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Opinion: Joe Biden update: Lots of closed meetings, a poll number under Cheney

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While the president hops down to North Carolina and back to Virginia today, selling more healthcare plans whose billions of dollars will absolutely positively not add one Chicago dime to the deficit, Vice President Joe Biden has another full day of secret closed meetings in Washington.

According to the Veepster’s schedule, after taking Monday off to accompany his wife to the doctor, he’ll have a closed briefing on whatever the Recovery Act is or is not doing. Then, for the remainder of the entire day, Biden will have hour after hour of meetings with unidentified people on unidentified subjects. Don’t even ask.

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In the evening, he’ll return to his Delaware home to recover.

Also, some polling news for Biden buffs:

According to a new Washington Post survey, a clear majority of Americans (55%) approve of the job Biden’s doing, perhaps because thanks to schedules like today’s, they can’t know much about what that job he’s doing actually is.

Biden’s numbers are tied closely to Americans’ belief in the economic efficacy of President Obama’s stimulus package. Those who think it’ll work, like him; those who don’t, don’t.

Those Biden approval numbers still aren’t quite as good as Dick Cheney’s April approval of 64% from a 2001 Post poll. But then Cheney is Obama’s cousin and talks way less than Biden, who used to call Cheney the most dangerous vice president in U.S. history.

Biden’s approval numbers, however, are way better than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s. Which actually isn’t saying much because she and George W. Bush are both hovering around the lower 30s nowadays.

According to the Post, 79% of Democrats approve of Joe’s job, 54% of independents and 24% of Republicans. Among white Catholics and whites without college degrees, Obama’s actually doing better in approval ratings than the guy from Scranton, Pa., who was supposed to help him with that crowd. An ominous sign for a presidential helpmate.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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