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and Ted on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/01/29/169551103/banning-assault-weapons-now-much-more-difficult-than-94-aides-say

On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 6:51 AM, Alexander Snyder-Mackler <
smacklera@gmail.com> wrote:

> baltimoresun.com Don't count Biden out in 2016 All the attention is on
> Hillary Clinton as Barack Obama's possible successor, but the vice
> president is positioning himself well
>
> By Jules Witcover
>
> 1:19 PM EST, January 28, 2013
> Advertisement
>
> As the second Obama term gets underway, much is being said and written
> about the president finally emerging as a tougher, stronger Democrat in the
> liberal mold of past party greats. His second inaugural address pressed
> Republicans in Congress to accept a broader, more aggressive package of
> social programs and reforms than he embraced in his first term.
>
> Standing at his side, even more visibly during the second inaugural
> festivities than before, has been Vice President Joe Biden, not merely in
> ceremonial roles but as a key supporting player in Mr. Obama's most
> prominent second-term initiatives. Gone are past hide-the-veep exercises
> that often marked the vice presidencies of so many previous occupants of
> the office since its almost accidental creation by the founding fathers.
>
> The first vice president, John Adams, got the job as a sort of booby prize
> under the original constitutional plan giving the post to the runner up in
> the presidential balloting. After that approach was scrapped to provide
> separate voting for the two offices, a string of near-invisibles with names
> like Daniel D. Tompkins, Richard Mentor Johnson, George Dallas and William
> Wheeler served as vice presidents and vanished into obscurity.
>
> Not until recent occupants, including Walter Mondale, Al Gore, Dick Cheney
> and now Mr. Biden, has the vice president been seen as a truly active
> participant in the administration in which each has served. Of these, Mr.
> Cheney probably has been the most dominant if often portentous figure. Mr.
> Biden, by contrast, has been more openly and publicly engaged in tackling
> administration political and legislative tasks than any previous veep.
>
> Mr. Cheney was deeply involved, often in "undisclosed locations," plotting
> war strategy and ways to expand presidential power under George W. Bush.
> Mr. Biden, by contrast, has more conspicuously carried the ball for Mr.
> Obama as a negotiator in his fiscal battles on Capitol Hill. His
> intercessions most recently with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in
> avoiding the fiscal cliff earned him the nickname the "McConnell whisperer."
>
> At the same time, Mr. Obama gave Mr. Biden the lead role in the task force
> exploring the gun-control agenda that grew out of the Newtown tragedy, and
> now in the just-unfolding effort to sell it with Mr. Obama through an
> aggressive grass-roots campaign around the country.
>
> All this has begun to give a more serious tilt to previously fanciful
> notions that Mr. Biden, a two-time loser in the presidential sweepstakes in
> 1988 and 2008, might well despite his age at 70 and a nagging image of
> flippancy and loquaciousness, make a third try in 2016.
>
> For all the ridicule directed at him by partisan foes who would reduce him
> to a political joke, Mr. Biden has continued to pile on credentials as an
> effective politician adding to his already impressive record of 36 years in
> the Senate that included chairmanships of the body's key Judiciary and
> Foreign Relations Committees.
>
> His abilities as a combative campaigner, demonstrated again in his October
> debate with Republican running mate Paul Ryan, helped counter Mr. Obama's
> disappointing showing in his first debate against Mitt Romney and put the
> Democratic campaign back on track to re-election in November.
>
> More substantively, Mr. Biden has been a primary Obama hand-holder in the
> president's determination to wind down the American involvements in the
> wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He notably urged the pivot from
> counterinsurgency to counterterrorism as opposed to nation building in the
> latter.
>
> Right now, the chief potential barrier for Mr. Biden in 2016 may not be
> his age — he would be 73 when embarking on a third presidential bid — but
> the prospect of Hillary Clinton running herself for a second time,
> immensely strengthened by four successful years as secretary of state.
>
> Her tremendous support from women voters, and her demonstrated ability as
> a national campaigner in 2008, would doubtless be a factor for Mr. Biden to
> consider in embarking on such a course. However, his own progress in
> building his stature as a serious public figure should not be
> underestimated.
>
> A major sideline drama over the next four years in the Democratic Party,
> as Barack Obama strives to construct a lasting legacy for himself, may be
> the performances and positioning of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in the
> lame-duck president's shadow.
>
> *Jules Witcover is a syndicated columnist and former long-time writer for
> The Baltimore Sun. His latest book is "Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and
> Redemption" (William Morrow). His email is juleswitcover@comcast.net.*
> Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts<http://www.baltimoresun.com/services/alerts/>
>
> Copyright © 2013, The Baltimore Sun <http://www.baltimoresun.com/>
>
>
> --
>
> Alexander Snyder-Mackler
> (302) 598-8678


--

Alexander Snyder-Mackler
(302) 598-867