Borger: What surprises Biden the most [View All]

[Jennicut]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- During the presidential campaign, vice presidential candidate Joe Biden loved to remind us all of his working-class roots -- born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, son of a car dealership manager.

As the vice president walked into the ornate Secretary of War suite in the Old Executive Office Building at the White House to sit down for his interview with me and "The Situation Room" anchor Wolf Blitzer, it seemed a world away.

It's not as if Biden is unaccustomed to a lot of fuss. He was, after all, a very senior member of the Senate who led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But now the entourage has grown: the Secret Service, the senior staff, the ornate and well-positioned offices close to the president.

But when asked what surprised him most about the job, he surprised me with his singular answer: The Secret Service.

He's been around Washington, he told us, "but I never realized I wouldn't be able to drive an automobile."

He still takes the train back to Delaware, he said.

"I get out of the bubble ... But there's a lot of Secret Service that rides with me. I insist when I'm home I still go to the grocery store. I still do the things I used to do, but it's a lot more cumbersome. That's the part that surprised me."

The part that clearly did not surprise him is the rest of the job, which he clearly relishes. And he was not shy to fire a salvo back at former Vice President Dick Cheney, who told CNN's John King we are less safe because of the policies of the Obama administration. http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/07/borger.biden/

Funny stuff. Both the Prez and VP hate living in the bubble.