I would say it is safe to assume that most Americans can name our president (It’s Barack Obama). But apparently, many cannot give the name of either our vice president (Joe Biden) or the Speaker of the House of Representatives (Nancy Pelosi).

I don’t usually watch Fox News or Sean Hannity, but I flipped it on and, to my surprise, Hannity was saying something I agree with.

Hannity said he finds it despicable that so few people polled by his guest, Stephen Crowder of Pajamas TV, couldn’t name either the vice president or Speaker of the House.

Crowder was polling people on the streets of Los Angeles about their knowledge of Washington politics, namely those in charge. His interviewees blew my mind.

He asked one male who the vice president is. He answered someone who not only didn’t serve within the federal government, but someone who wasn’t even born in the United States – Arnold Schwarzenegger. That’s
right, the “Govinator.”

According to Crowder’s data, only 34 percent of the 40 or so people interviewed knew that Joe Biden is the vice president. He also said that he “interviewed 40-something people, and you could count on one hand how many people actually knew who (Pelosi) was.” That is roughly less than 12.5 percent of those polled.

Crowder also polled people on several other things, such as who Angelina Jolie’s boyfriend is or who Paris Hilton is. As one can expect, just about everyone knew that Brad Pitt is Jolie’s boyfriend, and everyone knew who Paris Hilton is.

Hannity touched on an important issue here, the fact that many people know little to nothing about American politics. Crowder said that he believes the reason people don’t know that Joe Biden is the vice president is because President Obama is trying to keep him under the radar because “he’s a liability.”

Hannity, however, saw the bigger picture, saying to Crowder: “You are missing the whole thing. It’s chilling that so many people can cancel out our well-informed votes. But they know about Brad Pitt. They know about Angelina Jolie, which is fine. These are not tough questions. Who’s the vice president? Every American needs to know that. You’ve got to know it.”

I should write Nov. 10, 2009, down, the day I actually agree with Sean Hannity on something. On every issue from abortion rights, to health care to gun control, he and I are on opposite ends of the political spectrum.

But this day, he made an important point.

Every American should have some basic knowledge of who is running the show. We should all know who the leaders in Washington are. We elected them, we pay them and it is our tax dollars they spend.

So if you aren’t up to speed on who’s who in Washington, I’d suggest looking it up. It never hurts to know a little more about the people we elected to office.

E-mail the author: Michael L. Hoffman