Where’s Joe Biden?

As President-elect Obama hands out assignments, one big name has yet to get his marching orders: Joe Biden. The New York Times reports that Obama hasn’t given Biden much of anything to do, much less a portfolio of the kind Bill Clinton entrusted to Al Gore. So what’s Biden up to? Stuffing Christmas stockings for charity. Still refusing to talk to the media. And vetting appointees—even those like Hillary Clinton, whose promotion to Secretary of State will likely limit Biden’s role in foreign policy. “If he had made an argument against it, it would have carried a lot of weight,” a source says of the Clinton nomination. “He was totally in support of it.” Meanwhile, Biden is said to be “honing his economic credentials.”