Biden on Voter's Perception of President Obama; Questioning the President's Manhood; Running on Autopilot
BLITZER: The vice president, Joe Biden, is shedding some new light on all those rumors way back when that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will take his place as his -- as President Obama's running mate in 2012. Here's how he explained it all to CNN's</s>LARRY KING LIVE. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "LARRY KING LIVE") LARRY KING, HOST: The White House shot down the rumors that you and Hillary Clinton were going to do a switch.</s>JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I tried, but it didn't work.</s>BIDEN: No,</s>I -- KING: Because you wanted State, didn't you?</s>BIDEN: No. No, no, no, no, no.</s>KING: OK. All right.</s>BIDEN: No, no. Look, here -- here's the deal. The president and I -- there was never any serious talk ever that anyone ever heard about me not being on the ticket with him or her not staying at State.</s>KING: Woodward started it, though.</s>BIDEN: Well, if you look at it, even Bob backed off a little bit on that as he -- what he said, as I read it -- and I read his book. What he basically said was when she was being considered for secretary of State, it was suggested by one of her pollsters she should take it because maybe there would be the opportunity to be vice president. Hillary has made it clear right from the first time I came out, Joe, I don't want to be vice president. The president has made it clear, Joe, I expect you to be on the ticket, I want you on the ticket. So it was really kind of, you know, sort of a Washington parlor game.</s>BLITZER: The vice president also weighed in on the woman who potentially could pose a threat to the Obama/Biden ticket. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "LARRY KING LIVE") KING: Sarah Palin has apparently now confirmed that she's thinking about running for president. How does that make Joe Biden think?</s>BIDEN: Well, you know --</s>BIDEN: I -- look, I think Sarah Palin has turned out to be -- and she is -- a real force in the Republican Party. And I think Sarah Palin is -- I -- were I a Republican senator, I would -- or a Republican political leader, I would look and say, wait, she's got a good chance of getting the nomination. But, look, it's hard enough for us to figure out our side of the aisle, let alone go over and -- and sort of handicap whether she can win or lose.</s>KING: What do you think of her?</s>BIDEN: Well, I like her.</s>KING: You do?</s>BIDEN: I mean, no. No, I personally like her. I -- I mean if you've met her, she -- she's an appealing person. When we campaigned --</s>KING: You debated her.</s>BIDEN: Yes, we -- we debated. There was not a harsh word. I mean we have a fundamentally different outlook on the world. And I think that would be a really -- a really interesting race.</s>KING: Would that be a race you'd like to take on?</s>BIDEN: Well, you know, I -- my mom used to have an expression, be careful what you wish for, Joe, you may get it.</s>BIDEN: So I never underestimate anyone. And -- but I think in that race, it would be a clear, clear choice for the country to make. And I believe President Obama would -- would be in very good shape.</s>BLITZER: All right, let's talk about that, what the vice president is saying on that issue and other issues, with our senior political analyst, David Gergen -- David, thanks very much. Quickly, if the economy is still not great, unemployment is hovering around 9 percent, how much of a threat would Sarah Palin, if she were the Republican nominee, pose to President Obama?</s>DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Well, he would certainly be vulnerable then, Wolf. I think that would be a period of maximum vulnerability and a strong Republican could definitely win the White House, but she would have to overcome her negatives before she got there. You know, those negatives have grown well over 50 percent now. She's got a big, big following, but she also has a large anti-Palin following.</s>BLITZER: Listen to this other exchange that Larry had with the vice president last night and we'll discuss. Listen to this.</s>KING: Should, frankly, the president had been doing a better job in the area of -- you know, what's reality and what's perception? Did he do a poor job in perception?</s>BIDEN,: Look, I don't think he -- he didn't misunderstand at all the dilemma we faced, but he knew, for example that -- again, this is our responsibility. It's not the other guy's. The buck stops with us.</s>BLITZER: The buck stops -- he went on to say the buck stops with the president of the United States, as usual. I'm sure they're doing a lot of postmortems at the White House, but what's the single most important lesson they should learn, looking ahead to 2012, from what happened in these midterms?</s>GERGEN: Wolf, I don't think it's a question of communication, which they keep coming back to is the excuse. I think the president fundamentally, in trying to solve the economic problems and then pushing on with the rest of his agenda, especially health care, threw too much big government at the country too quickly and people just weren't willing to follow it especially when it didn't seem to produce results on jobs. So, I think the big lesson was pivot back to the center, take things more methodically and get more things done to solve the jobs problem.</s>BLITZER: Obviously easier said than done. They've got a huge challenge ahead of them, David.</s>GERGEN: They do. They do. It can be done. Well, you know, Bill Clinton could do it. They can do it. Take care, Wolf. Have a great weekend.</s>BLITZER: No doubt about that. All right, thanks very much. We're following some other important top stories here in THE SITUATION ROOM, including some desperate efforts under way right now to rescue at least 29 miners missing after an explosion in New Zealand. We'll have the latest. And he's the Penn in the legendary duo Penn and Teller. He says he's had some bad experience of airport security pat-downs and now he is weighing in on the controversial methods. My interview with him, that's coming up.