what is biden's role in the administration?

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_Pr..._United_States

First result when searching for "vice-president of usa" in Google.

You're welcome.

[Grummgug]

Let's look beyond the defined role of Vice-President.

Obama uses Biden as his negotiator.

Obama does not have good negotiating skills. Ever since the republicans won the House in 2011, Obama has sent Biden in to congress to try to negotiate for him on issues.

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationw...0_biden12.html

From the start of his presidency, Obama looked for Biden to play a substantive role. That role has grown more visible, and probably more important, since Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives in November, forcing Obama to work more cooperatively with Republicans, something Biden's done for a lifetime.

"What's changed is who's up there on the Hill," said Ron Klain, who stepped down last month as Biden's chief of staff. "The vice president has good relationships with Republicans, and he'll try to use those relationships to the administration's advantage."

Biden also is considered an expert on foreign policy. (I think he's terrible with foreign policy but he has experience there). When Obama chose his running mate in 2008, it was rumored he would either pick Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, with the loser getting Secretary of State. Biden got Veep. Hillary was made SoS. Biden spends a lot of time advising on foreign policy and travelling abroad. You could say Biden and Hillary were co-Secretaries of State.

Behind the scenes, he often weighed in as a contrarian. He held a pessimistic view of the war in Afghanistan and pushed against a large troop escalation. He didn't prevail, but he influenced Obama's controversial decision to announce that troop withdrawals would begin in July.

Biden also schedules regular breakfasts with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Foreign-policy analysts say the two have remained close even as Biden has been tasked with the sometimes overlapping role of diplomacy management.

Leslie Gelb, the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, who with Biden in 2006 promoted a partitioned federal system for Iraq that didn't prevail, said that Clinton and Biden "have lived with it quite well together."

Besides his multiple trips to Iraq, Biden has visited 22 other countries and the Palestinian territories in his first two years on the job. He often meets with foreign leaders in Washington, D.C.

Biden actually carries a lot of the load of the presidency for Obama. If you haven't noticed, Obama often gets relegated to campaign mode a lot. When the administration was pushing for Obamacare, Biden and Pelosi were handed the task of winning over congress. Obama was sent to tour the nation and rally support for it. They all failed miserably at their tasks, too. Obama failed to win public support. Biden and Pelosi failed to win support in congress. In the end, they used the nuclear option to kill the filibuster and ram it thru on a pure partisan vote.

Biden has a lot of important duties. He also doesn't perform them very well.

Biden is Obama's training wheels. And they are not going to remove them...ever.

Basically, you got this guy, Barack Obama, who is able to win Presidential elections. He is not qualified for the job. He has no executive experience. He doesn't know what he is doing. So they paired him up with Biden who does most of the presidential work.

Biden and Hillary were sort of co-presidents of the US when it comes to meeting with foreign leaders and setting foreign policy.
Now its Biden and Kerry.
Biden and Pelosi are co-presidents when it comes to negotiating with congress.
Obama is told to stay out of the way and go to rallies and try to win over the hearts and minds of the American people.

Its messy but the democrats are working with what they have.

It is probably more accurate to say Biden is the president and Obama is the puppet.