Why Biden is (almost) King of the Internet

President Barack Obama may be the first digital president, but on the Web, his number-two plays second fiddle to no one. Vice President Joe Biden is simultaneously the most intentionally, and unintentionally, funny politician on social media. While it may be a chicken-and-the-egg question to ask which came first, the vice president's office have leveraged his folksy mannerisms and personal quirks to advance specific policy proposals and establish him as an online personality in his own right. After all, he's the anchor of the closest thing the White House has to a podcast: his narrated tales of "Being Biden" chronicle his experience serving as the nation's second-highest officer, whether it's visiting with the University of Delaware's Lady Blue Hens basketball team, spending time with a retired Navy Seal and his dog or swearing in newly-elected senators on Capitol Hill.

Vice President Biden started the Administration's first BuzzFeed channel in March 2014, whose amusing GIFs helped promote enrollment under the Affordable Care Act. A photo of him at age 26, part of a Throwback Thursday appeal for the health care law, generated write-ups in GQ as well as Men's Journal. He talked about climate change on VICE before President Obama did, and tweaked the president for getting a Twitter handle after more than six years in office with the tweet, "Hey @POTUS – Welcome to Twitter. See you around the neighborhood. –vp." Vice President Biden's Instagram account, which he launched a year ago, has featured everything from his too-cool aviator Ray-Bans to his escapades in the Old Executive Office Building with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, have generated a devoted following.