Biden’s role in Obama’s “cabinet of rivals”
By Nick Ragone | Related entries in NewsI have an op-ed in US News & World about Joe Biden’s role in Obama’s “cabinet of rivals.”
I proferred that there are three basic models for veeps:Â the pitbull, the loyalist, and the confidant.
Spiro Agnew was the classic pitbull. His primary role in the administration was to tar the Democrats and the media with the same brush: liberal elitism. He wasn’t very effective, mostly because he wasn’t very compelling. Nonetheless, he took to the task with glee, and because of it Nixon didn’t dump him from the ticket in ‘72.
George H. W. Bush was the classic loyalist. Even though he was more moderate than Reagan, and disagreed with him on some policy, he never let it show publicly. He did Reagan’s bidding without complaining, and for it was rewarded with the Republican nomination in 1988.
Cheney is the ultimate confidant. Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that he’s the most powerful Vice President in history — hands down. He’s Bush’s closest advisor, and is believed by many to have been the architect of the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq.Â
So where does Biden fit in? What type of veep will he be?
He has the disposition of pitbull — no doubt about it. He was brought on to the ticket for his experience and tenacity, and so you have to think that he’ll be Obama’s bad cop on occasion. But truth be told, I’m not sure there will be much need for that — at least in the first year — partly because the Republicans pose such little threat at the moment, and partly because Obama has promised to rise “above politics as usual.” We’ll see.
I’m not sure that Biden has the disposition to be a loyalist. Would his heart be in it? Sure. Will his brain cooperate? Not sure. Biden’s favorite sport is to see how many feet he can jam in his mouth at once — not a good trait for a loyalist. I just don’t see it.
Will he be Obama’s go-to guy — his confidant? Possibly … but probably not on the two big issues for year one — the economy and Iraq. On the economy, Obama is going to be listening to Geithner, Summers, and Volker, while on the issue of Iraq, Biden will be outflanked by Hillary, Gates, Jim Jones and even Patreaus. He may be second fiddle on both issues.
So where does that leave Biden? I think he’ll probably find an issue he can own — maybe energy or healthcare — and focus his attention on that, much the same way Gore dove into his “reinventing governemnt (still not sure what that meant) and later NAFTA.  Seems like a good approach for Biden: it allows him to own something and show off his smarts, while at the same time it keeps him out of Obama’s hair.  And hopefully his gaffes won’t send the stock market into a tailspin.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 18th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
The only power a VP has, is given to him by the POTUS. It is not so much that Cheney was powerful as Bush was impotent.