Analysis: Obama's Bounce, Biden's Stumble
While President Obama was basking in the warm reception for his speech (80 percent of speech watchers approved of President Obama's plans for dealing with the economic crisis, compared to 63 percent prior to the speech) after his address to Congress, the vice president was telling a small business owner, Lisa Hendrickson, what she should do to get her questions answered regarding how the stimulus plan might help her.
"I recommend that woman call my office directly and I will be able to guide her as to what pieces of this package would be directly helpful to her," Biden told Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez.
Taking direct calls from distraught small business owners is a nice gesture on national TV, but highly unrealistic. With about 25 million small businesses in the U.S., Biden could be backed up fielding calls to his office for the rest of his life. Instead of a knee-jerk political response – "call me" – it would be much more practical to send those concerned citizens to the recovery.gov Web site, where all the information about the recovery would be available for the public to "follow the money," as Biden stated on The Early Show.
However, when Rodriguez asked Biden for the Web site address, he couldn't come up with it. He responded that he was embarrassed not to know the Web site address. "I should have it in front of me and I don't," he admitted. Someone off camera finally gave him the Web address to share with the viewers.
President Obama put Biden in charge of the White House's oversight taskforce on the distributing and tracking stimulus funds because, as the president said, "nobody messes with Joe." You would think he would know how to access the Web site, which is at the center of the Obama administration's effort to restore public trust with increased transparency and accountability. According to Peter Orszag, head of the Office of Management and Budget, the recovery.gov site is getting 3,000 hits, or accesses, per second.
Today, Biden gathered administration officials in the White House Roosevelt room to find out "exactly what each Cabinet member is doing, what resources available, how they will distribute those sources, how they will follow the money," as he said during The Early Show interview. At the meeting, Earl Devaney, who was recently named chairman of the new Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board, said he will ask each state to name a watchdog to oversee spending of stimulus package funds.
Biden, the entire Obama administration and Congress will be held accountable for making sure the funds are used to bring the economy back. "Follow the money," a phrase that was made famous in "All the President's Men," is being adapted for a 21st century money trail that ends at recovery.gov. It remains to be seen whether Biden's team will be able to effectively police the funds and if the content provided on the Web site will be as transparent and accurate as promised.
Daniel Farber is Editor-In-Chief of CBSNews.com.