White House Categorically Denies Biden-Clinton Swap

Posted on Oct 6, 2010

Flickr / SEIU International (CC-BY)

You’d think Bob Woodward would have no trouble selling books without making up a humdinger like this, but the WashPo sage told CNN that the White House was considering having Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden swap jobs. “Just absolutely not true,” responds the White House.

So what, then, did Woodward mean when he said the proposal was “on the table”?

The Caucus got an e-mail from the journalist explaining his interpretation of the statement:

In response to the White House’s pushback against his idea that Hillary Rodham Clinton and Joseph R. Biden Jr. might exchange places, Bob Woodward said this afternoon that the idea of a Biden-Clinton swap is “on the table” in the sense that “any legitimate vote-getting strategy is always on the table in politics.”

Also “on the table,” by that standard: The president could change his name to Thaddeus Fontleroy and sell Texas to BP.  —PZS

More from the Caucus:

Just as the buzz from his latest blockbuster book had started to fade, Bob Woodward, The Washington Post journalist and author, found another way to set off the cable news chatter.

In an almost off-hand comment in an interview on CNN on Tuesday night, Mr. Woodward asserted that the White House was considering swapping Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on the 2012 ticket.

“It’s on the table,” Mr. Woodward said on “John King, U.S.A.,” instantly sparking a flurry of Washington what-if gossip, cable news punditry and inside-the-West-Wing parlor games.

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