NYC Letter: Joe On The Job III

Day 40 of CHOPE

I'm announcing today that I am asking my vice president, Joe Biden, to oversee our administration's implementation efforts. ... The fact that I'm asking my vice president to personally lead this effort shows how important it is for our country and our future to get this right.

President Obama,
investing Joe "Hi-Q" Biden with oversight
of the $787B stimulus candy store
WASHINGTON February 23, 2009 (MSNBC)

Sounds pretty important. A demonstrated grasp of detail would seem to be requisite.

MISSPEAKING, BIDEN DIRECTS MAYORS
TO PRIVATE WEB COMPANY

February 20, 2009 (WaPo) - Today, a new glitch -- in the form of a misstatement by Vice President Biden -- arose to direct 80 mayors visiting the White House to a private-sector Web site instead of the government's own stimulus-bill spending tracking site. Mr. Biden, addressing the United States Conference of Mayors:

We've already set up a Web site, Recovery.com, which will show where and how the money is being spent. The public can actually go on a Web site and see how we're spending this money.

But the stimulus site is not Recovery.com -- it's Recovery.gov. Recovery.com and Recovery.org earlier today both redirected to the commercial Web research company Onvia, a NASDAQ-traded $20 million business that's been tracking government spending for a decade and that's now also in the business of helping businesses secure government contracts being doled out under the stimulus bill.

The following week, Mr. Biden drew a blank on the Web site entirely.

The right guy to oversee the details of running a $787B candy store.

CHOPE.

Grenades. Horseshoes. Stimulus oversight, close is good.