Biden On Governing, Gaffes, And His Boss

Lesley Stahl Interviews The Vice President, His Wife, And President Barack Obama

(CBS)  With so much on his plate, the president has made his number two the stimulus cop: the assignment is to see that the $787 billion in stimulus money is spent wisely.

Biden is on the phone several hours a week with mayors and governors, making sure they follow the rules.

"It does seem like the administration is saying we can do it all. The spending; not have taxes - all of that. Maybe you’re not completely leveling with us, that your assumptions are too rosy. This was just what the administration was not supposed to be doing," Stahl remarked.

"What we have done is we have taken what are the consensus estimates on the low side of what we think is going to happen," Biden replied.

"But I keep hearing we're going to have high, really high unemployment until the end of 2010," Stahl remarked.

"Look, it took us a long time to get into this, and it's going to take us a while to get out," Biden replied. "That's why we're investing the money we're investing to this recovery package."

"Had we not done that, things would be a great deal worse," he added.

"Is this the right time to fix all of that, or is the economy in such bad shape that the deficits are going to get out of hand in the future. That's the fear. There is a fear," Stahl pointed out.

"That's right. It's a legitimate fear," Biden acknowledged. "There's only one way to keep it from happening. Reduce our energy cost and reduce our health care cost.

"The only question is when. That's the only question," Stahl said.

"Now, now," Biden said.

All his expertise doesn't mean the White House rests easy when the vice president is holding forth - his penchant for bloopers still make them nervous.

The president himself once called them "Joe’s rhetorical flourishes," like this one: "If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there’s still a 30 percent chance we're going to get it wrong," the vice president once said.

"The gaffes. Have you and the president had a heart to heart about some of those. I mean, he's actually shown some displeasure with you in public," Stahl said.

"That's true," Biden agreed. "That had happened in the past, and quite frankly, the president said to me he was sorry it was taken out of context: his body language in one of those cases."

His body language was evident when Mr. Biden made fun of the chief justice's flubbing at the inaugural swearing in of the president.

"Do you talk it out, the two of you afterwards? Have a heart-to-heart? Take him to the woodshed? Are you candid enough with each other?" Stahl asked President Obama.

"We are actually. And if, you know, Joe was off message on a particular day, usually I don't have to bring it up. He's the first one to come to me and say, 'You know what? I'm not sure that's exactly how we want to position ourselves.' The flip side is: if I'm off message, he's not going to be bashful about saying, 'You know, Mr. President, I think…we might want to steer more in that direction,'" Obama explained.

"Does it make me susceptible to being a target? Yeah, it does," Biden told Stahl.

"A little bit of lampooning kind of stuff," Stahl remarked.

"Much of the ridicule of me is well deserved," Biden acknowledged.

The vice president gets especially high marks as a team player. For those who predicted he and the secretary of state would be rivals, they appear to be mistaken - in fact, they meet for a policy breakfast every Tuesday.

"He's been at the highest levels of American foreign policy decision making. And we all listen to him," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Stahl.

[Jim_Bronke]

Lesley Stahl and CBS cannot be expected to do anything but a feel good kind of article on Biden. After all he is our vice President and who doesn?t want to feel good about our country and its? choice for that person. But, there is a problem. It?s his complicity in the Iraq war. Most people seem to think of the Iraq War as being a Republican led action because of our administration at the time. Yet it took many ignorant Democrats (like Biden) to get behind it and lead the way.
In August of 2002 Biden was head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was head because he was the senior member of the Democratic Party in the committee and the Democrats had the majority in the Senate. That meant that when the issue of Iraq came up that he had the sole responsibility to direct the course of action of the investigation. That means that he could invite who he wanted to his meeting and ignore those he didn?t. So, if he wanted to make a case for the war then the course of action is simple- only invite hawks. Those who spoke out against the idea that Iraq was a threat, like Scott Ritter, could be ignored. Instead he could invite ?Saddam?s Bombmaker? who?s evidence of WMD was only the text of one of Saddams? speeches where Hussein had used the word ?mujahedeen? to refer to his men. This meant that those men were his ?WMD warriors?. Nowhere in the entire 300 page plus document of the minutes of these meetings were there any reference to any legitimate evidence of WMD in Iraq. Yet, Biden left the meeting and went to Congress saying ?follow the bouncing ball? Saddam is a threat. It was Biden?s senior leadership that was used as a weapon of influence with fellow senators of less experience. Biden later made a statement with Chuck Hagel that he was in the possession of an incriminating letter that was reputed to have that evidence. Yea, right. It is all clear now that there was no WMD and that it was all hysteria, promulgated by both Republicans and Democrats who for their own political purposes supported the war. It was an exercise in complete irresponsibility by our government and our news media who threw out our Constitution in the final lead up to the war. Biden was personally responsible for taking us to war and it should not be forgotten. Biden cannot be trusted with the lives of our soldiers nor the future of our country and he cannot and will not support our Constitution.
The War on Iraq turned America in to a rogue nation as our rule of law did not prevail. It became clear that our news media works around the clock to make sure that Americans never learn the truth about what is going on. The use of depleted uranium weapons, for example.
We are fortunate that President Obama doesn?t have an agenda for war although there is an element that wants it against Iran. Biden and other war idiot hawks like Clinton have to take their marching orders from him. The current state of affairs we are in is due to the many that supported the war. Why do I care? I am an American who worked on weapon systems for our country and this is not what I expected from our leaders. We all need to seek the truth and never forget what our leaders have done.

[weazl1]

Ms. Stahl (and 60 minutes) failed the American public and objective journalism when the recent broadcast about VP Biden's many gaffes failed to mention Biden's repeatedly (over 36 years) blaming the deaths of his first wife and child on a drunk driving truck driver. The facts are well documented by the press and police reports. The driver was not only not drunk, he attempted to help Mrs. Biden and the child after Mrs. Biden failed to stop at an intersection and was struck and killed. The driver was emotionally shattered by the incident and undeserved blame, perpetuated by Biben. Biden has made statements and speeches to anti DWI groups about the trajedy, none of which provided the truth.
It was only after the driver's family (he has since died) hired a lawyer to contact Biden that Biden finaliy apologized to the family for his misrepresentation of the incident..
Politics aside, this sad story says a lot about Biden. Anyone (Democrat or Republican) who had experienced such a trajedy would certailnly know the circumstances of the death of a wife and child.
Biden had to know. 60 Minutes had to know.
Why wasn't the story told?

[fiberglass3]

This was a really good interview with the VP. I really like Joe Biden. There is honesty in his approach and answers. I can see why he was chosen to be Vice President.

[actornaught]

...The polite thing to say is, 'thank you for the Bible lesson.' ...
Posted by itsjustathought at 1:28 PM : Apr 27, 2009

If you had read the full exchange, you'd know that i was asking for such information. But after being hammered, i asked again, and the hypocrite gave said Bible lesson, layered heavily between insults and creepiness, like a typical phony christian.

[actornaught]

yea.....FDR should be condemmed for sending many to their death in WW II
Posted by ReallyMeanIt at 2:14 PM : Apr 27, 2009

I didn't bring up w in regards to this article, a Biden-hater did, but that would mean you'd have to address context. And also in this context, i wasn't "condemning" w, exactly, i was referring to difference in scale between Joe's gaffes, and w's horrendous decisions. (And i don't give a ratsbut about dems voting for anything. If they need impeached, gofer it.)

I normally keep my posts very short, because the neo-conned work hard to shift focus from the point by making out of context attacks on extraneous points. Or they just make up their own extraneous points. But WWRD!

[manchesterunitedfan]

I would like to nominate Lesley for a PUFFlitzer Prize. I thought maybe I was watching an infomercial for Obama/Biden 2012. I like how she mentions the war hero son but does not mention the coke-snorting daughter. Or how she refers to "gaffes" without mentioning his penchant for blatant plagiarism.

[alexaii]

His son went off to fight in a war that should never have happened and that HE VOTED FOR. Doesn't look like he feels too guilty about his son fighting in that war. Nice Daddy.

[ReallyMeanIt]

being an act of sending hundreds of thousands of innocents to their deaths in a war of choice
Posted by actornaught at 12:57 PM : Apr 27, 2009
-------------------------------------------------
yea.....FDR should be condemmed for sending many to their death in WW II

[ReallyMeanIt]

THAT is funny! Not only will Biden calling w dumb NOT get us into any kind of "incident", it just makes Joe & the USA more popular!
Posted by actornaught
-----------------------------------------------------
That's the problem with the libs is they think being popular means they're right.
You libs can have all the popularity you want with hamas, hezbolah, the castros, mahmood, etc.

[weedapeapl]

being an act of sending hundreds of thousands of innocents to their deaths in a war of choice
Posted by actornaught at 12:57 PM : Apr 27, 2009

After I've already shot you down in flames over your stupid Bible comment, you're pretty jerky to bring this up again after I already shot you down on this, too.

You're right, Clinton deserves to be put in prison for starting the WMD lie that killed thousands.