海角大神

Vice President Joe Biden 鈥� sometimes it seems he鈥檚 doing his best to live up to the fictional 鈥淒iamond Joe鈥� Biden character .

This week鈥檚 incident involved an off-color description of his job, as opposed to the inadvertent use of ethnically offensive terms, or an enthusiastic endorsement of shotguns for self-defense.

At an event Thursday at the Harvard Institute of Politics, a participant introduced himself as the vice president of a student organization. Mr. Biden then expressed faux commiseration with a fellow sufferer.

鈥淚sn鈥檛 it a [word that begins with 鈥渂鈥� and rhymes with 鈥渋tch鈥漖? I mean . . . that vice president thing.鈥�

The crowd laughed. Biden quickly backtracked, saying that accepting the vice presidential nomination from President Obama was the 鈥渂est decision鈥� he had ever made.

He and the student bantered back and forth. 鈥淚 love that guy I work with,鈥� Biden concluded.

Should Joe have been less loose-lipped? Maybe, but at this point that isn鈥檛 going to happen, so let鈥檚 not pretend to be surprised. As Adam O鈥橬eal notes at , Biden has been known to use saltier language than that in public. The most famous example is the f-bomb he dropped at the signing of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.

鈥淢illions of people also heard the line, as an open microphone picked up his comments,鈥� Mr. O鈥橬eal writes.

Plus, Biden鈥檚 right. Being vice president is an [expletive deleted]. It鈥檚 a difficult job that combines extensive travel with lots of public speaking. You鈥檝e got little power, but you鈥檙e held responsible for the actions of your boss anyway. For the most part, the only way you can make big news is to mess up.

Al Gore had a whole routine about this when he was VP. At a 海角大神 Science Monitor breakfast in 1996, he started with a slide show of the worst vice-presidents of all time, which included Spiro Agnew and Aaron Burr, and then noted that Woodrow Wilson鈥檚 VP, Thomas R. Marshall, just stopped going to Cabinet meetings and traveled around the country giving speeches for money.

鈥淪ounds like a great job,鈥� Mr. Gore said of the speaking gigs. 鈥淭oo bad Colin Powell already has it.鈥�

Yes, that was funnier in the mid-'90s.

Gore then cited the famous line of FDR鈥檚 vice president, John Nance Garner, who said the office wasn鈥檛 worth a 鈥減itcher of warm spit.鈥�

But as Gore noted, 鈥渟pit鈥� was a euphemism. Garner actually referred to another bodily fluid.

As to the VP鈥檚 relationship to the president, Gore recounted that he鈥檇 had lunch with President Clinton just the other day. When they were done with discussion of matters of state, Clinton leaned over and pointed at Gore鈥檚 plate.

鈥淵ou going to finish that?鈥� he asked, according to Gore.

Self-deprecation. For US VPs, that鈥檚 what鈥檚 on the menu.