Joe Biden: Affable gaffer or political powerhouse?
The VP succeeded where his boss failed, striking a fiscal cliff deal with the GOP
For months, the effort to save the nation from a potentially calamitous plunge off the fiscal cliff appeared to be in the hands of President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, say David A. Fahrenthold and Ed O'Keefe at The Washington Post. Boehner, however, "didn't have enough political muscle to strike a bargain with the president," and Obama "was so intent on showing his muscle that he alienated the Republicans he was supposed to bargain with." In the end, it took Obama's "second fiddle" — Vice President Joe Biden — to hammer out a compromise deal with his longtime Senate colleague Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, and save the day. Farhrenthold and O'Keefe continue:
It's no surprise that Biden swooped in to negotiate an 11th-hour solution, says Michael Hirsh at The Atlantic. The real question is why it took this long for him to emerge as "the president's point man on the latest round of fiscal talks." When Biden became Obama's No. 2, many Americans thought of him merely as an affable gaffe machine, but he has long since morphed into "one of the most powerful vice presidents in U.S. history." Hirsh continues:
Well, McConnell and Biden didn't work a miracle, says Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post. They just "found the middle ground." And that's as much to McConnell's credit as Biden's. The GOP leader bent to Obama's insistence on letting tax rates rise for the rich, although he got Obama's $250,000 threshold moved up to $400,000. "McConnell also managed to snag some estate tax relief," pleasing his side. And in the end, the result says less about Biden than his boss.
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There's no denying that Biden makes Team Obama stronger, says Gail Russell Chaddock at The Christian Science Monitor. When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declined to counter the GOP's last offer on Saturday, McConnell said he needed a "dance partner," and Biden was his best option. "Unlike President Obama, Biden had spent 36 years in the Senate and is a seasoned negotiator." Obama played "tough cop" — "or, critics say, inept cop" — by taunting Republicans in a campaign-style event on Monday "as negotiations hung by a thread." That might ultimately scupper the deal, or it might be what made it possible. So far, though, it appears the Obama-Biden teamwork got results.
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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