Politics Daily

Biden: Unions 'Not the Problem' in States Facing Economic Woes

Tom Diemer — 2011-02-24T11:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Joe Biden, Gaffes, Budget, Veepstakes, Obama Administration, Governors, Conservatives, Jobs

Vice President Joe Biden says unions are not to blame for economic hardship in financially strapped states but are being singled out by Republicans looking for an excuse to enact conservative agendas.

"Public employees are not the problem," Biden said Wednesday night. "The problem goes much deeper."

The vice president, appearing at a Manhattan fundraising event for Rep. Carolyn Maloney, did not make direct reference to the unrest in Wisconsin, where Republican Gov. Scott Walker's bid to roll back collective bargaining rights for public workers has resulted in daily demonstrations.

"We are going to see the economic conditions that they [Republicans] created used as an excuse to fundamentally go after the social agenda that the far right has been trying to accomplish for a long time," Biden said. He planned to meet in Washington Thursday with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and the heads of state-based AFL-CIO organizations.

In Madison on Thursday, Wisconsin Assembly leaders agreed to bring Walker's bill to a vote within a day or so, clearing the way for the measure to go to the state Senate. But in a bid to deny the GOP-controlled Senate a quorum, Democratic members have boycotted the sessions and exited the state. Walker, who says state government is broke, also wants public employees to make bigger contributions to their pension and heath plans.

Walker's office confirmed Wednesday that the governor had engaged in a phone call with a man masquerading as conservative financier David Koch, one of his political supporters. In fact, the prank call came from a left-wing blogger based in Buffalo, N.Y., the Washington Post said. In the call, Walker recounted how he had told his cabinet officers, "This is our moment. This is our time to change the course of history."

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Sargent Shriver, a Peace Corps Founder and Liberal Activist, Is Dead at 95

Tom Diemer — 2011-01-18T16:52:00+00:00

Filed under: Democrats, Obits, Education, Race Issues, Bill Clinton, Veepstakes, Barack Obama

Sargent Shriver, first director of the Peace Corps, the 1972 Democratic vice presidential nominee and a trusted Kennedy in-law who was known as the family troubleshooter, is dead at the age of 95.

Shriver, who had Alzheimer's disease, was hospitalized earlier in the week in Bethesda, Md., a Washington, D.C. suburb. Shriver's wife, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics, died in 2009 at the age of 88.

In his day, Shriver was a handsome and dedicated public figure who took the helm of the Peace Corps for President Kennedy when it was created in 1961 and went on to lead the "War on Poverty" for the assassinated Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson.

"Our dad, Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr., lovingly known as 'Sarge,' today went to heaven to join the love of his life, Eunice Kennedy Shriver," his family said in a statement after his death Tuesday. "He was surrounded by his five children, five children-in-law, and his 19 grandchildren."

Convicted Palin E-Mail Hacker Gets a Year, But May Avoid Prison

Tom Diemer — 2010-11-12T15:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Gaffes, Veepstakes, Sarah Palin, Internet

David Kernell, the college student e-mail hacker who got into Sarah Palin's account during the 2008 presidential campaign, was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in prison for his crime. But the judge said Kernell could do the time in a halfway house.

Kernell, who was 20 and attending the University of Tennessee at the time of his offense, was convicted in April of unauthorized access to a computer and obstruction of justice by destroying records. He was acquitted of wire fraud.

U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips in Knoxville put aside prosecutors' call for an 18-month sentence and instead recommended a stay in a halfway house, the Associated Press said. The federal Bureau of Prisons has the final say on where Kernell is incarcerated.

Phillips also said Kernell, who has suffered from depression, should get mental health treatment.

The young man smiled when the sentence was announced. Under sentencing guidelines, he could have received between 15 months and 21 months. He is the son of Mike Kernell, a Democratic member of the Tennessee legislature.

During Palin's campaign as the Republican vice presidential nominee, Kernell hacked into her e-mail by correctly deducing answers to security questions. He said it was just a college prank, but Palin and her daughter Bristol said they were harassed after some of their e-mails were posted online.

After the conviction last spring, Palin compared the incident to the Watergate break-in. "Violating the law, or simply invading someone's privacy for political gain, has long been repugnant to Americans' sense of fair play," she said in a Facebook posting. "As Watergate taught us, we rightfully reject illegally breaking into candidates' private communications for political intrigue in an attempt to derail an election."

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Biden Says Obama Has Already Asked Him to 'Run Again' as Veep

Politics Daily Staff — 2010-10-13T16:05:00+00:00

Filed under: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Veepstakes, 2012 President

Oops, another hole in the Hillary Clinton-may-replace-Joe Biden-as-President Obama's-running mate-in-2012 story. Biden says Obama has already asked him to "run again" as vice president.

"I tell you what, there's a real trust, that's why he's asked me to run again," Biden told the New York Times between campaign stops in Pittsburgh Monday. "Look, he said, 'We're going to run together, are you going to run?' I said, 'Of course, you want me to run with you, I'd be happy to run with you.'" Biden's comments, while not an official statement, also indicate the obvious -- that Obama himself has every intention of running for a second term.

Biden, 67, is spending a lot of time on the campaign trail these days, but he's not necessarily prepping for 2012. Rather, he has emerged as the Democratic Party's chief optimist, pumping up the troops in city after city, and predicting the Democrats will hold their majorities in the U.S. House and Senate in midterm elections next month.

The latest Hillary-for-Biden buzz began earlier this month when Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward said he understood that a switcheroo that would put Clinton on the national ticket is "on the table" at the White House. The Obama administration and Clinton denied it. Now, Biden has weighed in.

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Why Hillary Clinton Will Never Be Vice President

Bonnie Goldstein — 2010-10-09T23:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Veepstakes, 2012 President, Woman Up, Campaigns

Last week Washington was abuzz denying (or repeating) speculation by investigative journalist Bob Woodward of Woodward and Bernstein Watergate fame. Woodward told CNN it was "on the table" in Obama's camp for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden to exchange places before the 2012 election. He later backtracked (after the president's spokesman called the rumor "just absolutely not true"), but whatever was Bob Woodward thinking?

The former first lady is not remotely interested in the vice president's job. Don't get me wrong, as Washington jobs go, Vice President of the United States is nothing to scoff at. In addition to guaranteed invitations to state dinners, the office also comes with access, opportunity and influence.

While historically the VP post has been largely ceremonial, recent former vice presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney both acted as back up commanders in chief (especially Cheney). They served their respective administrations as assistant presidents with all the pulpit and power implied (also, crested White House stationery).

Woodward's idea has merit from VP Biden's standpoint. Prior to (eagerly) joining the ticket of an ascendant Barack Obama in August 2008, Biden was the eminence gris chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He could probably do a decent job as top ambassador, and a cabinet post would be a nice career topper. He'd eventually live out his days at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Hillary Clinton, as a viable contender in 2016 for her boss' job, has different goals. The 61-year-old stateswoman has her briefcase full working toward peace in the Middle East and needs to marshal her energy.

As part of a two career couple, Hillary Rodham Clinton's policymaking moments started relatively late in her life. As a young woman during the politically turbulent 1970s, she was a staff member in the halls of Congress. In those years, on the family hierarchy of needs, her husband's career was the more important. Like many wives, she famously let her profession take a back seat to his.

Since her husband's semi-retirement, Mrs. Clinton has gracefully and effectively pursued her own career ambitions (and I for one am appreciating the cracks in the glass ceiling). Being secretary of state has a broad global impact and, although it requires a lot of time out of town, offers her many opportunities for principled policy. She seems tired but happy.

Nevertheless, I am the same age as Hillary and suspect that she must only have so much stamina. Delayed gratification comes at a cost.

I can envision one last Clinton run for president in six years. But it's hard to imagine in two, instead of a steady job brokering peace, Hillary would be (again) campaigning for someone else to sit in the Oval Office. Woodward might know how to follow the money, but he has a lot to learn about middle-aged women.

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Hillary Clinton for Joe Biden Swap? Woodward Says Maybe, but She Says No Way

Tom Diemer — 2010-10-06T07:52:00+00:00

Filed under: Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Veepstakes, 2012 President, Barack Obama

The White House has emphatically denied any notion that Hillary Clinton will replace Joe Biden as President Obama's running mate in 2012. On top of that, the secretary of state herself has pooh-poohed the idea.

The latest wave of Hillary buzz was amplified Tuesday night when Bob Woodward, author of the new book "Obama's Wars," told CNN's John King that a possible Obama-Clinton ticket is "on the table." The idea is that Clinton would energize a 2012 campaign -- particularly among women. In some scenarios, Biden, former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would take over as secretary of state.

But there's a big problem with all of this juicy speculation. The White House has consistently denied any such deal is in the works. "There's absolutely nothing to it," senior aide David Axelrod told the Washington Post late Tuesday. "The president is blessed to have a spectacular vice president and an outstanding secretary of state. They're both doing great work, and he wants them on the job." Another Obama adviser was more blunt, calling the idea "nuts." Longtime Clinton adviser James Carville also chimed in. "I'd be stunned if there's anything to it. Anything is possible in politics. But I don't know of anything beyond speculation, and I really doubt it's anything," he told the Post.

Many Clinton supporters wanted her on the 2008 ticket after she finished a close second to Obama in the primaries. But she is arguably more valuable to the administration -- and the nation -- as secretary of state then she would be as vice president, a position with few prescribed official duties.

"I don't believe what I read," Clinton said with a laugh during during an appearance at the "Most Powerful Women Summit" in Washington on Wednesday. "I have absolutely no interest and no reason for doing anything other than just dismissing these stories and moving on." She added that "the vice president is doing a wonderful job."

Swap talk is nothing new. In August, a Time magazine writer suggested Obama should consider dumping Biden as he plans his reelection bid. "Amid two wars, a stubborn unemployment rate . . . might the White House need a little star power to jump-start what could be a tougher reelection than expected?" wrote contributor Dan Fastenberg. "As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton has been striking the same tone as Team No Drama Obama, as opposed to the human gaffe machine."

Earlier that month, former Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder wrote in a Politico op-ed piece that Obama should replace Biden with Clinton, in part because she would help win back "middle-class independent voters," who have drifted away from the president. Working-class voters, said Wilder, have always been "more enamored of Clinton." The former governor, who is African American, didn't say it, but "working class" in this context could be code for white voters, a group Hillary ran stronger among than did Obama when they opposed each other -- sometimes bitterly -- in the 2008 primary campaign. Wilder went on to make a case against Biden, saying his verbal blunders are not only fodder for late-night comedians but have undermined "what little confidence the public may have in him."

In a piece for the Washington Post website in June, Sally Quinn wrote that Clinton and Biden, former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, should switch jobs. She argued that Clinton has done "an incredible job" at State and, even in her late 60s, would be a strong candidate for president in 2016, while Biden, who is older, has no intention of seeking the White House. In the short-term, Obama and Clinton would be a "near-unbeatable team" in 2012, according to Quinn.

A month earlier Politics Daily's Eleanor Clift beat everyone to the punch by suggesting the same thing. She wrote that "Obama's loyalty only goes so far," and if polls show an Obama-Clinton ticket would run stronger in 2012, he "might well have Biden step aside." Besides, Clift argued, Biden "would be a natural at the State Department."

But Biden as vice president got an endorsement Tuesday night from one of his predecessors, Walter Mondale. "Joe Biden is truly a great vice president," Mondale told a crowd in St. Paul, with Biden looking on. "He's truly helping the country and our president, at home and abroad. He's a strong, seasoned voice. He knows Congress and he nation."

It's been more than three decades since a president has thrown his vice president overboard. A change at the top can be seen as a sign of disarray, panic even. Dan Quayle, regarded by his critics as a lightweight, survived in 1992 but the Bush-Quayle ticket lost to Clinton-Gore. The last president to make a change was Republican Gerald Ford, who replaced Vice President Nelson Rockefeller with Sen. Bob Dole in 1976 and went on to lose to a peanut farmer from Georgia named Jimmy Carter. Mondale was his running mate.

Click play below to watch Bob Woodward discussing the possibility of a Biden/Clinton swap on CNN:

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Sarah Palin at Iowa GOP Dinner: Can She Do 'Retail' Politics in 2012?

Tom Diemer — 2010-09-17T15:22:00+00:00

Filed under: Primaries, Veepstakes, Sarah Palin, 2012 President, Governors, 2010 Elections, Conservatives, Campaigns, Tea Party, White House

It's not exactly a launch pad. But Sarah Palin's speech Friday night at the Iowa Republican Party's annual Reagan Dinner bears watching in a state that demands an up-close and personal touch from candidates.

Palin, who seems to prefer social media to public events and rope lines, may choose not to trudge Iowa's snows as a candidate in January 2012. But if she does, her Twitter account will serve only as a supplement to the retail politics of pressing the flesh with the state's farmers, small business people, insurance agents, and college students.

In the meantime, more than 50 news organizations from as far away as London sought credentials for the Friday fundraising event in Des Moines -- all of them listening for hints about Palin's intentions in 2012. The Des Moines Register went so far as to describe it as "her first appearance in Iowa as a 2012 presidential prospect." That's because Iowa hosts the first contest of the presidential primary season a year from January. In addition to the hungry press corps, 1,500 Iowa Republicans attended the dinner at Hy-Vee Hall in Iowa's capital.
But Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate, is not behaving like a 2012 "prospect." She isn't meeting with reporters -- no change there -- isn't sitting down privately with Iowa Republican leaders, and was expected to leave the state immediately after her speech, according to the Register. Her approach is in keeping with the "arms-length relationship" she's maintained with the Iowa GOP since she resigned as governor of Alaska last year, the newspaper said.

Then again, Sarah Palin is not known for following conventional wisdom. She has built a strong relationship with the party's conservative base, including the Tea Party movement. And she has endorsed many candidates -- "commonsense conservatives" -- who have gone on to win Republican primaries this year.

"I am not making any assumptions that she's in the (presidential) race," said Bill Lacy, who managed Republican White House campaigns in Iowa for former Sens. Bob Dole and Fred Thompson. "But even with her level of celebrity, it would be very hard to win a race without engaging in a very retail way."

Others have ignored or downplayed Iowa's brand of grassroots retail politics at their peril -- most recently Rudy Giuiliani, and Hillary Clinton, who lost the Iowa Democratic caucuses to Barack Obama in 2008. The Iowa contests are not known for necessarily spotlighting the eventual presidential nominee, but the caucuses do provide a winnowing-out process for the field -- and give the winner a "bounce" heading into the next round in New Hampshire.

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Sarah Palin's No Tina Fey: 'Palinisms' Fall Flat, What About Biden's Gaffes?

Carl M. Cannon — 2010-08-21T23:00:00+00:00

Filed under: George W. Bush, Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden, Gaffes, Humor, Veepstakes, Foreign Policy, Sarah Palin, 2010 Elections, Deficit

It's always good, especially in these dark days for journalism, when a working scribe can make a buck for himself and his publisher, so for years I ignored conservatives' complaints and applauded Jacob Weisberg for figuring out how to monetize George W. Bush's penchant for faux pas. Jacob's Bushisms books sold a bundle and made people laugh, the former president included. What's the harm in that?

Anyway, a thin new volume arrived over the transom this week, an offering from Jacob Weisberg called Palinisms: The Accidental Wit and Wisdom of Sarah Palin. There are a few nuggets here, but it would seem from this little paperback that Sarah Palin is not the dimwit liberals make her out to be. Palinisms made me miss George W. Bush -- and Ronald Reagan, too. It also implicitly raises the question of where the comparable volume is for Joe Biden, the gaffe-prone pol who actually holds the job Sarah Palin sought in 2008.

Weisberg's critics have long complained that he's a liberal with an obvious partisan agenda, and while I can't speak to that, it's apparent than in modern political writing a point of view can be a shrewd marketing technique. My father, Lou Cannon, pioneered the literary conceit of the "Reaganism of the Week," ending each Reagan & Co. column with one of them, but those were an eclectic compilation, catering neither solely to Reagan lovers nor Reagan haters.

Some "Reaganisms" made The Gipper sound foolish, as when he mused about his "suspicion" that the Mount St. Helens volcano released more sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere than 10 years' worth of automobile driving. Others Reaganisms were clever. "I'm not worried about the deficit -- it's big enough to take care of itself." The best Reaganisms rendered his listeners speechless, which is how the leader of the free world left Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 when Reagan sought to establish common ground by telling the Soviet premier that if Earth was attacked by aliens, the Russians and American would fight the extraterrestrial invaders together. And some of the most memorable Reaganisms were statesmanlike -- as when Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and declared: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

The most endearing Reaganisms were self-deprecating: "It's true hard work never killed anybody," Reagan liked to quip, "but I figure why take the chance?" When a wire service reporter Reagan knew asked him to autograph a photo from Bedtime for Bonzo, the 1951 screwball comedy starring Ronald Reagan, the president signed it, "I'm the one with the watch."

Unfortunately, it's a different era now; we're supposed to laugh mirthlessly at those we voted against, and to use verbal misfires as proof of their idiocy -- whether or not they are laughing along with us at their own fallibility.

While giving the commencement speech at his alma mater, Yale, President George W. Bush said: "And to you 'C' students, -- you too can be president of the United States." Another time, while campaigning for reelection at a town hall in Ohio in 2004, one of Dubya's questioners identified himself as an operator of air compressor stations - a man who sells air. Bush retorted quickly: "You and I are in the same business. Is it hot air, by any chance?"

Such cleverness could be quickly negated, by George W. Bush's own hand -- or rather his tongue. The same day as the Ohio rally -- at a bill-signing ceremony, no less - the president uttered one of his most famous Bushisms: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Everyone has their favorite Bushism. "Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?" he said while discussing education in South Carolina on Jan. 11, 2000. "I know the human being and the fish can co-exist peacefully," was his contribution to environmental thought. His economic theory? "We ought to make the pie higher."

The Texan's saving grace -- at least to some -- was that he was in on the joke, something that Jacob Weisberg himself explained. "People often assume that because I've spent the past nine years collecting Bushisms, I must despise George W. Bush," Weisberg wrote at the end of Bush's tenure in the White House. "To the contrary, Bushisms fill me with affection for the man -- and not just because of the income stream they've generated..."

Less than two years into a new administration, we're in a political environment that is even more polarized and poisonous. Into this milieu comes Palinisms. Two things can be said about the woman nicknamed in high school "Sarah Barracuda" and who calls her political allies "mama grizzlies." The first is that barracudas and grizzlies don't laugh, they bite. In other words, Sarah Palin doesn't easily laugh at herself -- not in public, anyway. The second point is that she's not all that funny, which helps explain why Palinisms is so thin.

The book is tiny -- 5-by-7 inches -- and fits in a back pocket. It's 95 pages, but the preface goes to page 13. And though the pages are small, the type is big -- and double-spaced with a picture on about half the pages. You can read the whole thing in five minutes. Worse, you've heard much of this stuff before, although Tina Fey said it better: "I can see Russia from my house!" is hilarious. But what Palin actually said in her infamous interviews with Katie Couric was: "They're our next door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska." Not that funny.

Scanning this booklet, something else occurs to a discerning reader: Sarah Palin may be more careful than people think. She has given numerous interviews, talks, and campaign speeches since John McCain plucked her out of obscurity two years ago, and yet of the 116 Palinisms in Palinisms, eight are from her (ghost-written) autobiography Rogue. Another seven are from a single talk she made while speaking about her faith at Wassilla Assembly of God church; six are from those Katie Couric interviews; five from a speech she made in Ontario, Canada last April to raise money for Charity of Hope, which helps needy children; four came from her resignation as governor; three from an interview with Charlie Gibson.

The Palin material from the Gibson interview certainly isn't elegant, but it's simply not in Bush's league for being off-kilter or entertaining. "You are a cynic," she told Gibson (page 50), "because show me where I have ever said that there's absolute proof that nothing that man has ever conducted or engaged in has had any effect -- or no effect -- on climate change." Maybe I'm cynical, too, but that clunky prose sounds to me like the mind-numbing obfuscation that is a politician's stock-in-trade.

None of the Palinisms in this booklet are lifted from her 2008 debate with Joe Biden. And there's the rub: In that debate, Biden said numerous things, which, had Palin uttered them, would have generated pressure for John McCain to drop her from the ticket the following day. Palin wasn't perfect. Twice she referred to the top U.S. military officer in Afghanistan as "General McClellan." (His name is David McKiernan), she claimed that McCain's $5,000 tax credit for health coverage was some how "budget-neutral," and she combined the last names of the Democratic ticket when she called opponent "Senator O'Biden," reminiscent of Biden's gaffe of introducing Obama to a crowd as "Barack America."

But Biden's performance that October night in 2008 wasn't characterized by slips of the tongue so much as wildly inaccurate claims about everything from the basics of the Afghanistan war to Constitutional provisions of the office he was seeking.

Joe Biden claimed that McCain voted against a nuclear test ban treaty "that every Republican has supported" (McCain actually voted with 50 other Republicans to kill the treaty), credited Pakistan with having intercontinental nuclear-armed ballistic missiles (it doesn't), and asserted that he had opposed Bush's support for holding elections on the West Bank (Biden actually gave a spirited defense of this policy). He also maintained -- while prefacing his point with the statement "facts matter" -- that the United States spends "more money in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we spend on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan." Biden was so taken with this statement that he repeated this ludicrous claim, which was off by 2,000 percent.

Biden tried to establish his common-man bona fides by inviting voters to walk down Union Street in Wilmington and talk to regular folks at "Katie's Restaurant," which would have been hard to do because the diner (actually located on Scott Street) had been closed for 20 years. More substantively, Biden excoriated Dick Cheney for his "bizarre notion" about Article I of the Constitution (Cheney was correct) in a confused riff that reminded one commentator of John Belushi's famous rant in Animal House: "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"

Biden has continued in this vein as vice president. No less an aficionado of the official gaffe than Jacob Weisberg oversaw their collection for Slate. Weisberg explained to me that they didn't get a big response. Perhaps this is because Slate's readership trends liberal. Or, as Weisberg says, the problem might be that Biden's goofiness is so situational it doesn't translate well to print -- you have to be there to really appreciate the outlandishness -- which was often the case with John Kerry's verbal blunders.

Maybe the moral of the story is that employment is not the only thing in short-supply -- these aren't great days for political humor, either. Of course, there's always Twitter, and this may be the saving grace for collectors of Palinisms. A post-script to Palinisms pays homage to this truism with a "top 10 tweets" postscript. These are pretty good, and many of which have already been topped since the book went to press. My favorite: "Research is your friend, News Media," Palin tweeted on May 15. "Try it sometime."

To that, I'd say: Be careful what you wish for, Sarah Barracuda. You, too, Joe "Regular Guy" Biden.

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Hillary Clinton for Vice President in 2012? Biden 'Trade Talk' Murmur Could Swell

Tom Diemer — 2010-08-11T12:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, Bush Administration, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Gaffes, Humor, Al Gore, Veepstakes, Obama Administration, 2012 President

Washington's chattering class, never timid about giving advice to the president of the United States, is floating the idea of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton becoming Barack Obama's running mate in two years.

Time magazine, in an item Wednesday on its website, said Obama perhaps should consider the proposition -- "dump Biden" would be part of it -- as he begins planning for his reelection bid in 2012. "Amid two wars, a stubborn unemployment rate, an oil spill . . . might the White House need a little star power to jump-start what could be a tougher reelection than expected?" writes contributor Dan Fastenberg. "As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton has been striking the same tone as Team No Drama Obama, as opposed to the human gaffe machine." Hmm, would that be Vice President Joe Biden and his big bleeping deal health care law?

The latest round of I-don't-have-anything-better-to-do-today speculation began earlier this month when former Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder wrote in a Politico op-ed piece that Obama should replace Biden with Clinton, in part because she would help win back "middle-class independent voters," who have drifted away from the president. Working-class voters, says Wilder, have always been "more enamored of Clinton." The former governor, who is African American, didn't say it, but "working class" in this context could be code for white voters, a group Hillary ran stronger among than did Obama when they opposed each other -- sometimes bitterly -- in the 2008 primary campaign. Wilder goes on to make a case against Biden, saying his verbal blunders are not only fodder for late-night comedians but have undermined "what little confidence the public may have in him."

In a piece for the Washington Post website in June, Sally Quinn wrote that Clinton and Biden, former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, should switch jobs. "Really," she says. Really? Her argument is that Clinton has done "an incredible job" at State and, even in her late 60s, would be a strong candidate for president in 2016, while Biden, who is older, has no intention of seeking the White House. In the short-term, Obama and Clinton would be a "near-unbeatable team" in 2012, according to Quinn.

A month earlier Politics Daily's Eleanor Clift beat everyone to the punch by suggesting the same thing. She wrote that "Obama's loyalty only goes so far," and if polls show an Obama-Clinton ticket would run stronger in 2012, he "might well have Biden step aside." Besides, Clift argued, Biden "would be a natural at the State Department."

But insofar as a 2016 presidential candidacy is concerned, Hillary Clinton has already said her White House aspirations are history. And does it matter that she can arguably offer more service to the American people as secretary of state than as vice president, a job FDR vice president John Nance Garner described as "not worth a bucket of warm spit." (Actually, the salty Gardner reportedly used a stronger term than spit). Biden, for his part, has emerged as a valuable foreign policy adviser to Obama, a roving ambassador, vigorous partisan campaigner and all-around good guy. Does he talk too much? Sometimes. But that would be just as true at Foggy Bottom as it is in the vice president's office.

It's been more than three decades since a president has thrown his vice president overboard. A change at the top can be seen as a sign of disarray, panic even. Dan Quayle, regarded by his critics as a lightweight, survived in 1992 but the Bush-Quayle ticket lost to Clinton-Gore. The last president to make a change was Republican Gerald Ford, who replaced Vice President Nelson Rockefeller with Sen. Bob Dole in 1976 and went on to lose to a peanut farmer from Georgia named Jimmy Carter.

Barack Obama considered Hillary Clinton for vice president in 2008. Ultimately, he decided she was a better fit at the State Department. Good call.

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Tim Pawlenty Debut: The Un-Palin, Un-Romney Makes His White House Case for 2012

Jill Lawrence — 2010-07-26T23:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Economy, Veepstakes, Obama Administration, 2012 President, Conservatives, Campaigns, Deficit, Tea Party, White House

Why was Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota wearing jeans this month at a meeting of formally attired governors in Boston? Fashion mystery solved: He was rushing off to a county Republican picnic 67 miles away in New Hampshire, the lead-off presidential primary state.

There's no mystery about Pawlenty's political intentions, which partly explains why he drew 39 journalists to his debut this week at a ritual Washington breakfast -- "one of the biggest turnouts in recent breakfast history," said host David Cook of the Christian Science Monitor. Another reason is that, unlike other 2012 prospects such as Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney, he is a relative unknown.

This was no light breakfast. It amounted to an hourlong audition for commander in chief, with a side helping of fiscal responsibility and enough tough rhetoric to prove that "Minnesota nice" is a relative concept in politics.

To refresh fading memories, Pawlenty was a finalist in his party's 2008 veepstakes, only to be nudged aside by Palin, then governor of Alaska. From that he seems to have taken a lesson that it's good to be identified as new and different, and he is trying to locate himself within that sector of the Grand Old Party.

Pawlenty predicted that after November, there will be six to eight Republican governors and senators who are women, minorities or both. That, he said, will be "confirmation of the Republican Party modernizing while still being true to its values." He said it will also be transformational in breaking the stereotype of Republicans as "middle-aged white-guy CEOs" who belong to country clubs, drink Chablis (umm, who drinks that these days?) and play polo on weekends (does anyone know anyone who plays polo?)

In any case, Pawlenty presented himself as part of this transformation. Sure he's white, male, a governor and, on this occasion, dressed in a regulation dark suit and striped tie. But he's also a man of humble origins: truck-driver dad, youngest of five kids, first in family to graduate from college, mom died when he was 16. When you're in a VFW hall trying to talk to a voter who is wearing a Carhartt jacket and drinking a Miller High Life, Pawlenty said, "it helps to have a messenger that has walked in their shoes a bit."

As fate would have it, just as Pawlenty was saying all that, an e-mail arrived from Romney to announce endorsements in North Carolina. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, is from a well-to-do political family and made a fortune running a private equity firm. Last year he sold his Utah ski house for nearly $5.25 million and his suburban Boston home for $3.5 million, which leaves him with an $895,000 townhouse near Boston and waterfront houses worth $22 million in New Hampshire and California. Point hammered home: Romney is rich, Pawlenty is not.

With his heavy focus on policy specifics, Pawlenty appeared to be sending an "I'm not Palin" message as well. I thought perhaps he might open with a narrative about the Minnesota miracle, some list of signature achievements. But instead he said he was just back from his fifth trip to Iraq and third to Afghanistan, and wanted to give us his impressions.

That is a lot of war-zone visits for a governor, dating to 2004. Clearly Pawlenty wanted to etch in our minds that he is a serious student of our wars, familiar with the region, the players and the state of play. In short, commander-in-chief material.

He is no Michael Steele on Afghanistan. Pawlenty says Americans need "strategic patience" there. "This idea that we're going to set an arbitrary deadline, an inflexible deadline" has very damaging ripple effects, he said. He called it "noteworthy" that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other high-level administration figures appear to be "stepping back" from their July 2011 deadline to leave Afghanistan. Click play below to watch a clip of Pawlenty's Afghanistan comments:

To be fair, it's not clear that there was ever an inflexible deadline. In his December 2009 speech at West Point, Obama said we would "begin the transfer" of forces out of Afghanistan in July 2011 and "execute this transition responsibly, taking into account conditions on the ground."

Pawlenty's critique of Obama goes way beyond the war in Afghanistan. He says the Arizona immigration law has been "wildly and irresponsibly and recklessly mischaracterized . . . by people who are quoted in the press, including by the president of the United States." He calls Obama's stimulus bill too large, too slow and mostly "government sustenance." More financial firms should have been allowed to fail, Pawlenty said, because "in the marketplace, you have to have consequences for reckless behavior." And the government was wrong to "take over" the auto companies ("the story underneath the story is that it was a soft landing for the UAW").

As for Obama's deficit reduction commission, Pawlenty said it would be a shame if it wasted time coming up with a package that includes tax increases. "I don't think any argument can be credibly made that Americans are undertaxed," he said. "And as a matter of realpolitik," he added, if Republicans take control of one or both chambers of Congress, tax increases would be a non-starter.

In his own state, he said, he slashed the rate of spending growth and now, "for first time in 150 years, I've cut spending in real terms." As for the feds, he said the government should cap Medicaid spending and turn it into a defined block grant to states. He also said he would "means test" cost-of-living adjustments in Social Security, so upper-income people would receive smaller increases; base the adjustments on wages instead of inflation; and offer new people coming into the system the option of private accounts.

Medicare, he added, should pay doctors and hospitals based on health outcomes rather than the "astonishingly stupid" fee-for-service model. That is a goal of the new health care law, which Pawlenty called "the Obamacare bill" and said would be a GOP target this fall.

Which brings us back to, oh yes, politics. It must be said that the words "2012" and "Sarah Palin" did not come up until perhaps 40 minutes into the hourlong breakfast. They were first spoken by a reporter, and they drew Pawlenty's briefest, least interesting response of the morning. He said he'd make a decision about the future early in 2011 and "it won't be dependent on what other people do or don't do." Palin, he said, can afford to wait longer than others because of her 'built-in level" of name recognition. Click play below to watch video of Pawlenty's comments on Palin:

T-Paw (who embraces the nickname) had nothing else to say about Palin. Asked about Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and the Tea Party, he praised them both. Bachmann, he said, is "a powerful, strong, clear voice" for conservatives and the country. The Tea Party, like any group, has a few bad apples, he replied to a question about racism, but overall is an invaluable, invigorating force. "I don't get overly worried about this raw energy that you see at the grass-roots level," he said, and recalled "at one time Ronald Reagan led a political insurgency."

If Pawlenty has a sense of humor, and I'm assured he does, it wasn't in evidence. I started scribbling -- and noticed others doing the same -- a few times when Pawlenty veered into what you might call inelegant turns of phrase. At one point, he riffed on average voters who wonder, "Are my kids' schools going to be good or are they going to suck?" At another, warning against tolerating illegal immigration, he referred to what befell New York when people were allowed to "pee on the sidewalks" (that led, he said, to purse-snatching, face-punching, window-breaking and "putting guns in your ribs.")

The impression Pawlenty wanted to leave was conservative, combative and substantive, and in that he succeeded. Whether any two-term governor with a law degree can compellingly paint himself as a working-class Everyman is more of a stretch. It'll be easier if Everywoman Palin doesn't run, and Romney does.

Follow Jill Lawrence on Twitter. Listen to her discuss Pawlenty on WCCO-Minneapolis.

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Biden 2008 Presidential Campaign Fined for Excessive Donations, Sloppy Records

Tom Diemer — 2010-07-17T17:17:00+00:00

Filed under: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Fundraising, Veepstakes, Obama Administration, Campaign Finance

Vice President Joe Biden's ill-fated 2008 presidential campaign has been fined more than $219,000 for accepting excessive contributions, including a discounted flight on a private jet that took him on a round trip between New Hampshire and Iowa.

The audit by the Federal Election Commission imposed the fine, saying that Biden's organization also accepted at least $106,00 in donations that exceeded the limit allowed under the campaign finance law, the Associated Press reported. He was subject to the audit because his campaign received taxpayer funds under the public financing system. Biden's organization paid $7,911 for the plane ride, but the FEC said the charter rate was $34,800.

His bid for the presidency started in 2007, but didn't get far. Then-Sen. Biden dropped out in January 2008, resurfacing later on Barack Obama's short as a vice presidential running mate.

A spokeswoman in Biden's office said Saturday that Biden would pay the fines. "Some repayment is commonplace after presidential campaign audits and the repayment ordered here is relatively small," said Elizabeth Alexander.

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Mitt Romney Tops Money List for Likely 2012 GOP Presidential Candidates

Tom Diemer — 2010-07-15T12:08:00+00:00

Filed under: John McCain, Primaries, Fundraising, Veepstakes, Sarah Palin, 2012 President

The money chase for the 2012 Republican presidential campaign is off and running, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads the way, collecting more than $1.8 million during the second quarter of this year.

Romney's Free and Strong America Political Action Committee raked in about $1.5 million during the period ending June 30, while several other smaller Romney-connected PACs took in $329,000, according to The Hill newspaper and Federal Election Commission records.

Romney, who lost the 2008 GOP nomination to Sen. John McCain, has not made anything official regarding his intentions two years from now, but his aggressive fundraising leaves little doubt that he is seriously considering another White House bid. He has collected nearly $3.5 million this year and given away about $400,000 to other candidates and causes, a way of gathering chits for future ambitions, The Hill said.

Behind Romney, Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, took in $866,000 for her SarahPAC. And Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who was on the veep short list two years ago, gathered $733,501 in contributions for his Freedom First PAC.

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Cheney Has Heart Pump Implanted in Latest Bid to Stem Attacks

Tom Diemer — 2010-07-15T08:08:00+00:00

Filed under: Bush Administration, Dick Cheney, Veepstakes, Medicine

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has suffered five heart attacks, has had a pump implanted to help circulate his blood in the latest attempt to stabilize his condition.

Cheney, 69, underwent surgery last week for the heart pump, a mechanism that helps the heart do its job and which is seen as an alternative to an artificial heart procedure, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

Cheney said in a statement he began experiencing "increasing congestive heart failure" a few weeks ago. "After a series of recent tests and discussions with my doctors, I decided to take advantage of one of the new technologies available."

The small device carries some risk, as it could be subject to mechanical failure or blood clotting inside the pump, the Post said.

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Sarah Palin Hopes to Meet Margaret Thatcher During Visit to England

Tom Diemer — 2010-06-16T12:18:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Veepstakes, Sarah Palin, 2012 President, Governors, Conservatives

Two for tea? Sarah Palin is planning a trip to Great Britain and hopes to meet with former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher while there.

Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, said on her Facebook page that she had been invited to London -- didn't say who asked her -- and that she "would love" to meet with Lady Thatcher, one of her "political heroines."

Word of the trip and possible Thatcher sit-down caused a stir in the British press. Writing in the Guardian, Claire Berlinski said showing up on Thatcher's doorstep has become a "traditional rite" for Republican presidential candidates -- a role many conservatives want for Palin in 2012. Berlinski allowed that Thatcher and Palin shared some commonality, but "if Palin hopes to style herself as the second coming she has a few things to learn. She might want to study Thatcher's disciplined command of arguments, facts and statistics, for instance."

Thatcher, 84, has suffered a series of small strokes and reportedly is not in good health. But if a meeting is arranged with the former governor of Alaska, you can't help but wonder if the "Iron Lady" would appreciate being referred to as one of Palin's "mama grizzlies."

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Vice President Biden's Son Beau Still Hospitalized, But Campaign Goes On

Tom Diemer — 2010-05-15T17:31:00+00:00

Filed under: Joe Biden, Fundraising, Veepstakes, Obama Administration, 2010 Elections, Medicine

Vice President Joe Biden's son Beau remained in a Philadelphia hospital Saturday, recovering from a mild stroke, but the veep went ahead anyway and hosted a fundraising brunch for Beau's reelection campaign for attorney general of Delaware.

From his hospital room, Beau Biden talked by speakerphone to about 150 donors gathered at his father's family home near Wilmington, Delaware. "I am looking forward to getting back to work and running for reelection in the fall... I'll be home real soon."

Vice President Biden said Beau Biden was back to 100 percent and would soon return to his duties as the state's attorney general. "I give you my word as a Biden," the vice president said, "he's doing well."

Beau Biden, 41, suffered the stroke on Tuesday, but remained conscious and alert throughout the ordeal, according to the vice president's office and hospital officials. The younger Biden, who served with the National Guard in Iraq, briefly considered running for his father's old Senate seat this year, but decided to stay on a Delaware attorney general.

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Biden Back in Washington as Son Recovers From Stroke

Tom Diemer — 2010-05-12T16:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Joe Biden, Veepstakes, Foreign Policy, Obama Administration, National Security, International, Afghanistan, Military, Medicine

Vice President Joe Biden returned to Washington Wednesday with assurances that his son, Beau Biden, Delaware's attorney general, is making "favorable progress" in a Philadelphia hospital after suffering a mild stroke Tuesday.

Beau Biden, 41, "will continue to follow standard protocol and receive medical therapy over the coming days, as is typical for any patient recovering from an event like this," a statement from the Delaware Justice Department said.

Vice President Biden and his wife Jill spent a day and a half at Beau Biden's bedside. He was moved from Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del., on Tuesday afternoon and taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, a top neuroscience institution. Biden gave a thumbs-up as he left the hospital Tuesday night .

The vice president was to meet with U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry Wednesday before entertaining Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, with a dinner at his Naval Observatory residence Wednesday night. Biden is regarded as one of President Obama's top advisers on the conflict in Afghanistan.

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Vice President's Son, Beau Biden, Hospitalized in Delaware

Tom Diemer — 2010-05-11T15:10:00+00:00

Filed under: Iraq, Joe Biden, Veepstakes, Obama Administration, Medicine

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, was hospitalized Tuesday after apparently suffering a mild stroke. The White House said he was "alert and awake" and communicating with family members.

Biden, 41, underwent treatment at the Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del. for "what we believe to be a mild stroke," said Dr. Timothy Gardner, medical director of the center for heart and vascular surgery at the Christiana Care Health System. "He is in good spirits and talking with his family at the hospital. He is fully alert, in stable condition and has full motor and speech skills. We expect him to make a complete recovery." He was to be transferred later Thursday to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.

The younger Biden, who briefly considered running for his father's Senate seat, deployed to Iraq in late 2008, where he served for a year as a captain in the Judge Advocate General Corps, attached to the Delaware Army National Guard. He is married and has two children.

Beau Biden is the vice president's son by his first marriage to Neilia Hunter Biden. She was killed, along with their 1-year-old daughter, in an automobile crash in 1972.

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Biden on Terror Threat: Asks Europe for More Cooperation in Tracking Money

Tom Diemer — 2010-05-06T14:25:00+00:00

Filed under: Iraq, Iran, Joe Biden, Terror, Veepstakes, Obama Administration, Afghanistan, Law

Vice President Joe Biden slammed Iran Thursday for supporting terrorist groups and urged the European Union to restart a financial tracking program that gives the U.S. access to European data as a means of following the money in terrorism investigations.

The Iranian government also "faces a stark choice" on its nuclear program, Biden told the European Union Parliament in Brussels. "Abide by international rules and rejoin the community of responsible nations, which we hope for, or face further consequences and increasing isolation."

The Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lapsed last year after European lawmakers questioned whether it threatened privacy rights, the website Mainjustice.com reported. U.S. officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder, are trying to strike a deal that would ease those fears and reestablish the program.

Biden tried to reassure the skeptical Europeans on Thursday, saying "America's commitment to privacy is also profound, as profound as yours" and "we are working together to address" the concerns. But he said, "We believe the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program is essential to our security, as well as to yours... It has provided critical leads to counterterrorism investigations on both sides of the Atlantic -- disrupting plots and ultimately saving lives."

In a lengthy speech, Biden made only fleeting references to the European Union financial crisis involving Greece and to the attempted terrorist bombing Saturday in New York. But he came down hard on Iran. "The Iranian leadership supports terrorist organizations and that support continues unabated," he said. "And it continues unconscionably to persecute those of its citizens who peaceably take to the streets in a quest for justice."

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Cheney Backs Marco Rubio Over Charlie Crist in Florida GOP Senate Primary

Tom Diemer — 2010-04-22T14:48:00+00:00

Filed under: Senate, Republicans, Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, Primaries, Veepstakes, Governors, 2010 Elections, Conservatives, Harry Reid, Moderates

Former Vice President Dick Cheney dealt another blow to beleaguered Gov. Charle Crist of Florida on Thursday, endorsing Crist's opponent Marco Rubio in the state's Republican primary for U.S. Senate.

Cheney said America "requires leaders" like Rubio at a time when the country is "facing threats from abroad and attempts from within to restructure the very foundation of our freedoms," The Hill newspaper reported.

He even took a shot at Crist, a moderate, who fell out of favor with conservatives and lags behind former Florida House Speaker Rubio in public opinion surveys. Crist is said to be considering a bid for Senate as an independent.

"Lately it seems Charlie Crist cannot be trusted even to remain a Republican," Cheney said in a statement. "I strongly urge him to either stay in the Republican Party or drop out of the race. The only winners from an independent bid would be Barack Obama and Harry Reid."

Earlier this week, Rubio was endorsed by Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the U.S. House minority whip.

But it was not all smooth sailing for Rubio. The Associated Press reported that federal investigators are examining spending charged to Florida Republican Party credit cards. Rubio had one of the 27 American Express cards issued to GOP leaders and elected officials. He has admitted using the card for some personal expenses but says he personally paid American Express for non-business charges.

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Democrats Plan to Cash In on Biden's Gaffe

Tom Diemer — 2010-04-01T08:28:00+00:00

Filed under: Democrats, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Humor, Crime, Health Care, Veepstakes, Obama Administration, Culture

Yikes, now there's a BFD T-shirt. The Democratic National Committee is using Vice President Joe Biden's f-bomb gaffe to raise money through the sale of merchandise commemorating the moment, which was captured on national television.

The limited-edition shirts, emblazoned with "Health Reform is a BFD" and sold for $25 in men's and women's sizes, are a production of President Obama's political operation, Organizing for America, according to CNN.

Biden, savoring the moment at the White House as the president prepared to sign health care reform into law, embraced Obama and stage-whispered, "This is a big f***ing deal." Afterward, the vice president joked about the March 23 incident, saying Obama teased him that his utterance was the "best thing" that happened at the event. The president even threatened to have T-shirts made, memorializing his infamous comment, Biden chuckled.

No joke, it turns out. The super soft, fine cotton shirts -- union-printed of course -- are ready to go, employing an acronym that has one letter standing for a word that used to be taboo in polite society. "There are things that are a big deal -- birthdays, anniversaries, the NCAA championship game. And there are things that are a BFD, like delivering health insurance to 32 million Americans," an Organizing for America fundraising note, quoted by CNN, says. And that big deal, apparently, warrants a T-shirt.

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