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