Vice President-elect Joe Biden has been silent of late. He also, according to this report, has no real job in the new administration so far. Alas, that’s the lot of many vice presidents. But it might not have had to turn out this way. Let’s be frank — he proved himself undisciplined and unhelpful during the campaign. The New York Times notes:

Aides say Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama sometimes rib each other in private meetings, and they maintain that Mr. Obama was not unduly angry at Mr. Biden for his gaffe predicting that Mr. Obama would be tested by a world crisis in his first six months in office.

Since then, however, Mr. Biden has not had much to say to the news media. Through a spokeswoman, he declined to be interviewed for this article, itself a break from his voluble past.

Not “unduly” angry, was he? Just the right amount, I suspect.

Then candidate Barack Obama (either knowingly or not) chose someone as VP whose longevity and verbosity masked a lack of insight and intellectual heft. The Senate is full of these types — long-winded and filled with arcane information, but utterly devoid of common sense and keen judgment. He gave the appearance of gravitas, for a fleeting moment, but in an odd way wound up highlighting his running mate’s discipline and tact.

If in fact Biden has been relegated to the funeral circuit and deprived of any real responsibility that would likely be for the best. And it might be the strongest sign yet that the President-elect really does possess some management acumen.