Biden's thankless task in Turkey

Vice President Biden’s bridge-building trip to Turkey didn’t win rave reviews in Ankara or at home, but even critical U.S.-based Middle East experts say that extending the olive branch to an angry President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was one of the most critical and difficult U.S. diplomatic missions over the last several years in the region.

There were plenty of outward signs that the quick one-day trip was a bust. The vice president was greeted on the tarmac in Ankara by low-ranking officials, including the city’s deputy mayor, and before leaving to return home, the Daily Sabah, the pro-Erdogan newspaper, decried the visit as an elaborate waste of time.