A stock line of Sen. John McCain’s over the years has been that the vice president of the United States really only has two duties. He hasn’t always named the same two duties, but none would require of Gov. Sarah Palin anything as difficult as debating Sen. Joe Biden or even being interviewed by Katie Couric.

In 2000, McCain told the late Tim Russert on “Meet the Press”:

“The vice president has two duties. One is to inquire daily as to the health of the president, and the other is to attend the funerals of Third World dictators. And neither of those do I find an enjoyable exercise.”

[McCain/TP what-might-have-been video below the jump.]

McCain gave his more standard version of the job description in 2006 while in Minnesota to raise money for Gov. Tim Pawlenty:

“The vice president of the United States really only has two duties. One is to break a tie vote in the Senate, in case it’s a 50-50 vote, and the other is to inquire daily as to the health of the president. So I’m not sure that Gov. Pawlenty with the heavy responsibilities he has here would be interested in that.”

In video from TPT, starting at about the six-minute mark, McCain’s remark is followed by Pawlenty’s own standard line in which he swears his lack of interest in the job of vice president (whatever the duties). But seeing the two men together, batting around the vice presidential question early on, offers a glimpse of what might have been, had T-Paw been McCain’s pick — not the stuff of must-see TV, admittedly, but also not the cringefest that a dumbfounded nation awaits today.