By Monica Landley,Wall Street Journal
- VP Joe Biden shares a laugh with Hillary
Vice President Joe Biden,in a bid to become an influential second-in-command,is striving to carve out meaty roles for himself quickly.
In an East Room ceremony on Friday with President Barack Obama,Mr. Biden is launching a task force to work on social and economic policies aimed at helping the struggling middle class. He’s selling the giant stimulus package on Capitol Hill,and schmoozing his former colleagues during workouts in the congressional gym. Next week,Mr. Biden heads to Munich for an international security conference,in a bid to repair relations with European countries.
The flurry of activity follows a first week marked by gaffes. At a swearing-in ceremony of White House staff,Mr. Biden joked about Chief Justice John Roberts’s faulty memory,provoking President Obama to give him a stern nudge to stop. During the taping of “The Oprah Winfrey Show”the day before the inauguration,his wife,Jill Biden,said her husband was given the choice of being vice president or secretary of state,which was quickly refuted by the White House.