Is anybody even just a little bit worried about this take on the role of a VP?
OK, wikipedia is always suspect, but here’s their version of the duties of the Vice President:
The formal powers and role of the vice president are limited by the Constitution to becoming President should the President become unable to serve (e.g. due to the death, resignation, or medical impairment of the President) and acting as the presiding officer of the U.S. Senate. As President of the Senate, the Vice President has two primary duties: to cast a vote in the event of a Senate deadlock and to preside over and certify the official vote count of the U.S. Electoral College. For example, in the first half of 2001, the Senators were divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats and Dick Cheney’s tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the Senate majority. (See 107th United States Congress.)
John Tyler, the first Vice President to assume the Presidency following the death of the previous President
John Tyler, the first Vice President to assume the Presidency following the death of the previous President
The informal roles and functions of the Vice President depend on the specific relationship between the President and the Vice President, but often include drafter and spokesperson for the administration’s policy, as an adviser to the president, as Chairman of the Board of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as a Member of the board of the Smithsonian Institution, and as a symbol of American concern or support. The influence of the Vice President in this role depends almost entirely on the characteristics of the particular administration. Vice President Cheney, for instance, is widely regarded as one of President George W. Bush’s closest confidants. Al Gore was an important advisor to President Bill Clinton on matters of foreign policy and the environment. Often, Vice Presidents will take harder-line stands on issues to ensure the support of the party’s base while deflecting partisan criticism away from the President.[citation needed] Under the American system the President is both head of state and head of government, and the ceremonial duties of the former position are often delegated to the Vice President. The Vice President may meet with other heads of state or attend state funerals in other countries, at times when the administration wishes to demonstrate concern or support but cannot send the President himself. Not all Vice Presidents are happy in their jobs. John Nance Garner, who served as vice president from 1933 to 1941 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, famously remarked that the Vice Presidency wasn’t “worth a pitcher of warm piss,”[9] although reporters allegedly changed the last word to “spit” for print.
As President of the Senate (Article I, Section 3), the vice president oversees procedural matters and may cast a tie-breaking vote. There is a strong convention within the U.S. Senate that the vice president not use his or her position as President of the Senate to influence the passage of legislation or act in a partisan manner, except in the case of breaking tie votes. As President of the Senate, John Adams cast twenty-nine tie-breaking votes—a record that no successor except for John C. Calhoun ever threatened. His votes protected the president’s sole authority over the removal of appointees, influenced the location of the national capital, and prevented war with Great Britain. On at least one occasion he persuaded senators to vote against legislation that he opposed, and he frequently lectured the Senate on procedural and policy matters. Adams’ political views and his active role in the Senate made him a natural target for critics of the Washington administration. Toward the end of his first term, as a result of a threatened resolution that would have silenced him except for procedural and policy matters, he began to exercise more restraint in the hope of realizing the goal shared by many of his successors: election in his own right as president of the United States of America.
In modern times, the vice president rarely presides over day-to-day matters in the Senate; in his place, the Senate chooses a President pro tempore (or “president for a time”) to preside in the Vice President’s absence, and the Senate maintains a Duty Roster for the post, normally selecting the longest serving senator in the majority party.
When the President is impeached, the Chief Justice of the United States of America presides over the Senate during the impeachment trial. Otherwise, the Vice President, in his capacity as President of the Senate, or the President pro tempore of the Senate presides. This may include the impeachment of the Vice President, although legal theories suggest that allowing a person to be the judge in the case where he or she was the defendant wouldn’t be permitted. If the Vice President did not preside over an impeachment, the duties would fall to the President Pro Tempore.
For much of its existence, the office of Vice President was seen as little more than a minor position. John Adams, the first vice president, described it as “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” Thomas R. Marshall, the 28th Vice President, lamented: “Once there were two brothers. One ran away to sea; the other was elected vice president of the United States. And nothing was heard of either of them again.”[10] When the Whig Party was looking for a vice president on Zachary Taylor’s ticket, they approached Daniel Webster, who said of the offer “I do not intend to be buried until I am dead.” The natural stepping stone to the Presidency was long considered to be the office of Secretary of State.
Harry Truman had been Vice-President only three months when he became president; he was never informed of Franklin Roosevelt’s war and postwar policies.
Harry Truman had been Vice-President only three months when he became president; he was never informed of Franklin Roosevelt’s war and postwar policies.
For many years, the vice president was given few responsibilities. After John Adams attended a meeting of the president’s Cabinet in 1791, no Vice President did so again until Thomas Marshall stood in for President Woodrow Wilson while he traveled to Europe in 1918 and 1919.[citation needed] Marshall’s successor, Calvin Coolidge, was invited to meetings by President Warren G. Harding. The next Vice President, Charles G. Dawes, was not invited after declaring that “the precedent might prove injurious to the country.” Vice President Charles Curtis was also precluded from attending by President Herbert Hoover.
Garret Hobart, the first Vice President under William McKinley, was one of the very few vice presidents at this time who played an important role in the administration. A close confidant and adviser of the President, Hobart was called Assistant President.[11]
In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt raised the stature of the office by renewing the practice of inviting the vice president to cabinet meetings, which has been maintained by every president since. Roosevelt’s first vice president, John Nance Garner, broke with him at the start of the second term on the Court-packing issue and became Roosevelt’s leading political enemy. Garner’s successor, Henry Wallace, was given major responsibilities during the war, but he moved further to the left than the Democratic Party and the rest of the Roosevelt administration and was relieved of actual power. Roosevelt kept his last vice president, Harry Truman, uninformed on all war and postwar issues, such as the atomic bomb, leading Truman to wryly remark that the job of the vice president is to “go to weddings and funerals.” Following Roosevelt’s death and Truman’s ascension to the presidency, the need to keep vice presidents informed on national security issues became clear, and Congress made the vice president one of four statutory members of the National Security Council in 1949.
Richard Nixon reinvented the office of vice president. He had the attention of the media and the Republican party, when Dwight Eisenhower ordered him to preside at Cabinet meetings in his absence. Nixon was also the first vice president to temporarily assume control of the executive branch; he did so after Eisenhower suffered a heart attack on September 24, 1955; ileitis in June 1956; and a stroke in November 1957. President Jimmy Carter was the first president to formally give his vice president, Walter Mondale, an office in the West Wing of the White House.
Is Palin WRONG? yes, no, maybe. Tradition is NOT law. It seems to be that LEGALLY the job of VP is whatever the President wants or allows it to be.
It’s interesting to hear conservatives who constantly insist on a strict interpretation of the Constution, and attack “activist” judges," but who seem to have no problem with a Vice president interpreting the Constitution as he or she sees fit.
Shouldn’t conservatives be insisting on a strict adherence to the Consititution on this?
A VP casting a tie breaking vote is a bit different from “running” the Senate.
TonyWalsham said:Yeah, but wouldn't those "blow hards" get pissed with some ballsy gal telling them to sit down and shut up. CSpan ratings may go way up.
A VP casting a tie breaking vote is a bit different from "running" the Senate.
Yeh but no but yeh but no but!!! 
'sall right. Just another Brit in joke from “Little Britain”.
…grinning…
TonyWalsham said:Tony,
A VP casting a tie breaking vote is a bit different from "running" the Senate.
For all but the nit-pickers, that is just a marginal difference. Easily adjusted by a bit of “maverick talk”. 
At least in the theater of the absurd!