Washington (CNN) – Multiple top Democrats said Thursday the president's senior aides are deeply annoyed with Vice President Joe Biden for forcing the conversation on same-sex marriage.   One source said Biden has, in the past, counseled the president against announcing support for same-sex marriage – making the circumstances that much more frustrating. Although other sources said they have not heard Biden make that point in recent years.   Biden made comments supporting such unions during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" that aired Sunday, seemingly forcing the issue to the forefront of public debate.

Another source said the recent events gave renewed life to old jokes and flippant remarks like, "Hello? Does he know this is the Obama presidency not the Biden presidency?"

None of these sources said they believed it would create a lasting rift between the West Wing and the vice president's office – because Biden has gone off script before and will do it again.

The president's team said they were aware of the risk when they tapped Biden for the ticket. One source added that the president has a close personal relationship with the former senator and that trumps his advisers' frustrations. But there is a great deal of interest in keeping the vice president "on script."   These top Democrats said they are not concerned that Biden will "get credit" for the same-sex marriage announcement. They said history will show it's the president who did this and they believe most people thought the president already supported same-sex marriage.   Sources also said the vice president feels bad about putting the president in a tough position.   As evidence he is not in the dog house, Biden hosted a student loan event at the White House Thursday and will make a two-day campaign swing in Ohio next week.

Air Force Two, a modified Boeing 757 airplane carrying Vice President Joe Biden, was involved in a “bird strike” while landing in Santa Barbara, CA on Thursday evening, an Air Force spokesman confirmed to CNN.

“The plane landed safely as a precautionary measure and is currently being inspected to assess if there is any damage,” said Lieutenant Gregg Johnson, a public affairs officer for the Air Force’s 89^th Airlift Wing – the unit responsible for managing presidential air travel.

Lt. Johnson assured CNN that the strike did not cause an emergency landing and that all passengers, including the vice president, were safe at all times.

“The Vice President left Santa Barbara this afternoon as scheduled, aboard an alternate U.S. Air Force aircraft,” a spokesperson in the Office of the Vice President said, confirming the bird strike.

While the vice president’s original airplane is being inspected, Lt. Johnson said the Air Force sent a C-20 – also known as a Gulfstream 3 – from Colorado Springs to pick up Biden and his travelling party and carry them back to Delaware as scheduled.

Washington (CNN)—When Vice President Joe Biden hits the campaign trail in the pivotal swing state of Ohio this week, he will likely focus on one of the Obama administration’s successes – the bailout of the auto industry. 

Biden gives the first in a series of four high profile speeches at a United Auto Workers union hall inToledo on Thursday. 

A Democratic campaign official tells CNN the speeches are designed "to begin framing the core issues of the general election."

The auto industry in Ohio, a critical swing state in the upcoming presidential election, is key to the state’s economy. 

Ohio is only second to Michigan in auto production, employing 72,000 workers in the auto and parts industries.  FULL POST

Vice President Joe Biden just made a brief, unplanned visit to the White House press briefing room with his youngest sister-in-law Kim Snow and her husband Jimmy. Talking to a few reporters, Biden jokingly offered some marital advice for Valentine’s Day.

“Every man should marry into a family with 5 sisters,” Biden said. “One of them always loves you. Not the same one, but one of them.”

Biden joked that Kim was visiting the briefing room to make an announcement.

“I’m her favorite brother in law,” the vice president said.

(CNN) – As Republican presidential candidates monitored vote returns from Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, Vice President Joe Biden slammed the contest's projected winner as out of touch with middle class Americans.

Speaking to New Hampshire voters via teleconference, Biden took specific aim at Mitt Romney, saying the former Massachusetts governor was more concerned with wealthy businesses than middle class workers.

Biden conceded Romney's widely-commented-on comment that he "likes being able to fire people" was "probably taken a little out of context," but said the remark nonetheless reflected Romney's true sentiments.

"He thinks it's more important for the stockholders and the shareholders and the investors and the venture capital guys to do well than for those employees to be part of the bargain," Biden said.

Read the complete story on the CNN Ticker

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, are hosting House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and his wife, Diana, for dinner tonight.

It may seem like an unusual double date.  Cantor has often been a thorn in the White House's side, pulling out of "the Biden talks" on deficit reduction in June to leave negotiations on raising the debt ceiling to President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.  Those negotiations ultimately failed to reach a "grand bargain" to reduce the deficit by several trillion dollars over ten years.

But the two have genuine affection for each other, Democratic and Republican sources say, much to the bewilderment of some White House aides I've spoken to.

"The Vice President and Congressman Cantor have developed a close relationship while working together over the past year," an official in the Vice President's Office says. "This dinner with their wives is a personal occasion."

"Leader Cantor has a great respect for and built a friendship with Vice President Biden from their work together this year," a source in Cantor's office says. "This social dinner is a continuation of that friendship with their wives.  They've been trying to get together for some time."

The four will dine at the Vice President's official residence on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Obama administration officials often cite the economic conditions they inherited pre-2009 to beat back Republican attacks over the slow recovery.

But what the Bush administration did is “not relevant,” Vice President Joe Biden told Florida radio station WLRN Thursday, a seeming departure from the standard White House’s talking points:

“There are a lot of people in Florida that have good reason to be upset, because they lost their jobs. Even though 50-some percent of the American people think the economy tanked because of the last administration, that’s not relevant, because we are in charge. And right now, we are the ones in charge and it’s gotten better but it hasn’t gotten good enough.”

Later, White House spokesman Jay Carney appeared to walk back Biden’s comments at Thursday’s daily briefing.

“He didn’t say the blame for it is owned. What he absolutely said was that most Americans want their elected officials in Washington to act to improve the situation."

Joe Biden is a serious fan of cars, so much so that a now-famous Onion parody showing a shirtless version of the vice president washing a 1981 Pontiac Trans Am in the White House driveway may not have been that far off the mark.

“I have been in my bathing suit in my driveway and not only washed my Goodwood-green 1967 Corvette but also simonized it,” Biden told Car and Driver Magazine in an interview out Tuesday. “At least the Onion should have had me washing a Trans Am convertible. I love convertibles.”

Biden, who’s father was longtime car dealer, also reminisced about favorite sets of wheels from his youth.

“I bought a ’51 Studebaker. My dad thought it was nice and calm, but it had that overdrive, and it was fast. Then I bought a 1952 Plymouth convertible, candy-apple red with a split windshield. I think that was my favorite," he said.

"I had a ’56 Chevy, then in college I bought a 100,000-mile Mercedes 190SL with those Solex carburetors that never functioned. And I still have my 1967 Goodwood-green Corvette, 327, 350-horse, with a rear-axle ratio that really gets up and goes,” Biden continued.

Meanwhile, President Obama’s No. 2 lamented that now he’s “not allowed to drive anything” due to security concerns.
FULL POST

This week's picture of the week pulls back the curtain as we go behind the scenes as Vice President Biden became a key power player in helping to close the deal on raising the nation's debt ceiling.  The photo was taken by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy (D) as Biden sought to calm Democrat's concerns about the deal in a closed door caucus meeting.  Senator Leahy's was the only camera allowed in the closed door meeting.

Here is more information from Democrats familiar with today’s closed-door House meeting, with Vice President Biden.

The Vice President said the 14th amendment was NOT an option for the President.  Context: Rep. DeFazio (D-OR) wanted to know why the President didn’t just use the 14th amendment. The VP explained the President had his legal scholars look into it and decided it was not appropriate. We’ve previously been advised that VP Biden consulted with the White House counsel’s office about options – including whether the 14th amendment could be invoked. He chaired the Judiciary Committee when he was in the Senate so is probably familiar with the issues.

On reports that the VP called tea party lawmakers “terrorists”: Multiple Democratic sources say the VP was listening to angry Democrats vent about Republicans who said they “negotiate like terrorists”  “how can you negotiate with hostage takers” and that they “feel pick pocketed”. As they vented the VP said “well now we’ve taken away their weapons of mass destruction,” meaning the Republicans can’t use the debt ceiling as leverage with Democrats in the future. In an interview with CBS' Scott Pelley the Vice President denied he compared tea party linked lawmakers to terrorists.

Kendra Barkoff, the Vice President's Press Secretary, responded to the accusations: “The word was used by several members of Congress. The Vice President does not believe it’s an appropriate term in political discourse.”