President Obama's deputy Joe Biden was caught in yet another foot-in-the-mouth situation when he was overheard telling a companion: "It's easy being vice president. You don't have to do anything."
It is believed that White House staff becomes nervous whenever Biden finds himself in front of a microphone. And the cause of that nervousness proved to be just right during Friday's health reform summit.
As Biden returned from his lunch break to the summit, a microphone on a TV camera operated by public service broadcaster CSPAN picked him up telling a companion: "It's easy being vice president. You don't have to do anything."
Another voice was heard saying, "It's like being the grandpa and not the parent."
Biden replied: "Yeah, that's it!"
His aides tried to cover-up the gaffe by saying that he was joking, citing a list of speeches and public engagements that Biden has made recently or is about to make, including a trip to Iraq, a speech on nuclear non-proliferation and a report on his pet project, the so-called Middle Class Task Force, The Times reported.
While Biden has not been accused of slacking on the job, he is neither as feared nor as influential as his predecessor Dick Cheney.
Biden is, by contrast, famously loquacious and is known to fluff his words and stray off message, the paper notes.
At his first campaign appearance with Obama in 2008, he told a rally in Ohio that Obama's top economic priority was "a three-letter word: Jobs, J, O, B, S".
He has also suffered the exquisite embarrassment of inviting a wheelchair-bound Democratic politician to stand up before a crowd of hundreds.
"Oh, God love you, what am I talking about," he said, when he realised his mistake. "Look, you're making everyone else stand up."
Image: US Vice President Joe Biden
