief advisory panel for formulating and implementing policies related to the military, foreign relations, and other national security issues.
• The VP also gets to travel on behalf of the head cheese (aka the President) to appear at international conferences, the funerals of foreign dignitaries, and other important events.
• When the head cheese is busy or out of state, the VP greets all sorts of White House guests.

Wow. I have a new found respect for the office of VP. They actually do quite a bit. I had always envisioned it in my mind as kind of a fluff job. You hang out in the Senate, you travel all over the place to represent the U.S. and wait for the Pres to kick off (but certainly not hope for it ... that's just bad manners).

So there you go. That is the job description of VP, the one that will be filled with Palin or Biden ... whoever is attached to the winning candidate. May the best *person* win.

In case you were interested in reading up on this yourself, I got my information from the U.S. Senate Art and History page and the MSN version of Encarta.

Ok Fine.

I was trying my hardest to just keep out of the election this year but it looks like I'm just going to get dragged into it anyway. Thank you Toady and Max for not being able to just leave well enough alone and let me keep my head in the sand where it was good and comfortable. I suppose that's the price you pay for having friends who think independently as a hobby. Stupid boys, why don't you do something other than read the news on the internet. You know like ... chasing girls or something that normal boys do.

What do normal boys do? Play basketball or something? Man ... how sad is it that I don't know what normal boys do in their spare time? I guess that tells you a lot about the kind of people I spend my time with. I like it. Thinking is fun!

But thinking is not fun when all people want to talk about is how Obama is not qualified to be president or about how Palin is the polar opposite to what every woman in America should stand for or about how McCain is going to see to it that we never leave Iraq. Then thinking makes you want to run into a closet and just lock yourself away until after November when people go back to have normal discussions that don't end in yelling matches about the left or the right.

So I decided that I am going to work out who I am going to vote for on this blog. Honest to God. I am going to do a lot of research, from both liberal and not so liberal sources. I will get the skinny on what the candidate's platforms are from their websites and other sources. I will look at what Google has to say about them when I type in their names. Then I will post links to the articles I read, maybe even quote a few of them, and let you know what I think about this whole mess that is the race for the presidency. Whose knows, I might actually enjoy doing all this extra work on top of my trig homework (math rocks! ... right).

Well, here I go. Pulling my head out of the sand and jumping head first into the turbulent political waters. Wish me luck.

XOXOXOX -

P.S. Thanks for the idea to really jump start this blog Mo - it's only been sitting here with nothing on it for a few months now, right?