Traveling With "Joe"

Few Get To Travel With The VP; 60 Minutes Producer Karen Sughrue Got The Chance And Shares Her Experience

(CBS)  Written by 60 Minutes producer Karen Sughrue.

Going on the road as a news producer to cover the President of the United States is always a bit heady - riding on Air Force One, seeing the president up close and in the flesh.

But in my 20 years in journalism, I'd never traveled with a vice president before - until recently - when I spent two days flying around Missouri with Joe Biden. The vice president was there to promote the economic recovery package to a college audience, praise American troops at Whiteman Air Force base and tell high school students at a Boys and Girls Club that money was coming from Washington to help them get summer jobs.

A vice pesident usually generates a lot less news interest. On our two-day trip, there was only one other news organization along for the ride - The Washington Post. Not surprising, everything is a bit smaller and a bit more relaxed when it comes to the Veep.

Air Force Two is a more compact aircraft which means, as news media, you can get stuck in a middle seat at the back, unlike on Air Force One where reporters usually get two seats each - one for you and one for all your junk. The food is plentiful - lunch and a snack and dinner and all the Diet Cokes you want. And lest you think this is all at taxpayer expense, it's not. News organizations pay the equivalent of a first class ticket on a commercial airline for every reporter on the plane.

The one thing that doesn't seem to be diminished is the Secret Service contingent - it's a hefty one.

Our interview with the vice president seems to have been his "coming out" event and you'll be seeing and hearing a lot more from Joe Biden in the weeks ahead.

In an interesting twist, the most recent polls show Biden's popularity dropping, while the pesident's is rising. His aides say that's because he's been keeping his head down and working hard. They say now that his influence with the president has been proven, and his role solidified, he won't be so much the "invisible right hand man."

[apostasyusa]

Joe is cool. I'll think more highly of the Obama admin when they allow the prosecutions of high-up Bush admin officials. I want to see justice done. Other than that I think Obama is doing fine and is a breath of fresh air from what we had the last 8 years.

Republican preferred a government that governs the least, and by those standards that's exactly what America got for the last 8 years.

Should we have just let the economy crash? Based on the fact that the Bush admin got the "bailout the banks" ball rolling, the answer is a resounding no. Was it the right thing to do? Well.....everyone has got an opinion on that one.

Either way.....the Obama Admin is not the problem. It was the absolute willful incompetence of the GOP'ers, conservatives and Republicans while they were in power, who even now, deny their involvement in the most cursory Republican leadership this country has ever witnessed.

In the last 8 years or so Republicans have shown me that they will do anything and everything in their power to keep you from retaining an opinion based on the facts that their incompetence is comprised of.

[yoshi222]

I find it hard to read the mean spirited remarks that have nothing to do with politics of "enjoylife63". If you have something intelligent to add to a conversation, then I say, good for you, but it takes a lot of energy just to be mean, try being a part, not another divider in our great country.

[iam4honesty]

Joe Biden is one of the very few 'honest' politicians. While most of the Washington crowd is busy lining their pockets Joe has been busy all these years working for the American people. What an incredible story his life has been. It will make one hell of a movie someday... after he finishes his second term as President.

A genuinely 'Good Person'... what a contrast with that demon, Cheney.

[weedapeapl]

WTFishbait is this sudden fascination with Joe Biden????


Is it that Obama has finally realized he's not capable of appearing in public without embarassing himself, so he's using Joe as his primary spokesperson now?

Oh, then Obama sends Air Force One on a low-altitude photo shoot over NYC, after the NYPD was ordered NOT TO DIVULGE ANY INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC about it.

So a lot of people in NYC panicked and went hysterical thinking it was another 9/11 attack.

Even when you keep Obama behind closed doors, he still has a phone. He manages to do stupid gaffes by remote control.

[txlakeside]

Check it out, before being elected as VP he was the least affluent ($$$ wise) of any Senator or Congressman. His experience with wold issues is respected. He is a down to earth guy well grounded regular guy! And he is not PURE EVIL like TRICKEY DICK CHENEY is! The republiCONS are going to have to lie a lot longer and tell bigger lies to defeat Obama - Biden. 2010 will flush more of the republiCONS down the drain! People are tired of dumb as dirt rednecks and the religious right forcing morals on others like the Taliban does.

[specialty8]

Just another example of keep your friends close and your enemies even closer, right Obam?

[blessed1959]

Biden is a joke! I pray for the health of Obama regularly.... I didn't vote for Obama only because of Biden, but it sure solidified my vote against him.!!

[hawksprings]

Joe Biden is a plagairzing gaffe machine.
The only thing bigger than his mouth is the foot he keeps putting in it.