Biden: I'm No Reform Czar

Allan Holmes already has covered this over at Tech Insider, but I can't resist weighing in: In this week's New Yorker, Joe Biden outlines his role in a potential Obama administration. In his mind, it involves a central role in formulating and carrying out substantive policies, and does not involve anything to do with restructuring and managing the federal bureaucracy. Here's Ryan Lizza's description in the magazine of Obama's discussions with Biden about the vice presidency:

He also tested Biden’s understanding of how broad his role would be, as opposed to that of another contenderâ€"apparently, Kathleen Sebelius, the governor of Kansas and the only woman known to be on Obama’s short list. “He said, ‘Well, you know, if I offered this to somebody’â€"he named her, a personâ€"he said, ‘That person would be very happy if I assigned them to reorganize the government.’ And he said, ‘They’d be very happy doing that. How about you?’ ” That didn’t sound like much of a job to Biden. “No,” he told Obama. “That’s not what I want to do.”

When Obama announced a broad government reform plan on Sept. 22, it sounded like Biden would play a key role: "Barack Obama and Joe Biden will create a focused team within the White House that will work with agency leaders and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to improve results and outcomes for federal government programs while eliminating waste and inefficiency," the plan stated.

But apparently, the consensus among Democrats now is that the vice president is too valuable to waste on such an endeavor. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the 2004 Democratic standard-bearer, told Lizza he thought President Clinton made a mistake in placing Vice President Al Gore in charge of his National Performance Review effort to overhaul government. “I think when he was given reinventing government, it put him on the sidelines,” Kerry said.

On the McCain ticket on the other hand, Sarah Palin has made it plain that government reform will be part of her portfolio.