Obama and Joe at Ray's Hell BurgerThe Biden tradeoff: he speaks his mind and sometimes that's good because Obama wants him to speak his mind but sometimes, when he speaks in public, he forgets he's speaking on behalf of the president.
The White House has come up with a strategy that says: that's just Joe and by the way, there is an upside.
I think his so-called "gaffes" are overplayed by a bored media who know that people don't care much about U.S. pakistan strategy, but love gossip. NPR took a look at Biden's role in the White House. You can listen to the story here.
For Biden, one of the biggest adjustments from the Senate to the White House has been to understand that he no longer speaks just for himself — he speaks for the president. On Wednesday, in his first interview since the flu flap, the vice president was chagrined.
"It could've been said better," Biden acknowledged. "The irony is, I had my ticket to get on a train, and … my son and my two grandchildren were getting on a plane."
In fact, he did get right back on Amtrak the next day for his habitual trip home to Deleware. But in the hothouse atmosphere of Washington, D.C., the antennae were up. Would the vice president be quarantined? Sent to an undisclosed location? Would the president show any displeasure with his No. 2 as he had in the past?
The answer came quickly. The day after the Today show kerfluffle, Obama seemed to go out of his way to make clear that the vice president was still in his good graces, calling him an "extraordinary member of my team."
David Axelrod, the president's top politicial adviser, said the Obama team knew what it was getting with Biden.
"Joe Biden is a guy who speaks his mind," Axelrod said. "Barack Obama knew that when he chose him for vice president. It's one of the reasons he wanted him, because he knew he'd be thoroughly candid. Now sometimes that's a trait that gives you a little heartburn."
