Pew Survey: 41% Can't ID Biden as Vice President

With some Democrats still whining about Vice President Joe Biden’s admonition to them the other day to quit complaining about President Obama, now he’s got something to whine about, too: A stunning 41 percent of Americans surveyed couldn’t name the vice president, according to the results of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Say it ain’t so, Joe might plead.

That stat stands out among the other answers of 3,412 Americans surveyed between May 19 and June 6, especially because some of Biden’s gaffes have given him enough notoriety that he can’t be viewed as just another VP, working in storied anonymity. Indeed, his gaffes have fueled a veritable cottage industry of YouTube videos, T-shirts, and other souvenir paraphernalia memorializing some of his more outrageous comments.

Of course, Biden’s quips have their endearing side, too. As Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham told Newsweek last year: "If there were no gaffes, there'd be no Joe. He's someone you can't help but like.”

Nonetheless, the former U.S. senator from Delaware sometimes feels the need to defend himself, such as when he chimed up in the same Newsweek article: "A gaffe in Washington is someone telling the truth, and telling the truth has never hurt me."

Hope this truth doesn’t hurt too much, Joe, and, to soften the blow, remember this: The fact that 41 percent don’t know you’re VP means that 59 percent do know you. Although they probably don't know that your middle name is Robinette.