LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman. Winner 2013 Webby Awards for Best Political Website
May 23, 2013

 Choose a size
Text Size

Trending:     chris hedges     economy     elizabeth warren     politics     robert scheer
Most Read

A Call to Action

Bizarre, Apparently Jihadist Slaying in London (Video)

Oklahoma Needs Help, Not Ideology

Hell on Earth for Greeks

Another Memorial Day in This Endless War

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
 * NEW! * Fish Migration Reveals Ocean Warming

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
 * NEW! * A Call to Action
Act of Congress
Daily Rituals

Digs

Truthdig Bazaar more items

 
Ear to the Ground

Obama’s Big Promise to Biden

Email this item Email    Print this item Print    Share this item... Share

Posted on Dec 21, 2008
Wikimedia / Daniel Schwen / Altered

The vice president-elect revealed Sunday that he sought and won a major promise from Barack Obama: For every major decision, “I’ll get to be in the room.” Even if you love the guy, that’s got to be tiresome—not to mention impractical.

Can you imagine? “Sir, Pakistan is arming its nukes. We need a decision.”

“Well, what would you like me to do? I called Joe twice and he’s not responding to texts!”

What if Biden is traveling? Will Obama have to bring “the room” to him?

Thank you, Dick Cheney, for robbing the vice presidency of its healthy inferiority complex.

And then there’s the idea that Biden will have to be sold. Would you like to be vice president and, along with your party’s biggest star, make a little history? In our own little fly-on-the-wall scenario we see Biden answering: “Maybe, but I have some conditions.” Please.


CNN International:

When Obama talked to him about the vice-presidential slot, Biden recalled, “I said, ‘I don’t want to be picked unless you’re picking me for my judgment. I don’t want to be the guy that goes out and has a specific assignment. ... I want a commitment from you that in every important decision you’ll make, every critical decision, economic and political, as well as foreign policy, I’ll get to be in the room.’”

Biden said President-elect Obama has kept the promise, having Biden in the room for all of his decisions about who will fill key posts in the administration.

Read more

More Below the Ad

Advertisement


New and Improved Comments

If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.

katsteevns's avatar

By katsteevns, December 29, 2008 at 4:58 am Link to this comment

@ samosamo
It will be good to see dick & w go, But personally, I think that the snow ball is rolling down the hill picking up speed and mass.Anything Obama does won’t be able to stop its momentum.

I can also see toll gates on the highways popping up like daisies.

Mrs. Bush is living in denial.

Report this

By samosamo, December 28, 2008 at 2:21 pm Link to this comment

By katsteevns, December 28 at 10:46 am #


Yup, we are up Shits Creek and it will get worse before it gets better.
*****************************

Since the states are claming to be broke and will start selling and leasing and selling roads and parks for money and all our elected people feel it in the national interest to tax the people more to make us hurt more and to cut our present education and health care funding and to protect the rich by not taxing them, just how much worse will it get and what would ‘getting better’ be? I feel as others do that until w & dick are out it will get worse and despite the bailouts we the taxpayers will have to pay to appease the ‘elite’, then rewarding them more of our money and that will even set us back more. I really do hope obama has a plan that will work but it would have to have minimal use of the courses that are being considered as in the article link below.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28399839/

I just caught this by our great president’s wife and his secretary of state which justs fills me with all kinds of confidence and joy about w’s presidency. Get your barf bag out before you read it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28408424/

Report this
katsteevns's avatar

By katsteevns, December 28, 2008 at 11:46 am Link to this comment

Yup, we are up Shits Creek and it will get worse before it gets better.

Report this

By KDelphi, December 27, 2008 at 11:05 am Link to this comment

I think that I hit a key that posted my post , unintentionally , AGAIN! It wasnt finished. But, I was saying that I was making a joke about what Catapult said, and, yes, katstevens, I DO think that things are done with more efficiency and aplumb in Britian than the US. And, Brits actually seem to give a damn about each other. Novel concept.

If it would save us from “Presidents” who , being “commander in chief”, “head of state”, the DECIDER!!”; seems to think that he is the Master of the Universe—God save the Queen, and Good Day PM Brown!

With the USA Patriot Act, Homeland (in)security and FISA, the US Congress has given our popularly elected benevolent monarch more power than any monarchy has had in Europe, since before the Magna Carta!

Queen Elizabeth (nor PM Blair nor Brown) ever had the kinds of power , single handedly, that we have given up to our president in recent years.But, that is a Constitutional Monarchy—-wait, didnt we have one of those once? “constitution”...hmmm. Let me go look it up. I hope Dubya didnt use ALL of it for toilet paper, along with Congress’ lack of integrity to stop him.

Report this
katsteevns's avatar

By katsteevns, December 27, 2008 at 6:53 am Link to this comment

@KDelphi
I was just making an observation concerning the crown. But I do think that many more things get decided in London that most are aware of.

Report this

By KDelphi, December 26, 2008 at 10:34 pm Link to this comment

Catapult—I suspect that you are joking, but, I would go further…(but Biden???hmmm…). Why not a Parliament, proportional representation, dump the electoral college, public money only (in politics), throw out the lobbyists—ok, I got ranting.

HOw about we start with a Constitutional convention, a Prime MInister (who is NOT head of state not “commander in chief”—what a ridiculous title for a popularly elected president!), and at least five political parties.

Report this
katsteevns's avatar

By katsteevns, December 26, 2008 at 12:40 pm Link to this comment

Did I mention that the crown in the picture accompanying the article is the English Crown?

Report this
katsteevns's avatar

By katsteevns, December 26, 2008 at 12:38 pm Link to this comment

Sorry KDelphi, I can not find the link again either. It’s not your comp.smile

I didn’t notice Biden refering to PE Obama as VPE, but it seems in line with his character.

This is all very sad actually.

Report this

By Catapult, December 23, 2008 at 6:49 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Not such a bad idea, really, this notion of a supervised presidency. It would have stopped Tricky Dick’s nasty tricks before he made a fool of himself and scandalized the office. Might have confused W enough (not hard to do)  so he lost track of plotting war in the middle east. Could have kept Marilyn out of JFK’s bedroom , or that attack trained killer rabbit out of Jimmy Carter’s boat. Ronnie Reagan might have stayed awake if he had someone to argue with. Or not.

The presidency of the United States really is a bigger job than one man can handle. So now we’ll have a triumvirate (or trifeminate) - Biden, Obama and Michelle!

Report this

By KDelphi, December 22, 2008 at 7:08 pm Link to this comment

I dont care much for Biden, either. Not just his Zionist policies, but his financial/economic record is terrible, and, anti-consumer. His foreign affairs record is anti-progressive and very aggressive.

katstevens—I couldnt get that link to work…is it my pc? (its a very old one)

Folktruther—I thought that , per Obama’s speech at AIPAC (and others), it was already pretty carved in stone (the “war on terror” crap). But, I know Biden is quite the warmonger. You may be right. Biden will be used as the “man with experience”. (He does have experience—but experience that was rejected as qualifying him for the presidency, apparently..)

Back bencher—Good point. All of the people Obama has appointed, who ran against him, were rejected by voters! Maybe Hillary Clinton less so, but, still…

BTW—Has anyone else noticed that, at least twice, (most significantly, perhaps, when Obamam introduced him as his pick for VP), Biden has referred to PE Obama as “next vice president of the US”, as well as, the other day, “Vice President Elect Obama”.??

Report this

By Folktruther, December 22, 2008 at 12:27 pm Link to this comment

It’s important news, KDelphi.  It means that Zionist warmongers have there man in there helping to make war decisions.  Keeping Obama’s feet to the Zionist fire.  It assures that Obiden is going to follow Bushite foreign policy and the War On Terrorism.

Report this

By Back bencher, December 22, 2008 at 10:10 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Biden, rejected by a large majority of voters, the four times he ran for the top office, is now a heartbeat away from the Executive suite.

It is time the press examined WHY the voters rejected Biden.

Report this

By samosamo, December 22, 2008 at 6:52 am Link to this comment

By KDelphi, December 22 at 12:35 am

Let’s hope so, we have had enough of either a vp with to much say so or 2 people ‘playing’ president. Nothing much else can be said until the transfer of power and we get to see the real package.
I myself think obama too corporatist and aipac complicit but, we will have to wait to see.
All this highway robbery of the taxpayers money for the corporate elite is really worrying me for now. That needed to stop long time ago but it also shows pelosi’s and reid’s prioities and that is very worrisome also.

Report this
katsteevns's avatar

By katsteevns, December 22, 2008 at 4:10 am Link to this comment

I think Biden is bad news all around.Especially how he just casually anounces an impending international crisis without giving a single detail.Even Barack brushed him off. I would have fired him.
:http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/10/plumbing_bidens_mysterious_war.html

Report this

By KDelphi, December 22, 2008 at 1:35 am Link to this comment

samosamo—I may not be disagreeing with you, but, I think what I meant was, that , PE Obama may have said that, but I just dont think that he is going to give Biden much power. He may, as a matter of “courtesy”, let Biden feel that he is a bigger part of the decision-making than what he is, perhaps because he is so much his “senior”. Could be wrong. Hope I’m not. I’m not really an Obama supporter, but Biden scares me more.

On the other hand, Dubya has set unprecedented levels for BOTH presidential, as well as vp, power.

Biden’s “experience”, with both Israel and finances, is very much conservative..he also has/had that “plan” to divide Iraq into “three states”...I dont think that anyone considers that viable now if they ever did…

Report this

By tres, December 21, 2008 at 8:34 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Biden should quit when he is ahead.

Report this

By mill, December 21, 2008 at 7:00 pm Link to this comment

joined KDelphi in overwhelming need to sleep through this one ... nonstory, no comparision between Vader and W versus President Obama and vice president biden

Report this

By samosamo, December 21, 2008 at 5:26 pm Link to this comment

I think it is news of note myself. It practically presents the w & dick show all over again in the sense that dick was telling w what to do and now obama will have to kowtow to biden before deciding. Another variation on the decider. KRAP!. Our whole government in run by clowns, would fit in perfectly on ‘Rowan and Martin’s Laughin Show’ of years long ago - remember nixon going on the show and speaking that prophetic line ‘sock it to me’? This will definitely spotlight obama and what his legacy will be, real quick. Hopefully, this will not prevail.

Report this

By KDelphi, December 21, 2008 at 4:52 pm Link to this comment

Yawn…oh, Joe….zzzzz.

Sorry. This is non-news

Report this
Newsletter

sign up to get updates


 
 
 
 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
© 2013 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.