Joe Biden has often bemoaned his failure to make a decision to run for the White House in a timely fashion. If only he had, he could have been that other awkward guy on the stage at the Democratic debate besides Martin O'Malley, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee. But recently Joe Biden did take credit for the ISIS takeover of Iraq.
HARWOOD: So George H.W. Bush was weak, Dan Quayle was dumb, Al Gore was wooden, Dick Cheney was Darth Vader. Do you feel sympathy for those guys, having done this for seven years? And are you comfortable with Goofy Uncle Joe?
BIDEN: No, I'm not comfortable with Goofy Uncle Joe. But one of the things that's important to know — and one of the reasons why, when I first got asked about this job I said no — is there is no inherent power in being vice president.
And so when the president asked me to consider this again — and I said yes — he said, "What do you want?" I said, "I want to be the last guy in the room." Every assignment he's given me, I've not had to check back. I ran the Recovery Act — beginning, middle and end. I did the Iraq thing."
And we know how well the "Iraq thing" worked out. Now Biden has reminded America that he exists and costs money by paying a surprise visit to Iraq.
Though the trip was scheduled months ago, the vice president is "arriving at a moment of a lot of turbulence," the official told reporters.
"The vice president has been the point person on Iraq for the administration since the beginning," a senior administration official told reporters traveling with the vice president. "He's been itching to get back for a while; looking for an opportunity. This seemed like a good moment to do it."
Iraq is in the middle of some serious political problems.
With tens of thousands of protesters marching in the streets of Baghdad to demand changes in government, Iraq’s Shiite prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, appeared before Parliament this week hoping to speed the process by introducing a slate of new ministers. He was greeted by lawmakers who tossed water bottles at him, banged on tables and chanted for his ouster.
Hadi al-Ameri, a Shiite rival to Mr. Abadi, who runs a powerful militia that is supported by Iran, is seen by many as harboring ambitions to replace him.
Even so, Mr. Ameri said, “only if I were crazy would I accept” the job of prime minister.
He added, as a way of defending Mr. Abadi’s failures in uniting the Iraqi state, “Even if a prophet came to rule Iraq, he wouldn’t be able to satisfy all sides.”
But what about Joe Biden? He did the Iraq thing already? Why not become President Joe Biden of Iraq? Or Caliph Joe Biden of Iraq?
Sure there are all sorts of technical procedural problems. Also Biden isn't officially a Kurd. But surely a political visionary like Joe Biden can work it all out. The world needs a President Joe Biden. If not of America, then of Iraq.