Vice President Joe Biden has answered in no certain terms former Vice President Dick Cheney’s latest verbal brickbat — the former, highly unpopular Vice President’s claim that the United States is less safe under President Barack Obama.
Watch Biden’s response here. In fact, he brings together several strands of criticism about the Bush years — arguing that a safe America is not just the kinds of widely criticized policies that earned Cheney a kind of Darth Vader image but entails also rebuilding alliances and a U.S. that uses reason and coalition building as security tools as well.
Also note that he refers to the fact that under George Bush Cheney got the reputation of in effect heading his own branch of government — one that operated away from the Presidency, felt itself above Congress and, some say, not bound by traditional governing norms. Biden is touting the fact that he works more closely with — and for — his President than Cheney did.
But, once again, it underscores how this administration is not going to leave charges unanswered…unanswered:
UPDATE: Here’s some of CNN’s account of the interview:
“I don’t think [Cheney] is out of line, but he is dead wrong,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “This administration — the last administration left us in a weaker posture than we’ve been any time since World War II: less regarded in the world, stretched more thinly than we ever have been in the past, two wars under way, virtually no respect in entire parts of the world.
“… I guarantee you we are safer today, our interests are more secure today than they were any time during the eight years” of the Bush administration.
In an interview with CNN’s John King last month, Cheney said President Obama had been “making some choices that in my mind will raise the risk to the American people of another attack.”
Biden said former President Bush had not been fully aware of the country’s position in the world.
“I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office, and he was a great guy, enjoyed being with him. He said to me, he said, ‘Well, Joe,’ he said, ‘I’m a leader.’ And I said, ‘Mr. President, turn around and look behind you. No one’s following.’ People are beginning to follow the United States again as a consequence of our administration.”
“… I think the biggest thing we’re doing is, I’m operating in concert with the president,” he said. “There are not — there are — look, everybody talks about how powerful Cheney was. His power weakened America, in my view.”
But he did not deny reports of disagreement within the Obama administration as well, over the president’s plan to widen involvement in Afghanistan. A report last week said Biden had warned about the possibility of getting into a quagmire, while military advisers pushed for more troops…
“Well, look. Without commenting specifically on who took what position, there was a healthy debate. There is a healthy debate within our administration.”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.