Vice President Joe Biden says he won’t second guess the decision by his former political rival Sarah Palin to resign as Alaska governor, because in politics sometimes it is just about the personal.

Palin, who famously greeted Biden with “Nice to meet you. Can I call you Joe?” at last year’s vice presidential showdown debate, has seen her political fortunes rollercoaster after John McCain plucked her from relative obscurity to be his Republican running mate.

 She once again surprised everyone on Friday at a news conference in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, by announcing she would resign this month. The unexpected move raised speculation that perhaps she has her eye on running for higher office.

Biden said he took her decision at face-value,  saying in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” that people deeply involved in politics “know at the end of the day it is really and truly a personal deal.”

“So I’m not going to second guess her,” he added.

But when it came to Palin casting herself as a victim of ”political blood sport,” Biden disagreed.

“I don’t know what prompted her decision … And I take her at her word that had a personal ingredient in it. And you have to respect that,” he said.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Rubenstein (Palin and Biden at October 2008 vice presidential debate)

With Congress gone this week and President Barack Obama out of town for most of today, Washington turns to its two traditional inside-the-Beltway sporting events: handicapping a Supreme Court nominee’s chances of confirmation, and watching the nerve-wracking finals of the National Spelling Bee.

Sonia Sotomayor, picked by Obama on Tuesday, is already being praised in an ad by liberal groups and vilified as a racist by conservatives, including radio talk jock Rush Limbaugh, whom the White House has tried to style as the de facto head of the Republican Party. Obama himself stumped for his choice on a Western swing yesterday to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

The president returns to Washington for a late afternoon meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Vice President Joe Biden was also out West yesterday too, giving a commencement speech at the U.S. Air Force Academy. When wind blew down the teleprompter, Biden told the crowd: “What am I going to tell the president when I tell him his teleprompter is broken? What will he do then?”

U.S. initial jobless claims fell for the second week in a row, but the total number of people who get unemployment insurance benefits hit a new record.

A few blocks from the White House, school children are gathered with their families and fans in a hotel basement for the final rounds of the National Spelling Bee. Formerly a curiosity followed mostly by the students’ parents and friends, this event is now a big media deal. Semifinals are shown on ESPN, with the finals broadcast on ABC this evening. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, will be there.

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Students from Missouri participate in the National Spelling Bee in Washington DC, May 27, 2009)

After the Obama team’s big announcement on health care and an even bigger deficit, now comes the hard part — actually sitting down and figuring out how much it’s going to cost, and how to make it cost less. President Barack Obama’s first public appearance today is a round-table discussion with business leaders on cutting employer health care costs.

Later, behind closed doors at the White House, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with Commanding General Raymond Odierno, the head of the Multi-National Force-Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Chris Hill. Then the president meets with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, one day after Gates replaced the top U.S. Afghanistan commander.

In congressional action, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano faces questions about her department’s 2010 budget from both sides of Capitol Hill. Lisa Jackson, who heads the Environmental Protection Agency, also faces budget questioning from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Despite talk of early signs of economic recovery, a U.S. Federal Reserve official sounded a note of caution. Things are better than they were, but the crisis isn’t over yet, Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis Lockhart said: “I believe that conditions are now calmer but it is too soon to breathe easy.”

As if to confirm this, the U.S. trade gap widened in March for the first time in seven months — but not as much as some analysts had feared. So though the news isn’t good, it isn’t as bad as it could be.

Perhaps this counts as one of those “green shoots” of economic recovery we keep hearing about? You tell us: is this a sign the economy is turning?

Photo credit: REUTERS/Jim Young (President Obama in the White House Rose Garden, April 28, 2009)

Vice President Joe Biden, in the doghouse for saying he would advise his family against flying or taking the subway because of the new flu strain, will be taking a trip to Europe in a couple weeks — but then again he probably doesn’t have to worry too much since he has his own plane.

Biden drew widespread scorn from the travel industry and pretty much everyone else for saying on NBC’s “Today Show” that he would “tell members of my family — and I have — I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now,” he said, adding that the problem was that “when one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft.”

The White House had to clarify his comments, advising Americans that they really only needed to avoid unnecessary travel to and from Mexico and that they should stay home if they were not feeling well. 

On Friday, Biden’s office announced that he will be going to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo during the week of May 18th. Luckily he has his own 757 Air Force plane to take him wherever he wants to go.

For more Reuters political news, click here.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Rick Fowler

Vice President Joe Biden had some pointed advice Wednesday for state, county and city officials seeking guidance on spending the $787 billion in economic stimulus money approved by the U.S. Congress — don’t use it on stupid ideas.
 
“What is legal, what is authorized, may not be a good thing to do,” the vice president told dozens of local officials gathered for a White House conference.
 
“So guys, no swimming pools, no tennis courts, no golf courses, no Frisbee parks,” Biden said, even if officials can document that the project will create jobs quickly, generate revenue and keep people working over the longer term.
 
“The answer is: No. No. No,” he said. “It’s got to pass the smell test folks.”
 
Then he gave the warning some teeth.
 
“Because of the rules, the president and I can’t stop you from doing some things. But I’ll show up in your city and say, ‘This is a stupid idea,’” Biden warned, drawing laughs.
 
“I’m serious. I’m absolutely serious,” he said. “Every single dollar of this money has to be used … in a way that is actually producing or keeping jobs from being lost and perceptually makes sense.”
 
Biden has reason for concern. The administration has been promising to be open and transparent about how the money is spent, with projects being posted on a website where they can be tracked by anyone with an interest, from journalists and bloggers to folks who live down the street from the work.
 
“We have to get this right,” Biden said. “We have got to demonstrate to the American public that we can husband their money and their investments in a way that in fact makes sense to them. This can’t be govenment as usual.”
 
Local officials attending the event said they appreciated being consulted by the White House so early in the process and liked the high level of coordination among government departments.
 
Brian Reilly, the economic development commissioner for Buffalo, New York, said it was unusual to have the departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development all talking together with local communities.
 
“This is fantastic at the city level because we are the place where all of those agencies come together. In the past they haven’t always been coordinated,” he said.
 
“By this type of early collaboration,” Reilly added, “we’re going to see a different kind of service delivery and different kinds of outcomes at the local level.”
 
For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Biden speaking to local officials about economic recovery money)

One decent laugh line in President Barack Obama’s address to Congress had to do with Vice President Joe Biden and his new assignment in the financial crisis. Obama gave Biden the task of overseeing the recovery process. The Capitol Hill audience broke up when the president announced Biden’s new task:

“With a plan of this scale comes enormous responsibility to get it right and that’s why I’ve asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort, ’cause nobody messes with Joe.”

That was last night. This morning, Biden made the rounds of the morning talk shows. On NBC’s “Today” program, he said his wife Jill — shown in the gallery during Tuesday’s nationally televised speech — was skeptical about the “nobody messes with Joe” line. But then he got down to business, telling the “Early Show” on CBS television that his first move is to meet with Cabinet members “to make sure I know specifically … what resources they have available, how they’re going to distribute those resources, how we’re going to follow the money.”

It’s a full day at the White House, with Biden’s recovery meeting followed by a late morning news conference by Obama to introduce former Washington state Governor Gary Locke as the new nominee for commerce secretary (the two previous nominees, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, withdrew their names from contention).

Then the president meets with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the top banking honchos from Capitol Hill in the Oval Office, and he’s scheduled to make remarks about the meeting in late afternoon. In the evening, Obama and first lady Michelle Obama host Stevie Wonder at a White House honoring the pop music great, who is to receive the 2nd annual Gershwin Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Library of Congress.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Pool (President Obama addresses Congress, as Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi applaud, February 24, 2009)

Hollywood had its red carpet Oscar night for stars on Sunday. Washington followed two days later with President Barack Obama’s walk down the peacock blue and gold carpet of the House chamber for a speech to a joint session of Congress.

Candycane was the power fashion statement. Obama wore an eye-catching red tie with diagonal white stripes, Gov. Bobby Jindal giving the Republican response wore a red and white tie but his stripes were bigger. (The designers could not be determined by the untrained eye).

But the standing ovations preceded Obama’s entrance into the congressional chamber. First for US Airways Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger who has become a national hero for safely landing a plane in New York’s Hudson River with no fatalities. The simple jewelry of his pilot wings adorned his uniformed breast.

The next power celebrity to get a rise out of fans was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who appeared frail after her recent surgery for pancreatic cancer, wearing a delicate white collar around the neck of her black judicial robe. She got a warm hug from the president.

First lady Michelle Obama was a vision in a royal purple sleeveless dress (again the designer could not be determined by the untrained eye) but it was pretty. She blew a kiss at her husband.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wore bright rose and gave out lots of diplomatic hugs and kisses.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in olive green, wielded the power gavel as she presided over the event. Vice President Joe Biden, in light blue tie, was seated next to her behind Obama as he spoke.

“Nobody messes with Joe,” Obama said to laughter all around, looking back at his consigliere.

Obama used a lot of hand gestures while he spoke: the finger-point, the two-handed bookend, and the hand chop.

And at the end of the evening he used his hand to sign autographs on the way out of the chamber.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/Pool (Obama addresses joint session of Congress)

Obama

In case you weren’t paying attention, Wednesday was infrastructure day at the White House.

President Barack Obama went to the Virginia suburbs to look at a road, Vice President Joe Biden went to Pennsylvania to look at a bridge and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood stayed in Washington and met dozens of state transportation officials.

“Look around us. Look at this construction site, right where we’re standing,” Obama said during a visit to the unfinished Fairfax County Parkway in Springfield, Virginia. “We’re surrounded by unmet needs and unfinished business.”

He was standing at a podium on top of a dirt berm talking to a group of reporters roped off behind a red fence. A stiff wind kicked up dust that occasionally enveloped him and his audience.

The unfinished business he was talking about was not the roadway but the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus bill on Capitol Hill. The event was aimed at keeping heat on lawmakers to send him a bill before his weekend deadline.

“Not far from where we stand, back in Washington, we continue to have a debate about our economic plan, a plan to create or save more than 3 million jobs in the next few years,” Obama said.

“You don’t have to travel very far from that debate to see why enacting this plan is both urgent and essential to our recovery, to see that the time for talk has passed and that now is the time to take bold and swift action.”

Obama has been encouraging Congress to take swift and bold action since he took office more than three weeks ago. He stepped up the arm-twisting this week with theme days focusing on different elements of the massive bill.

He went to the recreational vehicle manufacturing capital of Elkhart, Indiana, on Monday to emphasize soaring unemployment in some hard-hit communities.

He went to Fort Myers, Florida, on Tuesday to focus on home foreclosures.

And Wednesday was infrastructure day.

With a compromise deal struck by Congress Wednesday afternoon, Thursday could be Obama’s victory lap day.

He is scheduled to visit a Caterpillar plant in Illinois. The White House says the heavy equipment manufacturer’s chief executive has decided to rehire some of the company’s 22,000 laid off workers if Congress passes the stimulus.

Democrats say a final vote on the measure could come as early as Thursday. 

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Obama speaks at road construction site in Virginia; Obama with Virginia Governor Tim Kaine at construction site)

President Barack Obama on Monday all but shook his head at comments attributed to his vice president.

Joe Biden had made a vague comment last week about placing a 30 percent chance of failure on some undisclosed issue in a conversation with Obama in the Oval Office.

Asked at his first full-blown presidential news conference to explain that comment by his second-in-command and what issue he was talking about, the president said with a smile, “you know, I don’t remember exactly what Joe was referring to … not surprisingly.”

It was not the irritation that Obama barely concealed when Biden made a public crack about the chief justice of the Supreme Court flubbing the inauguration oath. It was more like an adult dealing with the foibles of an uncontrollable child.

“I think what Joe may have been suggesting — although I wouldn’t put numerical — I wouldn’t ascribe any numerical percentage to any of this — is that, given the magnitude of the challenges that we have, any single thing that we do is going to be part of the solution, not all of the solution,” Obama said. (Well, that explanation was certainly as clear as the sky over a smokestack).

But in the end, after pontificating about the possible issues Biden may have been referring to, Obama conceded he really didn’t have a clue.

“I have no idea. I really don’t,” Obama said.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Obama smiles during first news conference)

All eyes will be on Capitol Hill today as the Senate moves closer to a vote on the massive $900 billion stimulus bill. Lawmakers added expanded help for home buyers late last night in a bid to attract much-needed Republican support, but it’s still unclear whether Democrats have enough votes to pass the measure.

In a Washington Post opinion piece, President Barack Obama urged Congress not to strip out ambitious efforts to upgrade schools, boost energy effiency and upgrade crumbling bridges and highways.

Voters “have no patience for the same old partisan gridlock that stands in the way of action while our economy continues to slide,” Obama wrote.

The Senate is likely to consider several provisions that would encourage low-cost mortgages for homeowners and shift spending to job-creating construction projects. A final vote is expected today or tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Obama jets down to Williamsburg, Virginia to huddle with House Democrats at their annual retreat. There’s an amusement park nearby, but Obama has probably had enough of roller coasters after the last several days.

Vice President Joe Biden will stop in at Williamsburg tomorrow before jetting off to Germany in an attempt to rebuild ties with allies that were strained by the Bush administration’s unilateralist tilt.

Obama’s cabinet picks continue to work their way through the Senate. Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis comes up for a vote in the early afternoon, and CIA director nominee Leon Panetta testifies before the Intelligence Committee.

No word yet on Obama’s choice for health secretary after Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Toru Hanai

For more Reuters political coverage, click here.