Biden is a Key Adviser and Confidant in Obama's White House
Biden is settling into his job as second in command and is making the role his own
As vice president, he has gotten into a major dust-up with Karl Rove, the former chief political adviser to President George W. Bush. It started when Biden said that he had once scolded Bush in the Oval Office for showing poor leadership. Rove said the incident never happened and called Biden a "blowhard" and a "liar." Biden aides countered that the account was true, and the battle made headlines.
In a CNN interview on April 14, Biden shot back at Cheney's contention that America is less safe because of Obama's national security policies. Biden called Cheney "dead wrong" and said the Bush administration left the country in a "weaker posture than we've been any time since World War II: less regarded in the world, stretched more thinly than we ever have been in the past, two wars underway, virtually no respect in certain parts of the world." Under Obama, Biden insisted, "we are more safe. We are more secure."
A senior administration official says Biden realizes he needs to be more careful about public statements. On the other hand, many who have worked with him prize his outspoken nature. Some Democrats particularly welcomed his defense against Cheney's attacks.
Internally, he appears to be a forceful advocate, which Obama welcomes. Not that Biden wins every argument. Some administration sources say he expressed doubt about whether the government had the resources to push for a massive healthcare overhaul this year, but Obama disagreed. Yet there is evidence that Biden helped persuade Obama to set a clear, limited goal in Afghanistan of fighting terrorism and to limit the increase of military assistance there.
A strong influence. Behind the scenes, Biden is an aggressive and highly valued lobbyist on Capitol Hill. Last December, Biden was very active in courting senators to support Obama's economic stimulus plan. At one point, he phoned Republican Sen. Susan Collins while she was driving to a family event in Caribou, Maine, just before Christmas. She ended up voting for the legislation, one of only three GOP senators to do so.
Obama has made Biden the head of the White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families, charged with promoting Middle America in government policy, and Biden has used this perch to hold a series of forums around the country. He doesn't make much national news but generates considerable positive local publicity, and his aides say he enjoys the contact with everyday people. He continues to return home to Delaware most weekends by train. During the two-hour ride, he sometimes chats with other passengers and the Amtrak conductors, just as he has done for three decades. When he gets home, he still shops occasionally at the grocery store and the hardware store. All this reflects another objective he has as vice president: to stay as connected to everyday life as he can. He acknowledges that this is tougher than he expected, given his heavy schedule and the security bubble that surrounds him, but Joe Biden promises to keep trying.
- Read Obama is Blazing a New Trail
- Read Obama's 12 Most Important Decisions.
- See photos of Obama abroad.
- See photos of the Obamas behind the scenes.
Reader Comments
the new world of readers
Here's the problem with Reader Comments -- not just here, but anywhere on the internet. No matter what the story is about, let's just say there's a story about a puppy giving his life to save his family from a fire, there's somebody who's going to write that the puppy deserved his fate and the family didn't deserve to be saved. Don't believe me? Just start scrolling through the comments on any story that has generated a fair number of responses.
One poll I just looked at offers readers a chance to grade Obama so far. Some A+'s, B's, etc., but also 37% F's. That is probably a pretty good approximation of the percentage who are ready to take every opportunity to be as negative as possible on anything that Obama or his administration do or say. (I haven't read one comment by a well known non-talk show Republican which comes close to the equivalent of giving Obama an "F" grade. In fact, many like Howard Baker clearly would give a higher mark.)
"Blowhard," "liar," racially insensitive, talking "blather," falling flat twice in his presidential aspirations -- "fluff/propaganda" indeed! "Seamless and natural" transition? The "relatively easy transition" (hardly "seamless") that was referred to was Biden's personal adaptation to his new role, not that of a man miraculously morphing from Senator to Vice President.
Finishing with a flourish that I can only hope was an attempt at a grand denouement and not hateful hyperbole, our commentator concludes his own open audition to write for Rush by calling Obama's policies "infantile and dangerous." If someone had described Bush's policies that way, you can be sure that many would have fired back with the words "unpatriotic" and "traitor."
Me, I'm for the puppy.
Are you serious?
Wow, that's probably the most fluffy of fluff/propaganda pieces I've ever, ever seen. Kenneth T Walsh should be just plain embarrassed. I only hope you aren't seriously trying to claim that to be some form of actual "journalism."
Each day we are treated to a new gaffe from Joe Biden, whether misspeaking, divulging classified information, cursing in front of an open microphone, to the point that reports now indicate the White House administration considers his daily gaffes to be a "distraction" from their agenda. Yet you manage to pen a piece attempting to cast Joe Biden's transition to the Vice-Presidency as seamless and natural.
Ken, please take the final step and submit your resume to the Obama administration or the DNC. They are clearly in need of a fiction writer, like yourself, who could write similarly ridiculous pieces attempting to make the case for Obama's infantile and dangerous policies.
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