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- JUNE 17, 2010, 7:27 PM ET

Biden Doesn’t Bore, Despite His Own Predictions

With Washington consumed by the oil spill, Vice President *Joe Biden* certainly
was aware that most White House reporters aren’t focusing much on last
year’s economic stimulus bill. But he gamely came to the briefing room on
Thursday to talk up what the White House is calling “Recovery Act Summer,”
as stimulus money hits communities.

“Hey, folks, I’m here to talk about the Recovery Act,” Biden began, “and I’m
sure that was the first thing on your mind this morning.”

He cited several figures to demonstrate how many jobs the law had created or
saved, and how many projects were underway. He mentioned that President *Barack
Obama *would be in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday for the groundbreaking of the
10,000th Recovery Act road project.

Biden kept acknowledging that this wasn’t exactly the hot topic this summer.
At one point he urged reporters to check out the figures for themselves.
“You can go to recovery.gov — which I know many of you have and you probably
do that in your leisure time, wondering what’s going on, right?”

Later, he conceded: “As most of you know, you get bored to death having to
watch me do this initially…”

By the end of his presentation, though, many reporters appeared more engaged
— especially when Biden was asked about Republican Rep. *Joe Barton’s* comment
earlier in the day that he was “ashamed” that Obama had pressured BP to set
up a $20 billion fund to cover damages caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil
spill.

Biden replied with apparent passion and anger — arguably more than his boss
has shown throughout the crisis.

“I find it incredibly insensitive, incredibly out of touch… The one primary
role for government is to protect people who are being taken advantage of;
protect people who are in an extreme straits and not able to take care of
the circumstances themselves,” he said.

“This is just not about jobs. This is just not about whether or not the
waterfowl is polluted … this is an entire way of life that’s in jeopardy,”
Biden continued. “There’s no shakedown. It’s insisting on responsible
conduct and a responsible response to something they caused…. to take care
of the immediate needs of people who are drowning.”

He added: “And so the thing the president did — and I was so proud of him …
he said, ‘Look, what I want you to do is take care of those people now who,
if they don’t get help now, are going to be under, gone. Gone.’”
--
Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.co