BOTTOM LINE: We agree with Tony of tonyskansascity.com when he calls KC Star columnist Yael Abouhalkah's latest online column on the day of the Inauguration of Barack Obama as President "...one of the most distasteful and morbid posts I've ever seen from a reporter at a major Daily Newspaper regarding the potential death of the President." 
    Just a week ago Abouhalkah wrote an equally ridiculous column discussing the question of whether Mayor Funkhouser and his wife had sex in their bathroom.  It begs the question of whether anyone reads his stuff before it is printed.  01-20-2009
Joe Biden is now America's 2nd most powerful politician
By Yael T. Abouhalkah
Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
   With his swearing in today, Vice President Joe Biden also becomes a president in waiting -- ready to serve if Barack Obama is assassinated or dies in office. It's a sobering thought for all Americans.
   Biden is an accomplished elected official. He shares many of Obama's liberal political leanings. He would be able to get things done in the nation's capital. But Biden has little of Obama's charisma, or, of course, his historical uniqueness as the first black U.S. president.
    Certainly Americans are counting on Obama's skills as an orator to help carry the nation forward in the coming weeks and months, as Washington's politicians deal with grave financial challenges.
   But Biden, thanks to years of training in the political infighting of Congress, would be ready to step forward and lead the country should Obama be unable to complete his term in office, for any reason.
   At the end of the day, that's all Americans really can expect from their vice president.