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DONNA BRAZILE
Manager of Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign; author and political commentator
No vice president has ever done so much so quickly -- or made such a difference.
In foreign affairs, Joe Biden has taken more trips abroad than any vice president this early in a term, and none of them have been fluff. In Munich, he delivered the administration's first major foreign policy address. In Latin America, he set the stage for President Obama's trip to the Summit of the Americas. In the Balkans, Biden got the peace process back on track. And his visit to Beirut was key to helping the pro-Western government there win its election last weekend.
Domestically, President Obama credits his vice president with winning the votes needed to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- and then Biden took on the thankless task of implementing it. He's gotten $150 billion out the door quickly and without waste, and Cabinet members tell me that Biden's leadership is making this massive program work. His Task Force on Middle Class Working Families is making sure that average families aren't forgotten when policy is made.
Maybe Joe Biden sometimes says too much, too honestly. But after eight years of secrecy under Dick Cheney, Biden's "tell it like it is" style is a change I can believe in.
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