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Biden attended a meeting with Obama and Al Gore in Chicago on Tuesday. They discussed climate change and came to the conclusion that "The time for denial is over." The timing of this meeting was interesting because Obama is currently figuring out who his cabinet's top environmental officials will be.

In most recent news, Biden got a puppy today. He bought a 3-month-old German Shepherd from Linda Brown in Chester County, PA. Biden is letting his grandchildren decide on the name of the pup. The puppy will be trained by New Castle, Delaware's K-9 division coordinator, Mark Tobin. Biden's puppy will be delivered shortly after the inauguration when he is completely trained.

Biden made sure that he was purchasing the best bred puppy possible. He had Tobin scout out the best place in Pennsylvania to purchase a pup. Tobin found Linda Brown and concluded that her puppies were the best bred and best suited for the White House.

Biden's puppy will be the second dog running around the White House. Obama will also be purchasing a puppy once he moves to Washington. He promised his daughters that he would buy them a puppy if he won the election.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/09/AR2008120902872.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28221617/

Redefining the role of the Vice President

Joe Biden is now facing the challenge of redefining the role of the vice-president, which current VP Dick Cheney has significantly altered. Earlier during the debate season Biden described Cheney as the most dangerous VP america has ever had in the entire American history. In a recent interview Biden described what role he believes he should have: "The primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote..." It seems as though everyone agrees with him, considering U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just announced that he will bar Biden from the weekly internal Party Senate lunches, an event that Cheney regularly attended. The Biden camp responded by saying that Biden was never planning to attend the meetings and sees eye to eye with Senator Reid on this issue. Biden seems content with the traditional advising role of the vice president and a source close to the transition team says that "Biden has been a key part of every key meeting since the election and has had weekly lunches with Obama," suggesting that Biden is far from being pushed to the background, as the media has been claiming in recent weeks. There even are recent indications that Biden will take on the role of Labor advocate. In other Biden news, Joe recently added Jared Bernstein to his staff as chief Economist.

Sources:

1. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com.........

2. http://www.upi.com.......

3. http://www.newkerala.com.......

4. http://edition.cnn.com.......

5. http://www.bloomberg.com.......

What Should Obama Do With Biden?

     We saw Joe Biden's name everywhere for a good year or so during the campaigning for the presidential election right under Barack Obama on signs, television ads, magazines, and newspapers around the country.  Now however, his name is starting to become overshadowed by the other appointees in Obama's new administration such as Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emanuel, and Robert Gates and people are wondering what he will do during Obama's first term as President.  One major area that Biden should and could have a lot of influence in is with the Senate.  Since he has so many friends there and has been around long enough to create strong bonds with varying groups of people, Biden will be able to help Rahm Emanuel unify the Senate and the Democratic legislators when it comes around to policy-making time.  Biden will be able to assert himself in a comfortable enough position within the Obama administration to have the power to give his opinion and use his resources, but he will also most likely not get out of control and try to exaggerate his position's importance like Dick Cheney.  

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/10/zelizer.biden/

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/02/biden.index.html#cnnSTCText

Happy Birthday Joe!!

Joe Biden celebrated his 66th Birthday on this past Thursday the 20th. President Elect Obama threw him a small little celebration at the Office with cupcakes! Although Biden has been out of the public eye recently, he has reportedly been making several phone calls to various world leaders in preparation for his term in office. Last week Vice President Cheney welcomed VP-elect Biden to the official VP mansion. Biden also named Ronald A. Klain his Chief of Staff last wednesday. In other news, Biden's son Beau departed for Iraq on Wednesday after declining to fill his father's Senate seat. 

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2008/11/21/captian-beau-biden-declined-an-offer-to-replace-joe-biden-as-senator.html

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/11/20/a-low-profile-birthday-for-joe-biden/

http://www.mlive.com/elections/national/indez.ssf?/base/politics-0/122695885261710.xml&storylist=electionmi

http://media.www.hlrecord.org/media/storage/paper609/news/2008/11/20/PresidentialTransition/Klain.87.Tapped.As.Bidens.Chief.Of.Staff-33554364.shtml

Joe Biden... The Good Cop?

In the beginning of this election, Joe Biden was seen as someone who, with enough free rain, could become too bored and start interfering with the jobs of other important Cabinet members in the White House. However, when the tough and ragged edge Rahm Emanuel was appointed chief of staff, Joe Biden suddenly found himself with a new title - the good cop.

Biden has a lot of talents that can be utilized by Barack Obama and one of them will be his good relations with the Republican party. Since Emanuel's language and persona is seen as brash and aggressive and not favored by the Republicans, Biden will look like the go-to guy during the mixture of parties that Barack Obama has promised. In many interviews and speeches, Joe Biden has explained that he is not the kind of guy that will attack another Senator and only wants to keep beneficial and healthy relationships between himself and the other members of the Senate. However, no matter how nice Joe Biden comes off as, the super conservative wing of the Republican party will most likely not be very friendly and inviting after Senator John McCain's defeat on election day. Also, even though Obama has many friends and close relationships with people in the Senate himself, it is never a bad situation to have both the president elect and the future vice president to be looked highly upon by both parties.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/11/10/Bidens_role_Obamas_good_cop/UPI-45481226326488/

http://www.mlive.com/us-politics/index.ssf/2008/11/bidens_new_role_good_cop.html

Florida Campaign Frenzy

This week started off with Biden in North Carolina and now he is racing through Florida. Florida is extremely important because it has early voting which is something that most Floridians take advantage of. While in Sunrise, FL, Biden joked about McCain dressing as an "agent of change" for Halloween was not a believable costume. He again noted how McCain has agreed with Bush 90% of the time and how he is exactly the same as Bush. Biden asserted that after voting Republican in the last election, Floridians and America want a change and McCain will not give it to them.

Biden has been encouraging all Floridians to vote early because the early vote helps the Democrats. The early vote counteracts the Republican advantage with the absentee vote and people have been voting early in record numbers this year. Biden is visiting as many possible counties in Florida as he can because every vote counts. The Republicans need to win Florida and the Democratic visits force the Republicans to keep up.

Also in Florida today are Bill Clinton and Obama. It is the first time they have ever appeared together. They campaigned in South Florida today aiming at the Latino voters. The Democratic Latinos outweigh the Republican Latinos in Florida so the Democrats feel confident that they will win the strong Cuban vote in South Florida.

http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/10/29/biden-pokes-halloween-fun-at-mccain/
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/29/1606606.aspx

Biden Campaigning in North Carolina and Florida

     Joe Biden has returned to North Carolina and Florida this week to continue his campaigning for Senator Barack Obama and is starting off in the cities of Greenville and Greensboro, North Carolina.  These two states are still seen as battleground states so they are seen as the priority for the Democratic party and in particular, Barack Obama currently holds slight leads in both states according to poll averages.  During his rallies in Florida, Joe Biden will most likely bring up the idea of him supporting the country of Israel during their ever constant plights and also denounce the Holocaust in order to reel in the last of the Jewish voters.  This tactic has worked on past campaign trips to Florida so it is very likely to be successful once again.  

     Also, Joe Biden will speak about high foreclosure and unemployment rates as always in order to get the people hyped up about the failing economy and will especially use this when he makes his way towards New Port Richey and his three day bus tour of Florida. 

     Finally as a little fun fact, Joe Biden tried his hand at a little humor when he was campaigning in North Carolina last week by bringing up an always favored subject, NASCAR.  In order to connect with voters he said, "I know NASCAR is big in North Carolina.  And to use the parlance, to use NASCAR parlance for those of you who are NASCAR fans, we've been trading a little paint with the McCain, with the McCain-Palin ticket lately.  And, uh, and quite frankly, uh, John's been a driving a little loose lately."  

 http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/10/27/politics/fromtheroad/entry4547045.shtml#ccmm