Saying “I can see Russia from my house” as evidence of her foreign policy experience is Sarah Palin’s most talked-about blooper to date. She topped it yesterday with a television interview in Colorado, when, in response to a third-grader’s question about what the Vice President job entitles, she said, “[T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.”

Problem is, the VP is most definitely not in charge of the Senate. The VP is president of the Senate, but this is largely a ceremonial role, as the VP only gets to vote in case of a tie. Otherwise, no vote, no power. (More details from Thinkprogress below the video)

Jim Manley, spokesman to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), explained it this way to Thinkprogress.org:

This comment is all the more puzzling because this is at least the 2nd time she has said this. Gov Palin needs to re-read or perhaps read for the first time the Constitution. While the Vice President presides over the Senate, he or she is not in charge of it. Article 1 says The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. The Senate is part of a co-equal branch of the federal government.

ThinkProgress quotes the U.S. Senate website: the VP presides over the Senate “only on ceremonial occasions.” Now, this woman is running for VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! If I were applying for a job as, I dunno, Vice President of Denny’s, I’d probably check out the job description before I went to the interview. Once again, Palin displays an incredibly alarming lack of interest in the constitution and the way the U.S. government works. Should she really being describing others as “anti-American” when she can’t even muster the energy to look up her own job description should she be elected to office?