The growing role and influence of Vice President Joe Biden is becoming evident.
The replacement of General Stanley McChrystal by General David Petraeus was due a lot to the disrespect that McChrystal demonstrated toward Biden in his published comments in Rolling Stone Magazine!
Biden is the skeptic on the inside of the Obama Administration who has the expertise and experience that Obama does not have, and Obama greatly respects him!
But Biden is also the loyal supporter of the President in public, and he goes behind the scenes on many undisclosed missions to help promote the foreign policy of the the administration!
An example of his influence is his surprise trip to Iraq , to celebrate the Fourth of July, and to work with the Iraqi government on moving ahead on setting up a stable government and constitution. He went with his wife, which was a first for a top government leader, and he informed the Iraqi government that compromise was necessary, just as with the Constitutional Convention and the Founding Fathers in 1787!
Biden is also the link between the administration and the US Senate, as Biden spent more years in that body than all but a small number historically! He may not be able to vote in the Senate anymore, but as its constitutional officer, Biden still wields influence over his former colleagues!