Speaking Freely, Biden Finds Influential Role

Speaking Freely, Biden Finds Influential Role


Photographs by Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

The influence Vice President Biden wielded in the debate on Afghan war policy is a signal of his stature in the administration.

By MARK LEIBOVICH
Published: March 28, 2009


WASHINGTON — When President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. meet for their standing Friday lunch engagement, Mr. Obama always picks the cuisine — a subtle break from previous administrations in which the president and the vice president typically ordered off a menu, and a reminder, if any was needed, about who is in charge.

“The dietary bar is set by the president,” said Ron Klain, Mr. Biden’s chief of staff, who recently fielded a prelunch query from the White House kitchen about whether Mr. Biden wanted sour cream with his tacos (he did). “Biden eats anything. He’s a pretty easy guy that way.”

The description (“Biden eats anything”) extends to the heaping plate of policy assignments the vice president has been served in recent weeks. He has been charged with overseeing the distribution of the $787 billion authorized by the economic stimulus bill, heading the White House’s “middle-class task force” and jumping into any number of treacherous diplomatic arenas, from Pakistan to Capitol Hill.

Officials involved in the deliberations said Mr. Biden had been influential in Mr. Obama’s development of a new approach to Afghanistan, announced Friday, arguing for a relatively limited increase of military, diplomatic and economic involvement.

Mr. Biden has settled into a role of what Mr. Obama compares to a basketball player “who does a bunch of things that don’t show up in the stat sheet,” the president said in an interview Friday. “He gets that extra rebound, takes the charge, makes that extra pass.”

Mr. Biden’s reputation for windiness, self-regard and unrestrained ambition have long prompted some degree of eye-rolling around him and probably always will. But what has been striking to many in the administration has been how strenuously the president has worked to include him and, perhaps most notably, the influence Mr. Biden appears to be wielding.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/us/politics/29biden.html?hp

Good to see that his "free safety" role is working out.


"Early indications are that the partnership has evolved as they had imagined. “I think he’s playing the role as ‘adviser in chief’ that he has foreseen,” Mrs. Clinton said of Mr. Biden, adding that he was “involved in the whole agenda of the president.”

When both men are in town, Mr. Biden regularly makes the 17-step walk from his West Wing office to the president’s. They speak by phone (communicating rarely if ever by e-mail), and Mr. Obama will spontaneously call and ask the vice president to join him in meetings.

Mr. Biden attends Mr. Obama’s morning briefings on national security and the economy. He has full access to the president’s schedule and is free to attend anything.

People close to Mr. Obama said he had come to appreciate his vice president’s loyalty, practical view of politics and connection with working-class voters. The president, they said, finds Mr. Biden reminiscent — in a good way — of a lot of the ethnic politicians who pervaded an older generation in Chicago.

Mr. Biden also has a different approach to group decision-making, which Mr. Obama believes adds value to the undertaking. Mr. Biden is inclined to throw notions on the table and think out loud, which contrasts with Mr. Obama’s more deliberate, restrained style."


I especially like the contrast in thinking-styles. Biden tosses out ideas as works-in-progress, while Obama quietly thinks it all through first, and then presents an essay. There's value in both approaches.

They make a great team.

(Thanks for posting this.) :yourock:

Parts of the article that stood out to me: Biden often plays devils advocate just for the sake of it, like saying that the country is in no fiscal shape for health care overhall (as noted, much to the dismay of Obama) in one meeting to spark debate. It also made me laugh that Secretary of State Clinton used "literally" in talking about Biden, because Biden says that so often. The "he's not ruling anything out", in terms of being cured of his "oval office fever", also surprised me a bit.

to avoid being quoted as saying one way or the other? Or to prevent other Dems from starting their 2016 campaigns now? Who knows. But I swear Biden himself has said many times he's not running for President.

It's still funny to see Jay Carney as a Biden spokesperson too. Remember his interview with McCain last summer where McCain snapped and said "It's IN MY BOOK. READ THE BOOK." or something? Heh.

and lotsa forethought.

Good for us.

I love Biden.