The Anti-Cheney?

Despite his reputation for long-windedness, Biden also has a gift for getting to the heart of an issue quickly (recalling Winston Churchill's description of FDR's most trusted aide, Harry Hopkins, as "Lord Root of the Matter.") It was Biden who lectured Rice at her confirmation hearings: "Don't listen to Rumsfeld!" In 2003, when then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz indicated that Iraq looked more complicated than Bosnia. "We've been in Bosnia for eight years," Biden snapped back: "That would seem to compute that we're likely to be in Iraq for a long time--a long time." And even though Obama touts his early opposition to the war in Iraq while Biden voted for the Iraq war resolution in 2002—and the two have differed on how fast U.S. troops should withdraw—the Obama camp was very impressed with Biden's handling of the Bush administration's shift in focus to Saddam Hussein. Biden was aggressive in urging that the Democratic caucus "take its time on the Iraq debate, and couldn't just let the president dictate the timing of it," said one Obama advisor. "That whole summer, and in the fall, he said we've got to make sure we kick tires on this. He is a real pro."

Above all, perhaps, it is Biden who has been most vociferous in urging Obama and other Democrats not to repeat the mistakes of John Kerry in 2004—and to fight back against GOP attacks with brickbats and bare knuckles. The failure of Kerry and the Dems of '04 to seize control of the national-security agenda and counterattack Bush was a mistake "that was emblazoned in my mind," Biden says. Now, with John McCain criticizing the 2008 Democratic contender ever more viciously—"Obama: dangerously unprepared to be president," the latest GOP ad intones—Obama needs Biden out in front more than ever. If he gets to the White House, will Obama repay Biden by giving him Cheney-like access and influence? Biden himself would vociferously reject such an idea; he makes no secret of his abhorrence for Cheney and "the neocons." But as a man who's run for president himself twice—and has 35 years in the Senate to Obama's three and a half—it's difficult to imagine Joe Biden is going to be happy reverting back to the traditional veep's role and flying to funerals.

© 2008