Bleeping White House Better Watch Its Mouth

Busy veep takes lead on everything; what's Obama doing?

(NEWSER) - President Obama has tapped Joe Biden to try to sort out the budget mess on Capitol Hill, hoping he can work the same magic he worked in passing December’s tax cut deal, and the 2009 stimulus, the Washington Post reports. Which makes Andrew Malcolm of the LA Times wonder: “What isn’t Joe Biden in charge of these days?” Obama also recently had Biden head up discussions with Wisconsin’s embattled unions, handle Iraq’s political crisis, and more. More»

Sun Valley conference a pessimistic affair

(NEWSER) - The Sun Valley summit of media titans last week was a dour affair, with the CEOs lamenting the poor state of the economy—and how little faith they have in the Obama administration to fix it. In on- and off-the-record conversations with the moguls, Peter Lauria of the Daily Beast reports, they expressed “serious concerns about the administration’s motives” and worried that its policies would do long-term damage to the economy. More»

Joe Biden will go down in history with these other respected figures

(NEWSER) - Quite a big deal has been made over Joe Biden dropping the F-bomb . “But America has a long and honorable tradition of top elected officials using salty language,” writes John Dickerson on Slate . Allow him to educate you:

• Barack Obama: Famously called Kanye West a “jackass.”
• Joe Biden: Oh no, this wasn’t his first time. After being greeted by a former colleague as “Mr. Vice President,” he responded, “Give me a fucking break.”

Prez was relentless in analyzing every angle

(NEWSER) - Amid cries of "dithering" and the silent finality of Arlington's rows of white tombstones, President Obama calmly, analytically, and exhaustively reviewed all options in Afghanistan before finally announcing to his team on Nov. 29 that he would send in 30,000 more troops. The New York Times retraces the president's steps in a lengthy retelling. Highlights: More»

No consensus has emerged in White House war room

(NEWSER) - The Obama administration’s national security heavyweights have yet to reach any kind of consensus on a strategy for Afghanistan, the New York Times reports. Obama is considering both increasing troop levels to carry out his original counterinsurgency strategy, and an alternative plan from Joe Biden that would pull troops out and focus purely on surgical strikes against terrorists, primarily in Pakistan. “There are a lot of competing views,” said one official. More»