Quick update tonight on Joe Effing Big Deal Biden's effing gaffe at Tuesday's historic healthcare bill signing.

According to the Vice President of the United States, getting caught saying the F-bomb in the White House on a live mic on national TV was very funny. (See video below.)

According to the vice president, President Obama agreed the cursing was not only funny but was the historic day's highlight. Biden said the president was even memorializing the moment with a T-shirt bearing the funny F-phrase.

According to the vice president, during Wednesday morning's presidential briefing, the president said, "You know what the best thing about yesterday was? Joe’s comment." (Laughter.)

Biden shared the hilarious incident Wednesday night during a $2,500 per plate Democratic fundraising dinner in the home of developer David Cordish near Baltimore. Biden reaped additional laughter about the presidential laughter.

Biden said he told the leader of the free world, "If you thought it was so good, why didn't you say it?" (Laughter.)

In related news about healthcare, the man who was riding trains to work in the Senate when the president was still in sixth grade admitted to about five dozen donors that 2010 was shaping up as a pretty unhealthy year for Democrat politicians. Biden predicted "losses" in November's midterm elections, which he said he wouldn't specify due to the presence of a pool reporter..

Here's the vice president's political analysis:

Barack generated such an overwhelming turnout and enthusiasm (in 2008), that we had the biggest turnout in history. It was gigantic. And a lot of really good Democrats got washed up on shore and all of a sudden were Congressmen, in districts that Democrats have no business having Congressmen.

I'm not here to tell you we're gaining seats. But I'm telling you, we're going to go into the second half of our administration, with a solid Democratic majority in the House and the Senate, and with the wind at our backs.

So, now all those Democratic members of Congress who washed up on Capitol Hill with the Obama-Biden administration and don't really belong there can spend the next 7+ months wondering if they're the sure November losers Biden had in mind tonight. (Laughter.)

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Pete Souza / White House

President Obama took the unusual step Wednesday afternoon of issuing a special denunciation of Cuba's human rights policies, after a year of advocating improved relations after nearly a half-century of political estrangement with the island neighbor.

"Instead of embracing an opportunity to enter a new era," Obama said (full text below), "Cuban authorities continue to respond to the aspirations of the Cuban people with a clenched fist."

As recently as last summer at a Caribbean summit, Obama and Raul Castro talked separately of opening discussions on a wide range of issues including human rights. The country's semi-retired revolutionary leader, brother Fidel Castro, had warm words when Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the autumn.

But then in December the Cuban icon said Obama's warm smile could not be trusted.

Today, about seven months out from November's midterm elections, Obama responded.

The lack of response to Obama overtures from Iran have not prompted similar White House outbursts.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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President Obama's statement on Cuban human rights

Recent events in Cuba, including the tragic death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the repression visited upon Las Damas de Blanco, and the intensified harassment of those who dare to give voice to the desires of their fellow Cubans, are deeply disturbing.

These events underscore that instead of embracing an opportunity to enter a new era, Cuban authorities continue to respond to the aspirations of the Cuban people with a clenched fist.

Today, I join my voice with brave individuals across Cuba and a growing chorus around the world in calling for an end to the repression, for the immediate, unconditional release of all political prisoners in Cuba and for respect for the basic rights of the Cuban people.

During the course of the past year, I have taken steps to reach out to the Cuban people and to signal my desire to seek a new era in relations between the governments of the United States and Cuba. I remain committed to supporting the simple desire of the Cuban people to freely determine their future and to enjoy the rights and freedoms that define the Americas, and that should be universal to all human beings.    ###

Photos: Associated Press; Reuters (Raul Castro).

When President Obama postponed his trip to Indonesia and Australia to help Democrats cross the finish line on healthcare, Republican critics were irate. The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan, speech writer for President Reagan, had a public hissy fit over it.

Excuse me, but it is embarrassing -- really, embarrassing to our country -- that the president of the United States has again put off a state visit to Australia and Indonesia because he's having trouble passing a piece of domestic legislation he's been promising for a year will be passed next week. What an air of chaos this signals to the world. And to do this to Australia of all countries, a nation that has always had America's back and been America's friend. How bush league, how undisciplined, how kid's stuff.

Well excuse me, but it is clear that Obama's historic achievement was impressive to political leaders around the world. As London's Guardian put it, finally the Democrats found their spine.

Overseas, the victory has rebranded the White House from weak to muscular. The Financial Times' Gideon Rachman suggested that Obama's faltering for more than a year in the effort to pass healthcare reform sapped his credibility, not just in America but around the world. Now, the columnist said, foreign leaders who are inclined to thumb their nose at the president will reconsider. Hello Tehran, Moscow, Tel Aviv.

The most visible sign so far is the visit to Washington of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu. When Vice President Biden visited Israel recently, Bibi thumbed his nose at him, announcing 1,600 more Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians hope to make their capital if the two sides ever agree to live next to each other. The Obama administration was livid, and New York Times' columnist Tom Friedman suggested that Biden should have responded by leaving the country in protest.

But that was in early March. When Netanyahu came to Washington this week for meetings just after the  historic House vote, he was not so brash. In fact, so forceful was the Obama administration in laying down the law to Netanyahu that after the two leaders met and Obama had returned to the residence for the evening, the Israeli leader requested a second meeting. So sobered was Netanyahu by the White House demand that he freeze settlements that he canceled his U.S. media appearances this morning. So attuned was the White House to the optics that no official photos of the two leaders talking were released.

In politics as in life, everyone loves a winner. Already, now that the healthcare bill is on the books and some of the hysteria has passed, Obama's poll numbers are up domestically. The latest Gallup Poll shows the president's approval rating back up to 51% from last week's mark of 46%.

But on the international stage, victory is about more than popularity, it's about respect. And the one thing that always garners applause in foreign capitals is pure political power.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed to the West Wing not by bands but by an unidentified White House staffer on Tuesday. Credit: Associated Press

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It would be tempting  to write off Sarah Palin's latest money-making adventure as the end of an inglorious political career.

Word is the former Alaska governor and onetime Republican vice presidential candidate will star in her own reality TV show -- "Sarah Palin's Alaska." Discovery Channel is reportedly paying Palin more than $1 million per episode. As Washington Post TV critic Lisa de Moraes put it, Palin -- a bestselling author and Fox News contributor -- will serve as a "sort of modern-day Sacagawea" who will guide viewers toward the "characters, tradition and attractions in the 49th state."

But before Palin detractors get too excited, consider, as Al Gore might put it, a few inconvenient facts.

First, Palin astutely avoided a reality TV show about her family. Imagine how much she could have gotten pitching "The Palins," featuring her teenage-mom daughter Bristol, her Playgirl-posing almost son-in-law Levi, her First Dude husband Todd. "If it was 'The Osbournes,' and they were going to follow the family, then it would be interesting," one broadcast exec said in explaining why his network passed. "It's a travelogue about the state of Alaska."

Second, she is still planning to be a major force -- if no longer an officeholder -- in politics. In fact, Tuesday night she posted on her Facebook page a list of 20 Democrats she plans to target in the 2010 elections. "Come November, we're going to print pink slips for members of Congress as fast as they've been printing money," she wrote.

Planning to endorse and stump for Republican candidates, Palin can, with a simple e-mail, unleash a powerful lobby of supporters. Wisconsin Republican Sean Duffy says Palin's endorsement of his campaign for Congress was "like a 'Game On!' moment." 

Finally, there have been stranger routes to the White House. Ronald Reagan hosted General Electric Theater back in the 1950s and '60s, and traveled the country as a goodwill ambassador for the company, touring GE plants, which former First Lady Nancy Reagan credits with launching his public career. Woodrow Wilson was a college professor. And then there is this guy named Barack Obama, who started as a community organizer.

That said, no one has ever reached the White House after quitting their job as an elected official.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Palin on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on March 2. Credit: Associated Press

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Joe #$%&^* Biden continued an emerging vice presidential tradition today during the ceremonial signing of the Obama administration's immense healthcare bill.

As he did last year during an Amtrak ceremony in Washington, the longtime Democratic senator was too near an open microphone when he dropped what is preciously referred to by tsk-tskers as the F-bomb, a crude seven-letter word for copulation which is more often corrupted into a freaking adjective.

It's a word not unfamiliar to many professions, but it is particularly dangerous for politicians who are drawn to recording microphones like hummingbirds to red flowers.

So here he is at this momentous moment in Democratic legislative history, privately pumping up his boss in the political vernacular -- "This is a big ... deal":

Ah, but wait! There's more!

That new Biden gaffe occurred in the East Room of the White House just before Obama used his left hand to sign the measure with his distinctive scrawl.

Joe actually introduced the smoker in chief twice today over healthcare.

The VP was supposed to unveil the nation's newest anti-drug strategy, but that minor deal was postponed. Just so that Biden could reintroduce a man who needs no introduction over at more healthcare remarks at the Interior Department.

Biden is fond of quoting poets in public, usually Irish ones and often in the Mideast for some reason. But today the man who was a senator while Obama was in the sixth grade chose another nationality.

Here's what he said, according to the White House transcript:

As I said just before the president signed the healthcare bill, I quoted Virgil, the classic Greek poet, who once said, 'The greatest wealth is health.' The greatest wealth is health. Mr. President, you’ve made us a nobler and wealthier nation by providing for the health of your fellow citizens.

Here's the problem, as loyal Ticket reader Mike points out:

Virgil wasn't Greek. He was Roman. Very Roman. So Roman, in fact, that the author (70 BC-19 BC) of the "Aeneid," among other famous works, is buried in Naples.

As in Napoli, as a graduate of Syracuse (Siracusa in Sicily) might know. But, hey, Biden's boss thought Canada had a president and they speak Austrian in Austria. And he went to Harvard.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Joshua Roberts / Bloomberg (favorite Biden moments file).

[Update: The White House has released an updated transcript of the bill signing ceremony.]

Remarks by Vice President Joe Biden and President Obama's remarks on the signing of healthcare legislation, as provided by the White House:

 THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you all.  (Applause.) 

AUDIENCE:  Yes, we can!  Yes, we can!  Yes, we can!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Yes, he did.  (Applause.)  Thank you all for being here, ladies and gentlemen.  Please be seated. 

Ladies and gentlemen, to state the obvious, this is truly a historic day.  But as all of you know, history is not merely what’s printed in our textbooks.  It doesn’t begin or end with a stroke of a pen.  History is made.  History is made when men and women decide that there’s a greater risk in accepting the situation we cannot bear than in steeling our spines and embracing the promise of change.  History is made when a leader’s passion is matched with his principle in service of his country.

Mr. President, your passion to make the lives of ordinary Americans better has been on display.  And the principles that guided your public service, beginning when you were a community organizer, have led this nation to this moment.  Mr. President, 30 minutes ago, by the stroke of your pen, you began the process of making life better for tens of millions of Americans today and for evermore.  (Applause.) 

For much too long, for much too long, Americans have been denied what every human being is entitled to -- decent, affordable health care.  Starting with Teddy Roosevelt straight through to you, Mr. President, everyone else tried.  They were great men, they gave it their best, but they came up short.  But you succeeded, Mr. President, and we owe you for that.  (Applause.)

As I said just before the President signed the health care bill, I quoted Virgil, the classic Greek poet, who once said, “The greatest wealth is health.”  The greatest wealth is health.  Mr. President, you’ve made us a nobler and wealthier nation by providing for the health of your fellow citizens.

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama.  (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, everybody.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you, everybody.  Please have a seat. 

    We wanted to do this twice -- (laughter) -- because there are so many people we have to thank.  And as I look around the room, we've got leaders of labor who helped to make this happen.  We've got ordinary folks who knocked on doors and made phone calls...

 
At the White House, the signing ceremony looked like a victory party as President Obama delivered on the signature promise of his campaign for change. As he signed the historic healthcare bill, Obama was flanked by Vicki Kennedy, widow of the late Edward Kennedy, who had called this the cause of his lifetime, and by ordinary Americans who wrote to him or campaigned with him on the issue.

But the long, torturous slog through Congress left the field littered with wounded.

Now, some vultures are circling for the kill.

On the left, unions are furious with Democrats who enjoy labor backing and still voted against the bill. Of the 34 Democrats who voted against the bill, more than half a dozen have enjoyed strong labor support. Now, unions are recruiting third-party candidates to run against Democrats Mike Arcuri and Mike McMahon in New York and looking at other possible contests against New Jersey's John Adler, Illinois' Dan Lipinski, Massachusetts' Stephen Lynch and Ohio's Zack Space.

"Everyone who voted against passing health insurance reform ... will have to explain to voters why they stood up with the insurance industry," said Service Employees International Union spokeswoman Lori Lodes.

On the right, tea party activists are rallying conservatives for a repeal drive against "the socialist healthcare vote." And they are gearing up for November -- registering new voters, launching political action committees, running attack ads against Democratic incumbents who said yes to change.

"They chose not to listen to what the people want," said Debbie Dooley, co-founder of the Atlanta Tea Party. "We, the people, will have our say in November." Gina Loudon, a founder of the St. Louis Tea Party, added that she has been deluged with calls from folks who wanted to get involved. "This has absolutely awoken a giant," she said.

High on the target list for many conservatives is Michigan's Bart Stupak, who provided the winning margin of victory with his band of antiabortion colleagues who settled for an executive order pledging that no federal funds would be used for abortion.

Conservatives may have the easier hand. They will be lobbing money and muscle against a candidate while backing an opponent. For liberals, the challenge is to oppose fellow Democrats while finding third-party alternatives.

Mindful of the terrible price paid by others who did support the bill at great political risk, they are planning rallies for "yes"-voting lawmakers whose districts voted for Republican John McCain. "First thing we want to do is take the time to thank those who took the tough vote," the AFL-CIO's Karen Ackerman told the Hill. "This is not a one-time appreciation rally. We will let them know that we stand with them."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: President Obama signs the healthcare reform bill on March 23, 2010, with Marcelas Owens of Seattle (foreground left), Vice President Biden, Vicki Kennedy (just to the right of Biden), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (in brown) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (to right of Pelosi). Credit: Associated Press

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Just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in.

Here's a photo of President Obama and staff applauding what the White House caption says is the House of Representatives' vote passing his healthcare legislation Sunday night. Look at him. Doesn't he look absolutely ecstatic?

Today, in the East Room the president will sign what aides say is the healthcare legislation he's been talking about endlessly for the better part of a year while Vice President Joe "Shovel Ready" Biden drove the economic stimulus package so that unemployment crept up to 9.7%.

Biden has recently been given the additional administration responsibility of introducing the president. So today at the White House he'll introduce a man who needs no introduction, the 44th president of these United States. So that the world can watch...

Some fascinating, at times seemingly contradictory and ultimately revealing, poll results about the healthcare bill warfare from the helpful folks over at CBS News in recent hours.

Displaying, but more importantly documenting, what some might call a keen grasp of the obvious, a substantial majority of Americans has now decided that the yearlong, interminably-documented, mind-numbing, bone-cracking arm-wrestling among Democrats and also between the two political parties really had very little to do with anything having to do with actual healthcare.

Or with the combatants' oft-professed and by-golly-heartfelt concern with the physical well-being of constituents, bless their hearts.

In fact, most Americans have decided, after all these months, it was really more about politics than anything else all along. BINGO!

Sixty-one percent of Americans, CBS reports, think the Republicans were fighting about....

BEFORE

Sunday afternoon a very casual President Obama works the phones in the Oval Office, pushing and tracking his healthcare legislation through the House of Representatives.

AFTER

By nightfall when the White House wanted a photo of happy staff celebrating their legislative victory in the House, the Boss dons a necktie and rolls down his sleeves for the shot they know will make front pages around the world. (But no smile or cigarette either; this was, after all, a healthcare bill.)

As to an interesting explanation of what all is in the background of this After photo, our colleagues over here at the Culture Monster have the full cultural explanation.

BTW, now that the House of Representatives voted, cast your own ballot on Obama's healthcare ideas and see how thousands of others voted by clicking over here.

--Andrew Malcolm

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Photos: Pete Souza / White House

In February 2009, in the early days of a new White House, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle had to withdraw his nomination as President Obama's secretary of Health and Human Services over a failure to pay $128,203 in taxes. Many predicted that the loss of Daschle's legislative skills and goodwill on Capitol Hill would cripple the new president's signature campaign promise: to reform healthcare. 

North Dakota Democrat Kent Conrad called the Daschle news a "tremendous loss" to the White House. Connecticut Democrat Chris Dodd said it was a "major blow" to efforts to overhaul the healthcare system.

At the very least, observers worried that the withdrawal would slow the process, giving Congress more power to shape the package while the White House scrambled for a Plan B. Robert Laszewski, a healthcare consultant who follows health policy, told the Wall Street Journal that Daschle would be hard to replace. "This will set the healthcare debate back months not weeks," he predicted.

Were they right? Clearly the vacuum of time from Daschle's withdrawal in February to Kathleen Sebelius' confirmation in April did shift power from the White House to Congress and may have slowed the process in the Senate.

Even more damaging than the loss of timing was the loss of Daschle's skill as a manager of public opinion. With Daschle explaining the bill, would conservatives have mounted a tea party rebellion against death panels? Would South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson have shouted "You lie!" to Obama on the House floor?

Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers and longtime observer of the Washington scene, thinks not.

"If Daschle had gotten the job, there would have been better and more sustained explanations of the bill as it evolved," he told Ticket. "His grasp of substance and extensive knowledge of procedure would have enabled the administration to give a better narrative." Faulting the White House for falling down on selling the package, Ross thinks -- with no respect to Sebelius -- that Daschle's tactical sensibilities "would have made a difference."

Let us know what you think.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Tom Daschle and President Obama. Credit: Charles Dharapak / Associated Press

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Now it gets ugly. Not that it wasn't before.

During 14 months of partisan smearing, the main Republican strategy was to demonize President Obama and his healthcare reform. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin accused Obama of wanting to convene death panels to kill Granny. Tea party activists disrupted with such a din of anger that North Carolina Democrat Brad Miller reported a death threat.

The vitriol continued over the weekend. Bands of angry conservatives parked themselves outside the Capitol. When Georgia Democrat John Lewis walked to work Saturday, they hurled racial epithets. This is John Lewis, a veteran of the Selma-to-Montgomery civil-rights marches, beaten by sheriffs so savagely that his head wounds are still visible. This upset House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose skillful shepherding of the  bill through the House puts her in company with Tip O'Neill and LBJ. So the next day, she walked to the Capitol arm in arm with Lewis and other Democrats. Little appeased, the conservative mob shouted, "You communists! You socialists! You hate America!"

Is this really the crowd that Republicans want to line up with? Apparently.

During Sunday's vote, Republican members of the House went to the balcony of the Speaker's Lounge -- generally only occupied by the smokers she has banished from the building -- to incite the crowd with signs that said, "Kill the bill."

Going negative rarely wins elections. Just ask Ronald Reagan, a Republican icon who won a landslide victory for president in 1984 with the sunny slogan, "It's Morning Again in America."

Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, who had anti-gay slurs hurled at him by protesters, warned that Republicans were whipping up hysteria."It is almost like the Salem witch trials,” he said.  “The health bill has become their witch."

Hysteria may whip up the base, and turnout -- which side gets their voters to the polls in greater numbers -- could be key in the midterm elections. But lining up with hysterics -- one Republican shouted "baby killer" at Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak during debate -- could make Republicans more than just the Party of No. It could make them the Party of Anarchy, the kind who shout 'Fire' in a crowded theater.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: House Republicans incite protesters angry about healthcare reform from the balcony of the U.S. Capitol. Credit: Getty Images

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