Wait for It . . . Wait for It . . .
Sep 4th, 2008 by Micah Tillman | 5 Comments |
My weekly article is up at The Free Liberal.
This week I’m wondering whether the VP has a job, besides the whole waiting for the President to die gig.
5 Responses to “Wait for It . . . Wait for It . . .”
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“Obiden and McPalin”
lol!
That’s all I’ve got for today. :)
One of our news channels is covering the election this way:
“Presidential Election 2008: Race against Time”
The more I think about it, the funnier it gets.
I’m glad you liked the nicknames, Amanda. I don’t know where I saw “Obiden” first (I think some people spell it “O’Biden”).
And no doubt other people have come up with “McPalin” too, but I came up with it all on my own anyway. (*sings*: “I’m proud of me! I’m proud of me! I hope that you’re as proud as I am!”)
It’s like we’re having a presidential race in Celtic Land. (You know. Where the Celts live). :-)
Christine: That’s hilarious!
And the longer I think about it, the funnier it’s getting too. :-D
Micah, it’s actually the case that the Vice-President’s primary job is to wait for the President to die. The office of Vice-President was established principally to provide a successor in case the President should die, become disabled, or resign. (Originally, the person who came in second in the Electoral College became Vice-President, so Thomas Jefferson was John Adams’s VP even though they opposed each other in the race for President. This was changed by the Twelfth Amendment.)
During the Constitutional Convention, Roger Sherman of Connecticut said, “if the vice-President were not to be President of the Senate, he would be without employment, and some member [of the Senate, acting as presiding officer] must be deprived of his vote.” Ultimately, this won the day, but many delegates refused to vote for it since they thought it was a violation of separation of powers (giving a legislative position to the executive branch). In the early days, Vice-Presidents really did preside over the Senate, but that hasn’t been true at all in the 20th century when Vice-Presidents simply break ties or preside during ceremonial occasions. Now, the VP’s position is primarily an executive position, the office being defined by each individual President.
Interesting.