What would a vice president under Kerry actually do?

Once upon a time, a vice president was given an office and told to stay out of the way unless there was a funeral that required his presence.

There is a famous quote by a vice president that the job isn't even worth a warm bucket of piss.

Now, things have changed somewhat with Gore taking a more active role as VP, but nothing like Cheney with Bush.

Cheney for all intents and purposes is the president and pulls Bush's strings like a puppet.

What would a VP under Kerry be?

To our estranged allies and friends around the world. Someone is going to have to spend a lot of time undoing the damage that Cheney has done.

The Constitution gives the VP little authority, but that doesn't mean the VP has to do nothing. It's really up to whoever is POTUS.

piss, a warm bucket of spit! But, actually, our current VP is worth far less than that bucket of piss, so there you go!

they will help get out the message or agenda of the presidential candidate and they will be the one to carry out most of the partisan attacks. after that it's up to the president to decide what else, especially what specific things they want the vp to do.

and do everything himself or would he delegate to the VP?

he is the type that would listen to others, but as president make the final decision based on what he heard, read, etc. he isn't the type to ignore others thinking he knows it all or refuses to hear other sides. also it depends on who the vp is. if kerry picks clark then i'm sure kerry has enough trust in his knowledge and experience to allow him to take a bigger role in things concerning foreign policy and helping negotiate with other foreign officials although kerry will be the one to make final decision on whether to agree to the terms of those negotiations.

The Vice Presidential role was initially intended as a check against the President's power, with the VP being the "runner-up" candidate for the Presidency. Therefore, both the majority and minority opinions would have representation in the Executive Branch. The 12th Amendment dropped this in favor of the current President/Vice President same party ticket, but in doing so, essentially reduced the VP to little more than a "back-up" for the President, beyond the occasional tie-breaker for split Senate votes.

In many ways, the US has 50 additional Vice Presidents -- The 50 State Governors.

In the 1796 election, Adams and Jefferson, both from differant parties (Federalist, Democratic-Republic respectively) wound up on the same ticket, the second place finisher winds up VP. The two had many disagreements during Adams' administration, and in 1800, they ran again, with Jefferson getting a plurality of the EC delegates. The election was thrown into the House, and could have gone to Aaron Burr someone who was quite unstable, had someone in the House not switched their vote to Jefferson, , because of this. That's why we have the 12th Amendment.

U.S. Constitution:

Art. I, Sec. 3, Clause 4: The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

Art. II, Sec. 1, Clause 6: In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the VicePresident, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

http://www.house.gov/Constitution/Constitution.html

Beyond that, it depends on who the President and Vice-president are.

Just look at the differences between what Quayle did and what Cheney has done.

Nothing too intense, just goodwill efforts and such.

Unless the Veep has pet projects that he/she could focus on, like AIDS in Africa or something.

Without the powers of the Presidency, of course.

How high-key or low-key a role (s)he plays, I think will mainly be up to him/her.

Oh and they hang around the Senate sometimes and I think they go downstairs to pay for the pizza and chinese food

Bobby was to Jack as Attorney General. Not brothers, of course, but fiercely loyal and ferocious. Clark would be Kerry's pit bull because his main motivation seems to be a "call to duty" as opposed to standard issue personal ambition.

In some ways a very dangerous individual.

The VP nominee's Number One Job is to put a state or state into our column. That's it. Otherwise, he/she needs to spend time campaigning in a critical group of states.

the white house is fine to hold, but the power it offers has to be transmuted into public policy and laws. that means congressional suuccesses.