On The Oprah Winfrey Show yesterday – the day before Inauguration Day – Jill Biden told the audience that Barack Obama gave her husband, Joe, the option of being either vice president or Secretary of State. Doh!

Furthermore, Mrs. Biden suggested that her husband chose the VP slot because it would involve less travel, sort of the way you choose between middle management jobs at IBM.

The Obama team quickly responded with a statement asserting that Mrs. Biden’s assertion was absurd in the greatest way because President-elect Obama has always wanted nothing more than for Joe Biden to be vice president and Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State. And, PS, tomorrow is Inauguration Day, Jill Biden, what the heck?

This had to happen, of course. The normally loquacious vice president-elect seems to have been kept in a box since Election Day. An acknowledged foreign policy expert in the Senate, he’s been giving Dick Cheney a run for his money in the “undisclosed location” department as Hillary Clinton has captured the post everyone once assumed would go to Biden and the world – from Mumbai to Gaza – has churned.

But for such a message mash-up to come from Jill Biden shows that even the best laid traps – er, plans – can be foiled by slips of the tongue, sometimes at the highest levels. Perhaps after her time in the inaugural box today, Mrs. Biden will spend some time in the penalty box tomorrow.