Where Is Joe Biden???

[Steely_Dan]

I have followed Joe Biden's career for many years and I am a big supporter.

I'm concerned that Joe is either not participating (in a real way) or he is being marginalized by some of the WH staff. I can't imagine Joe Biden not having very strong feelings about the health care issue. He is also a person that expresses his views without reservation (sometimes too much).

Where is Joe Biden?

-P

[polichick]

1. He was on Morning Joe this week. Doesn't seem like the prez listens to him...

...at least not about the war.

[babylonsister]

5. Not so.

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt_and_politics/article_dc49c240-e025-11de-8269-001cc4c03286.html

How Biden got Obama to shift on Afghanistan

By GREG JAFFE and ANNE E. KORNBLUT | The Washington Post | Posted: Thursday, December 3, 2009 10:00 am | (4) Comments

buy this photo Vice President Joe Biden Haraz N. Ghanbari - Associated Press

President Obama’s decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan looks at first like a defeat for his vice president, who pushed hard for holding down the number of U.S. troops in the country. But the plan also gives Vice President Biden a lasting victory: a strategy that lays out far more modest goals for the embattled nation.

Biden originally argued that it would be fruitless -- perhaps even naive -- to add more forces in the hope of stabilizing Afghanistan by shoring up its central government. Besides the country’s fragmented political history and his own doubts about President Hamid Karzai, Biden viewed Afghanistan as a much different and more difficult place than Iraq, with a far higher illiteracy rate and fragmented civil society, senior administration officials said.

Obama ultimately sided with the dire assessment of his top field commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, that without a massive increase in troop levels the war would be lost. But Biden’s central point -- that the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan should be limited to denying al-Qaida a haven in the country from which it planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- shifted the debate within the administration.

more...

[Hardrada]

2. Hubert Humphrey was made irrelevant also in much the same way.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. Not true. Humphrey helped to get civil rights and medicare through. It was

Johnson who was irrelevant, to Kennedy.

[clear eye]

3. I can't imagine him fitting in w/ the Emanuel bros. et. al.

Guess he was picked solely to get labor money, like HHH.

[tomm2thumbs]

4. I think they are afraid he'll speak the truth - something very unproductive for the WH right now

you saw how the truth being told by Dean was received

[thereismore]

6. I bet Joe disagrees with BO, but stays quiet out of respect. Like that Afghanistan thing. nt

[JuniperLea]

7. He's doing good work...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x68613

[AllentownJake]

8. The last thing they need is Joe to say something like

Howard Dean has a strong point there.

[Blue Owl]

9. He's getting ready for the WH Xmas Party

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/biden_winks_after_offering

All kidding aside, I'm a big fan of Joe.

Barack Obama needs to pay more attention to Joe Biden than Joe Lieberman.

[gimama]

11. that's RIGHT! Well said. nt