Are You Smarter Than a 3rd Grader?

If you're the Republican candidate for Vice President of the United States the answer is apparently "no." On Monday, while fielding questions asked by Denver-area third graders on NBC affiliate WUSA, Sarah Palin suggested that the Vice President is "in charge of the Senate." Not exactly.

Palin was likely referring to the Vice President's Constitutionally-mandated role as "President of the Senate," which allows the VP to preside over the Senate and to cast a deciding vote in the case of a tie. While early VP's did, in fact, perform this duty on a regular basis, modern Vice Presidents rarely preside over the Senate except on special occasions.

Whatever level of nuance you care to attribute to her answer, the fact that Palin couldn't provide a more accurate description of the job she is so vigorously campaigning for is disheartening, to say the least. Even more mind boggling, though, is the fact that in the month and a half that she has been on the ticket, the McCain campaign hasn't bothered to prep their VP nominee on such a basic question. I guess they must have figured it was a no-brainer, sort of like the commonly accepted spelling of potato(e) was in 1992 1988 ...



Sources:
Me Fail Civics? That's unpossible! [Daily Kos]
Vice President of the United States (President of the Senate) [United States Senate]