“I’ve never seen anyone go into a room where there are disparate views and come out with everyone moving in the same direction,” said former senator Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), a longtime Biden adviser. In Iraq, Biden “went over there, and he knew the Kurds and he knew Maliki, and he was able to negotiate the whole thing.”
Biden was also Obama’s lead Senate interlocutor on the New START treaty with Russia, using his expertise and relationships to push the accord through in late 2010.
In an April speech, Biden suggested a bumper sticker for the Democrats: “Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive.”
Biden suggested that Romney couldn’t be trusted to have accomplished either victory. But Biden also acknowledged that he had counseled Obama not to order the bin Laden strike, a disclosure featured in a video the campaign released in March.
Critical role on trail
On the campaign trail, too, Biden has played a critical role, often making a more impassioned case for the Obama record than the president has himself. He laid out the 2012 message in five framing speeches this spring before Obama had even formally begun his campaign and will be featured during the Democratic National Convention with a prime-time introduction of the president.
Biden is scheduled to debate Ryan just once, in Danville, Ky., on Oct. 11. Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm (D), who played Palin in Biden’s 2008 debate preparation, said that Biden may have an easier time preparing to face Ryan.
In 2008, Granholm said, Democrats worried that Biden would appear condescending toward his younger, female opponent and come across as too much of a Beltway insider. This time, Biden will have more leeway to challenge Ryan, the House budget chairman, on Medicare, spending and other controversial subjects that have come to define the race.
Biden “does not have to mince words,” said Granholm, now host of “The War Room” on Current TV.
As for his own political future, Biden, who will be 73 during the next presidential election, has not ruled out a run. Kaufman said he expects to meet with Biden, his family and a handful of other close advisers after the November election to explore the possibility.
“He makes the final decision,” Kaufman said. “I will call for convening the group and say, ‘What about 2016?’ ”
Karen DeYoung, Nia-Malika Henderson and Scott Clement contributed to this report.
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