WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden groused that President Obama gave him “every s- -t job in the world,” but still doesn’t fully trust him.
The revelations about Biden’s tortured relationship with Obama, detailed in a lengthy profile by Politico, only got worse when the Veep in 2012 came out in support of gay marriage while Obama was still on the record opposing it.
The infamous gaffe, which pre-empted Obama’s announcement that he had “evolved” on the issue and supported gay marriage, so outraged Obama’s top aides that they froze Biden out of White House decision-making meetings.
Biden, 71, had agreed early on to take on all the unsavory jobs, from settling Senate spats to cooling out jittery Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
But he wanted to be included in the big decisions.
“When the president asked me what portfolio did I want, I said, ‘Base it on what you want of me to help you govern,’” Biden recalled telling Obama.
“‘But I want to be the last guy in the room on every major decision. … You’re president, I’m not, but if it’s my experience you’re lookin’ for, I want to be the last guy to make the case.’”
The gay gaffe, however, broke the deal.
Biden tried to apologize to Obama, telling him he stole the president’s thunder by accident.
But Obama’s inner circle held a grudge and became increasingly hostile toward the VP.
The slights that followed included barring him from strategic planning meetings, cancelling plans for Biden to headline fundraisers and limiting his public appearances.
The Obama aides even interfered with Biden’s staffing decisions, blocking two of his picks for a new chief of staff.
Worse yet, they raised the profile of outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who remains Biden’s chief rival for the presidency in 2016.
After Obama and Biden won re-election, Obama chose to appear with Clinton, not Biden, in his first TV interview of his second term.
After two years, Biden’s fractured friendship with Obama is just starting to mend.
Meanwhile, the looming presence of Clinton, 66, has continued to overshadow Biden.
The vice president was miffed when top White House aides failed, in his view, to forcefully dispel rumors that Obama was considering replacing him in 2012 with Clinton as VP.
Further infuriating Biden, the rumors were true. The Obama campaign had started polling voters about a possible Obama-Clinton ticket.
Clinton now leads early polls for the Democratic nomination for president, including a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll that showed her crushing Biden 73-12 percent.
“He’s in a predicament. It’s so big, it’s almost literary,” said a White House insider. “Never in his entire life has [Biden] been better positioned to get the thing he most wants: the presidency. He’s climbed almost all the way to the top. And guess what? Somebody moved the ladder. How would you deal with that?”