Friday's Special Report with Bret Baier on FNC gave attention to Vice President Biden's tendency to commit gaffes, with the notably centrist Morton Kondracke of Roll Call commenting that "I say little prayers every day for the health of Barack Obama, who is a lot more intelligent than Joe Biden." Kondracke went on to give a negative assessment of the Vice President's Senate career: "For all the time that Joe Biden was in the Senate, he was wrong about practically every foreign policy issue that there was."
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Fox All Stars segment from the Friday, May 22, Special Report with Bret Baier on FNC:
BARACK OBAMA FROM WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS DINNER: All the change hasn't been easy. Change never is. So I've cut the tension by bringing a new friend to the White House. He's warm. He's cuddly, loyal, enthusiastic. You just have to keep him on a tight leash. Every once in a while, he goes charging off in the wrong direction and gets himself into trouble. But enough about Joe Biden.
BRET BAIER: Well, there is the President at the White House Correspondents Dinner, of course, talking about his Vice President. A new book out by Richard Wolffe from Newsweek says senior aides say the Vice President just can't keep his mouth shut, and he has distracted, the President is distracted by the Vice President's indiscipline. Today in a tour of the Balkans, just getting off Air Force One, speaking to reporters, his final tour there, he was asked about Guantanamo Bay. He says he thinks it will closed by the 2010 deadline, but "This is going to be hard. It is like opening Pandora's Box. We don't know what is inside the box. There is a lot of speculation about detainees who are a real danger who are not able to be returned or tried. But that number, to the best of my knowledge, has not been established." What about the Vice President? This is part of the Friday lightning round. Charles?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Every court needs a Falstaff, although I think he's more of a jester. I mean, what he did in the Balkans is really odd. You're asked if your President promised to close the Gitmo in a year is going to do it, and you say "I think so." That's a hardy endorsement. He is amusing. I think he is a foil. But, you know, one time or another he is going to do real damage. He might have done it with that perhaps disclosure about the secret location of the undisclosed place where Cheney was kept in the days after 9/11. No one knows if it was a real disclosure or not, but he is a live wire. And for now, he is amusing, but he could be a real liability.
BAIER: Mort?
MORTON KONDRAKE: Look, Obama was absolutely right. He is warm, he's cuddly. There is no more well-intentioned or friendly man in Washington. He is among the most pleasant people around. But I say little prayers every day for the health of Barack Obama, who is a lot more intelligent than Joe Biden, who would succeed him if anything happened to Obama, who is more flexible ideologically. I mean, for all the time that Joe Biden was in the Senate, he was wrong about practically every foreign policy issue that there was. And at least Obama knows how to reverse field when he has to.
BAIER: Fred?
BARNES: Look, I think Biden serves a great, does a great service for President Obama. The late night comics don't want to feel uncomfortable or at least afraid to make jokes about Obama. So there's Joe Biden instead. Jay Leno said Biden is a godsend. Remember when he had the President on his show, he said he got a call the next day from a guy who said that was great to have him on your show. And he said, "What's it like to talk to the President?" Of course, it was Joe Biden calling.
