Despite fumbles, Biden’s a player
Cementing his value to Obama, the vice president has been tapped to take on key issues. Next up: healthcare.
By Peter Nicholas and Paul Richter
August 18, 2009

Reporting from Washington – The gaffes keep piling up: the untimely comments stoking fears of swine flu, dismissals of Russia that seem straight out of the Cold War.

But in defiance of the normal rules of American politics, Vice President Joe Biden appears to be solidifying his relationship with his boss and accumulating more assignments central to the administration’s agenda.

Having lined up support in the Senate to assure passage of the $787-billion economic stimulus plan, Biden was recently tapped by President Obama to play a bigger role in the healthcare debate that is now dominating the congressional agenda. He is at the table on major foreign policy issues and has been asked to oversee the stimulus spending effort.

“For the president to give him the single largest initiative to date [the stimulus] with all the potential risks and pitfalls attached, speaks to a level of trust that’s quite real,” said Anita Dunn, White House communications director.

I think the above picture from the Whitehouse photostream sums it all up…all that’s missing is a “Fail” printed in the lower left hand corner in Ariel font.

Update: If Jim had just read my post he’d have had his answer…

. . . Obama has some progressive instincts but was naive about the opposition he’s facing, and has gotten rolled on almost every issue since taking office as a result; yes, even including the stimulus that he allowed the Senate to chop down. You can conflate this with another theory that Obama imagined that much milder measures would suffice than the present moment calls for. This seems to be the Ron Beasley school. Here the question is one Beasley doesn’t address: whether the Obama administration can learn. Can Obama change approaches and personnel in time to make a successful (in political and policy terms) first term?