Do We Have Two Secretaries of State?

by Keith Koffler on December 9, 2011, 10:26 am

Having shed responsibility for promoting the unpromotable stimulus act, Vice President Biden is now making himself secretary of state.

Of course, we already have a secretary of state, but if you’ve failed to notice based on the lack of improvement in the U.S. position in the world vis-a-vis OTHER COUNTRIES, you can be forgiven.

Biden has long been the “point man” for Obama’s retreat strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq, but the former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman seems to be expanding his portfolio.

Which begs the question, WHO IS RUNNING OUR FOREIGN POLICY? IS ANYONE?

In the past couple of months, Biden traveled to Greece, Turkey, and Iraq, held an important call with President Saakashvili of Georgia, met with a Kurdish leader, spoke by video to the London Conference on Cyberspace, led a presidential delegation to Saudi Arabia, participated in hosting the South Korean President, met with the prime minister of Montenegro, and held a session with the deputy prime minister of Russia.

I’m glad to know the vice president is finally having some fun instead of having to run out to the hinterland of the U.S. and declare how happy he is about improvements in the highway connecting Dayton to Cincinnati. But how, exactly, is this new system working?

Do Biden and Hillary Clinton carefully coordinate their actions? Have they sat down to work our some grand strategy for handling the world? Are their staffs on the same page? How is she able to conduct Obama’s foreign policy when Biden has constant access to the president and seems to have the power to make his own?

My guess is that, with Clinton seemingly tired of the job and looking to wrap it up, Biden pretty much does what he wants and then lets her know about it. We have an ad hoc foreign policy. Not that Clinton was known as a strategist to begin with.

It’s just so great that Biden has put himself in charge of diplomacy. He’s always so careful and measured in what he says.

If Obama is reelected, look for Biden to seize the portfolio from whomever they make secretary of state and completely dominate foreign policy.

And just maybe, watch him resign the vice presidency to actually BE secretary of state, and let Obama anoint a true successor as VP.