being an advisor that has the president's ear and president has to rely on. now the other day there was a story about some of the campaign people meeting with the president and vice president was not in the room. seemed like a shot at the vice president. but from what i have learned subsequently, they do expect him to be the attack dog. they do expect him to be a valuable part of this campaign and they want him to go out there, allow the president to be the nice guy and he can be the bad cop in some of these situations. jon: at the same time, mary katherine, people don't pull the lever or punch the card for vice president, do they? aren't they voting for top of the ticket? >> i think there is a risk here if he is too much of an attack dog and gets too mean and nasty and learns that sort of warm goofy thing that allows everybody in the press, that is crazy old uncle joe making a mistake again. if he loses that, gets held accountable for mistakes more. that could be a problem for them. he will be fun on the trail as always.