Cantor: Biden is better negotiator than Obama

A former House Republican leader says President Obama would be wise to let Joe Biden deal with the new GOP-run Congress.

Ex-Rep. Eric Cantor, who lost his House seat in a Republican primary earlier this year, told Time magazine that, "unquestionably, the Vice President knows how to negotiate. He understands people" -- probably better than Obama himself.

Cantor -- who had his fair share of clashes with Obama -- described Biden as "awesome," while the president may be a little insensitive to the desires of others:

"I think that the President is very rooted in what he wants. The President also, in my view, is very rooted in what he thinks the other side wants. And that's where the difficulty in my opinion has been with the President over the last six years. If one does not agree with the President's view of what you want, there's very little prospect for a result."

Biden, meanwhile, "has a real sensitivity, not only to human reaction, but also partisan and political sensitivities," Cantor told Time. "He understands how far you can push before you just blow up the prospects for a deal."

As for the vice president's public image, Cantor told Time:

"Joe Biden is what you see. You know, he's genuine. Yes, he's prone to gaffes publicly, and he'll admit that. He's very self-deprecating like that. And I'm certainly not one who agrees with Joe Biden on all things -- we probably disagree more than we agree -- but from a human and relationship standpoint, the guy's awesome."