Does Gibson know the Constitution?
The ABC anchor cited a provision about how we elect the vice-president that was amended out of existence 204 years ago.
Larry Eichel reports....
Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos are taking a lot of heat today for the questions they asked in last night's Democratic presidential debate. And we understand why some people are angry at them. But we've uncovered's a factual problem with their performance.
In the first question of the night, Gibson asked Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton whether they'd agree to former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo's suggestion that the winner of the delegate fight should be the presidential nominee and the loser should be the running mate. Neither went along with that.
Alas, that part of the Constitution no longer applies. And it hasn't for more than 200 years. If it did, John Kerry would be vice president today.
It was superseded by the Twelfth Amendment, which was passed in 1804. The amendment says there will be separate elections for president and vice president. It was adopted after the mess the country went through as the result of the election of 1800, the first time we actually had two parties vying for the presidency.