There are unique sensitivities involved here -- I don't think Hillary Clinton particularly cares, as she knows that others were in the running for her job -- but, still, for the sake of history -- did Barack Obama really give Biden a choice?This revelation came after Vice President-elect Joe Biden told Oprah that after then-Sen. Obama offered the job of VP he asked for some time to think about it and talk it over with his family.
Mrs. Biden interjected: "Joe had the choice of being secretary of State or vice president." She then seemed to realize she'd said something she wasn't supposed to have said.
Her husband laughed.
Said Oprah, trying to continue the conversation, "You said, 'Joe...?'"
"I said, 'Joe if you are secretary of State you will be away, I'll never see you,'" Mrs. Biden said. "We will see you at a state dinner once in a while. But I said if you are vice president, the entire family, because they worked so hard for the election, they can be involved ... They can come to our home, they can go to events, they can be with us and that is what is important to us."
Oprah turned to the VP-elect, asking "Were you worried about being number 2 because you wanted to be number one?"
"I think Barack was worried about it," the former senator said with a laugh.
Elizabeth Alexander, the Vice President's spokesperson, e-mailed reporters a statement late this afternoon:
"Like anyone who followed the presidential campaign this summer, Dr. Jill Biden knew there was a chance that President-elect Obama might ask her husband to serve in some capacity and that, given his background, the positions of Vice President and Secretary of State were possibilities. Dr. Biden's point to Oprah today was that being Vice President would be a better fit for their family because they would get to see him more and get to participate in serving more. To be clear, President-elect Obama offered Vice President-elect Biden one job only -- to be his running mate. And the Vice President-elect was thrilled to accept the offer."
Several Obama aides who were privy to the content of Obama's private, pre-selection meeting with Biden in Minneapolis say that the Democratic nominee asked Biden what he might want to do in an administration. Biden was, you'll recall, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and had been personally sought out by the president of Georgia for advice. Aides said they issued a clarification not because they were worried about Sen. Hillary Clinton's sensitivities but because they did not want the historical record to be compromised.
| 
