What does the VP actually DO?

**WhiskeySix** · 09-29-2008, 10:42 AM

seriously... I know they're on the hook to break ties in the senate - but that might happen once in 4 years. So, other than waiting for the President to checkout, what do they do?

Their role as backup-QB aside, how do I evaluate the job-worthiness of Biden vs. Palin? ( I'd look to our current VP for reference, but uh... Who knows what he did... I imagine Cheneytron locked away in his secret lair scheming about new sources of Energon.)

Delta*RandyShugart* · 09-29-2008, 11:46 AM

Originally Posted by WhiskeySix

seriously... I know they're on the hook to break ties in the senate - but that might happen once in 4 years. So, other than waiting for the President to checkout, what do they do?

Their role as backup-QB aside, how do I evaluate the job-worthiness of Biden vs. Palin? ( I'd look to our current VP for reference, but uh... Who knows what he did... I imagine Cheneytron locked away in his secret lair scheming about new sources of Energon.)

well they don't make movies about an an assuming hunch while in office, some wait till after they get out, so they can then say how the environment needs to change etc, because while they were in office they didn't do anything really about it.

Other than that I think the VP doesn't do much, or doesn't have an exciting sex life unless you are Tim Matheson aka Otter from Animal House who while staying sober had an affair while being the VP in the TV Show The West Wing.

**Kerostasis** · 09-29-2008, 12:11 PM

My understanding is that the VP can do anything the President can do, so long as the President doesn't object. Basically the President gets handed a large stack of responsibilities, typically too much for one man to handle, and then he breaks off a chunk of them to hand off to the VP instead. The exact selection of that chunk is up to the President, so it changes with each administration. And the size of the chunk changes too, some VPs have a lot of power and involvement while others have very little. (I hear Cheney had an above average responsibility load, but its hard to separate the facts from the rumors about Cheney controlling Bush as a puppet.)