Sarah Palin, Constitutional Scholar: New Powers for the Vice Presidency That Even Dick Cheney Doesn't Have?
I'll give a broader reaction to the Palin-Biden nothing-burger a bit later on, but the single most mystifying moment in the debate came when she seemed to out-Cheney Dick Cheney in terms of power-grabbing. Palin asserted that a vice president's job is "not only to preside over the Senate" and that "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."
Huh?
That doesn't pass the smell test in this simple way: Does anyone really think that Dick Cheney would leave any sort of authority unused? As a practical matter, go read the Constitution and see if you can find any authority beyond being "president" of the Senate, breaking ties, receiving electoral ballots, and succeeding a deceased president. Presumably she thinks that "president of the senate" has secret superpowers—which would come as news to vice presidents going back to John Adams. Who knew that Sarah Palin was a constitutional scholar?
Tags: Constitution | debates | presidential election 2008 | Vice President | Dick Cheney | Sarah Palin
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Palin
Every day Sarah Palin speaks she exposes herself to be an absolute air head nonpareil or beseeched with nescience.
As the great Roman writer Seneca the Elder said, "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."
Personality quirk/disorder
I agree with the above insights. Further, I have noticed a personality disorder that is tolerated that any man would be called on. Specifically, it is what someone called her sarcasm, and what I call passive-aggressive. In other words, she pulls punches. She makes innuendo in her speeches for laughs at the expense of her opponent, then later when asked to clarify what she meant, flatly and enthusiastically denies the meaning of the innuendo that made others laugh. Just one clear example is with Couric after she said she had heard Biden's speeches since second grade, with her big smile, milking the crowd who got the joke. She denied her malintent, then did her other skill of repeat, repeat, repeat that she meant to say how experienced he was.
Her main skills are underhanded "humorous" insults and reverting to talking points when she can't answer a question. What anyone else is expected to do in public office is to be direct. She has not been able to do this yet.
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