Cheney, Biden alike in little but title

They both have white hair, a tendency to curse and more years of experience than the presidents for whom they serve - but the few similarities shared by Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President Dick Cheney are far outshined by their stark differences.

Mr. Biden, most notably, gets in trouble for talking - and talking - while Mr. Cheney has a reputation for being tight-lipped.

“I can’t offhand think of any similarities,” said University of Iowa law professor Nicholas Johnson.

“Most people, other than Vice President Cheney’s strongest supporters, believe that in important respects, he and senior people working for him overreached to the point where they came close to being an independent center in the White House,” said William A. Galston, a senior fellow at liberal-leaning Brookings Institution.

“I do not expect Vice President Biden to be playing that role,” he added.

The Cheney comparisons and the word “gravitas” surfaced frequently when Barack Obama selected the Delaware senator in August to be his running mate.

Mr. Cheney’s career in Washington spans two branches of government and three decades, while Mr. Biden has served six terms in the Senate and boasts that he has worked with seven presidents.

Mr. Biden has spent most of his days at Mr. Obama’s side since they won overwhelmingly on Election Day, attending economic meetings and calling world leaders. However, the president-elect has spoken little about the role he envisions for Mr. Biden.

‘An expansion’

Mr. Biden, who turned 66 on Thursday, and Mr. Cheney, who turns 68 in January, have been on opposite sides of foreign policy battles for eight years.

They also have drastically different interpretations of the vice-presidential duties.

Mr. Cheney began his job as vice president with a thorough knowledge of how the executive branch works, having served as a White House chief of staff and a secretary of defense. He also was a congressman from Wyoming for 10 years.

Observers credit his previous White House experience as a primary reason he was able to wield so much power behind the scenes over the past eight years. He knew where key levers of power were and when and how to pull them.

Corrected paragraph: Mr. Cheney said in March that the vice president’s job is what one makes of it.

“There’s no contract, job description, being vice president,” he said in an interview with a group of White House-based reporters in Jerusalem, one of 10 interviews he has done this year.

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