Joe Biden: Affable gaffer or political powerhouse?

The VP succeeded where his boss failed, striking a fiscal cliff deal with the GOP

Vice President Joe Biden
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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:

Monday marked the third time in two years that a congressional cliffhanger had ended with a bargain struck by McConnell and Biden. The first time came in late 2010, during a year-end showdown over the expiring Bush-era tax cuts. The second was in August 2011, during the fight over the debt ceiling. In both cases, Washington's new power players — Obama and the Tea-Party-infused House GOP — couldn't reach an agreement. They were saved by a bargain struck in Washington's oldest tradition, not much changed from the days of Henry Clay except the size of the dollar figures and the presence of a phone.Two men, both with 20-plus years in the capital, working out the final touches alone.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

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.