Sarah Palin famously said,
As for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?
Well, if she could dig up a copy of the U.S. Constitution she might discover something we like to call Article 1, Section 3, Clause 4.
Vice President as President of Senate; Voting Power
The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.
Section Three provides that the Vice President is to serve as President of the Senate, although in practice, neither the Vice President nor the full-time President pro tempore of the Senate preside over the body's sessions; instead, the President pro tempore typically deputizes a junior member of the assembly to fill the role. As a non-member of the assembly, the Vice President has no vote unless the Senate is equally divided, in which case the Vice President has what is called a casting vote. This is as contrasted with the Speaker of the House, who has always been chosen from among the Members of the House of Representatives, and as a Member of the assembly can vote to both make or break a tie. This provision is typically seen as one of the "checks and balances" built into the U.S. Constitution, whereby the 3 branches of the federal government (Congress, President, and the courts) are given the ability to influence the others. In this case, the Vice President's ability to preside over the deliberations of the Senate and (more importantly) break tie votes, presumably in favor of the presidential administration's preferences, allows the Executive Branch to influence the behavior of the Senate (and, consequently, Congress).
I think we've all been missing something here.
The full extent of Sarah Palin's legislative experience is four years on Wasilla's City Council (population somewhere between 5,000 and 9,000, nobody seems to know for sure).
In contrast, Joe Biden has spent 36 years in the US Senate, and before that 2 years on the New Castle County Council (New Castle County, Delaware has a population of 500,000).
Let's look at the legislative experience of all the post-WWII Vice Presidents:
Dick Cheney (2001-2009): 10 years as US Representative including one year as House Minority Whip
Al Gore (1993-2001): 8 years as US Representative; 8 years as US Senator
Dan Quayle (1989-1993): 4 years as US Representative; 8 years as US Senator
George H.W. Bush (1981-1989): 4 years as US Representative
Walter Mondale (1977-1981): 12 years as US Senator
Nelson Rockefeller (1974-1977): none
Gerald Ford (1973-1974): 25 years as US Representative including 9 years as House Minority Leader
Spiro Agnew (1969-1973): none
Hubert Humphrey (1965-1969): 23 years as US Senator including 4 years as Senate Majority Whip
Lyndon Baines Johnson: (1961-1963): 12 years as US Reprentative; 12 years as US Senator including 2 years as Senate Majority Whip, 8 years as Senate Majority Leader and 2 years as Senate Minority Leader
Richard Nixon (1953-1961): 4 years as US Representative; 2 years as US Senator
Alben Barkley (1949-1953): 14 years as US Representative; 23 years as US Senator including 12 years as Senate Democratic Leader
Only two of the past 12 Vice Presidents have had no legislative experience. Rockefeller and Agnew.
Nelson Rockefeller was governor of New York for 15 years and ran for the Republican nomination for President in 1960, 1964 and 1968. Plus he did a whole lot of other crap I won't even get into.
Spiro Agnew was the only Vice President in US History to have resigned from office. Interestingly, Palin's experience most closely resembles Agnew's, who served two years as Governor of Maryland and four years as Baltimore County Executive.
Biden, if elected, would compare favorably with the most legislatively experienced Vice Presidents of the past 60 years -- Barkley (37 years), LBJ (24 years), Humphrey (23 years), Ford (25 years), and Gore (16 years).
Palin clearly needs to be challenged on her lack of legislative experience which would be the area immediately applicable to her position as Vice Presdient.