Sarajevo On a quick trip to the Balkans, I found myself inadvertently following in the footsteps of Vice President Joseph Biden, who swung through Bosnia-Hercegovina, Serbia, and Kosovo last week. Biden’s comportment during his visit, which lasted three days from May 19 to 21, reaffirmed much about attitudes in the Obama administration, while reminding us of the verbose habits of one of its most prominent chest-beaters.

Rush Limbaugh described Vice President Biden as having been “banished to the Balkans” while the White House, presumably, deals with more immediate matters. Still, Biden considers himself a Balkan expert and often speaks with pride about his support for the Bosnians and Kosovar Albanians in opposing Serbian aggression. Yet as on so many other occasions when he expatiates, Biden in the Balkans proved to be superficial, glib, and arrogant. An independent-minded, widely-respected Muslim intellectual in Sarajevo commented to me, “Biden came here as if he were the American president himself. Indeed, he acted more like a king visiting a colonial possession.”