Slow Joe, the gift that just keeps on giving…

Gibbs clarifies Biden’s forecast– Politico

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs sought to clear up Vice President Biden’s comments on U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan on Monday, arguing that the rebuilding nation will follow a similar path that Iraq did.

Biden said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “we’re going to be totally out of there come hell or high water by 2014.”

What Biden meant to say, Gibbs argued, was that the “combat role” in Afghanistan would end by 2014.

“I would point you to what was decided in Lisbon just a few weeks ago, that we will, much like we have in Iraq, transfer primary security of Afghanistan to the Afghans, as NATO and ISAF agreed, by the end of 2014, which would – which would end our combat – our combat commitment in Afghanistan,” Gibbs told reporters.

Pressed on whether troops will be completely gone, Gibbs said, “I think what the vice president was discussing was our combat role.”