we were asked in humanities class why is it important to know who are the candidates for speaker of the house?

Answer 1

The Speaker of the House is important because he controls the Congress particularly in addressing the national issues properly to make good laws. Likewise, the Speaker plays a great role in government and could even be President when the President, Vice President and Senate President are all incapacitated.

Answer 2

The Speaker of the House is arguably the second most powerful person in the country. Although the Vice President would succeed the President, the daily duties of a Vice President don't come close to the type of influence wielded by the Speaker every day in setting the agenda for Congress. (There are many famous jokes about the lack of importance of the Vice President ... although Cheney has been a more active VP in the running of the White House than any VP in history.) And in the Senate, leadership is arguably split among three people, the Vice President, the President Pro Tempore (mostly a ceremonial role), and the Majority Leader.

The Speaker is basically the leader of the Legislative Branch.

I think it's great that Nancy Pelosi is about to be sworn in as the first woman Speaker of the House in history. Way cool!

P.S. FRAGINAL ... the Vice President *is* the President of the Senate (although he rarely acts in that capacity on a daily basis). The Speaker of the House outranks everybody but the Vice President in the line of succession to the Presidency.

P.P.S. OK, one joke I heard about the Vice President ... the job of the Vice President is to wake up every morning, check the newspaper to make sure the President is still alive, and then go back to bed. I'll leave it to you to Google the famous snide remark by John Nance Garner (FDR's first VP) on the useless job of being VP.

Answer 3

becouse that person is inline to be presdent of country if anything happens to the setting presdent and the vice-presdent