Jay Carney used to think, as he said last year on MSNBC, that Joe Biden is “incredibly prone to say the wrong thing.” Now, having transitioned from Time Washington bureau chief to Biden’s communications director, Carney understands that, as he tells The Washington Post‘s Mary Ann Akers today:
[I]n politics, people get stereotyped or they have reputations that they have to contend with. And the thing about the vice president…most of what people attribute to him as being gaffes are really examples of his candor….I believe the feeling among the president’s staff is that the value that the vice president brings in terms of experience and candor – you know, his truth telling capacity – far outweighs the occasional verbal miscue, which I think are wildly exaggerated. But politicians get reputations, especially ones who have been around as long as Joe Biden, and you have to live with it.
Also, Carney answers the question of whether “many reporters have asked [him] for a job.”
