Biden: Speaking of Silver Foot

[Annie]

This is truly freakin' unbelievable! All I can say is be glad you're not employed by him! There will be mega fallout from the Obama stuff:

http://www.observer.com/20070205/20070205_Jason_Horowitz_pageone_newsstory1.html

Biden Unbound: Lays Into
Clinton, Obama, Edwards
Loquacious Senator, Democratic Candidate on Hillary: �Four of 10 Is the Max You Can Get?� Edwards �Doesn�t Know What He�s Talking About�
By Jason Horowitz


Senator Joseph Biden doesn’t think highly of the Iraq policies of some of the other Democrats who are running for President.

To hear him tell it, Hillary Clinton’s position is calibrated, confusing and “a very bad idea.” John Edwards doesn’t know what he’s talking about and is pushing a recipe for Armageddon in the Middle East. Barack Obama is offering charming but insubstantial fluff. And all of them are playing politics.

“Let me put it this way,” Mr. Biden said. “You didn’t hear any one of them get in this debate at all until they announced for President.”

Mr. Biden, who ran an ill-fated campaign for President in 1988, is a man who believes his time has finally come, announcing this week that he was filing papers to make his 2008 Presidential bid official. Although he admits to a tendency to “bloviate,” he thinks that an aggressive advocate with rough edges might be just what the party needs right now. “Democrats nominated the perfect blow-dried candidates in 2000 and 2004,” he said, “and they couldn’t connect.”

Though Mr. Biden, 64, has never achieved his national ambitions, he has in recent years emerged as one of the party’s go-to experts on foreign policy. In the past week, he has spearheaded the Democratic pushback against the President’s plan to increase troop levels in Iraq, opposing the move with a non-binding resolution that his party has rallied around.

On a recent weekday afternoon, he was discussing his rivals over a bowl of tomato soup in the corner of a diner in Delaware, about a 15-minute drive from his Senate office. He wore a red cardigan and blue shirt, periodically raising his raspy voice over the sound of loudspeakers summoning customers to pick up their sandwiches. He had showed up carrying a Mead notebook filled with handwritten talking points, but once he’d gotten started, he closed the book and pushed it aside.

The subject he prefers to talk about these days—particularly when contrasting himself with his prospective Presidential rivals—is Iraq.

Addressing Mrs. Clinton’s latest proposal to cap American troops and to threaten Iraqi leaders with cuts in funding, Mr. Biden lowered his voice and leaned in close over the table.

“From the part of Hillary’s proposal, the part that really baffles me is, ‘We’re going to teach the Iraqis a lesson.’ We’re not going to equip them? O.K. Cap our troops and withdraw support from the Iraqis? That’s a real good idea.”

The result of Mrs. Clinton’s position on Iraq, Mr. Biden says, would be “nothing but disaster.”

Most early polls show Mrs. Clinton as the party’s clear front-runner. Mr. Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is firmly in the thick of a pack of third-tier candidates. Still, he thinks that at such a precarious point in the nation’s history, voters are seeking someone with his level of experience to take the helm.

“Are they going to turn to Hillary Clinton?” Biden asked, lowering his voice to a hush to explain why Mrs. Clinton won’t win the election.

“Everyone in the world knows her,” he said. “Her husband has used every single legitimate tool in his behalf to lock people in, shut people down. Legitimate. And she can’t break out of 30 percent for a choice for Democrats? Where do you want to be? Do you want to be in a place where 100 percent of the Democrats know you? They’ve looked at you for the last three years. And four out of 10 is the max you can get?”

Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American(Whoops! He couldn't mean that? He 'forgot' to say 'Presidential Candidate?' who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

But—and the “but” was clearly inevitable—he doubts whether American voters are going to elect “a one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate,” and added: “I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.”

(After the interview with Mr. Biden and shortly before press time, Mr. Obama proposed legislation that would require all American combat brigades to be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of March 2008.)

 

[red states rule]

I could not believe what this jerk was saying.

To me he seemed to be surprised a black guy could be articulate, bright, clean and a nice-looking

If a Republican would have said this, Jesse, Rev Al, The CBC, and the liberal media would be in a state of mouth frothing hysteria

 

[Annie]

I could not believe what this jerk was saying.

To me he seemed to be surprised a black guy could be articulate, bright, clean and a nice-looking

If a Republican would have said this, Jesse, Rev Al, The CBC, and the liberal media would be in a state of mouth frothing hysteria

Somehow I think we'll be hearing more of this one.

 

[red states rule]

Somehow I think we'll be hearing more of this one.

Not from Rev Al, Jesse, and the left Kathianne. We will here more about it from the evil talk radio hosts, and the insidious Fox News, and rebel rousers like us

 

[Annie]

Not from Rev Al, Jesse, and the left Kathianne. We will here more about it from the evil talk radio hosts, and the insidious Fox News, and rebel rousers like us

Well I heard Susan Estrich screaming about it. If you think Al and Jesse are going to be portrayed as inarticulate and stupid and dirty/scandal ridden and a ugly-looking guy, you have another thing coming.

 

[red states rule]

Well I heard Susan Estrich screaming about it. If you think Al and Jesse are going to be portrayed as inarticulate and stupid and dirty/scandal ridden and a ugly-looking guy, you have another thing coming.

Estrich? Pardon me while I choke!!!

 

[Annie]

Estrich? Pardon me while I choke!!!

LOL! Told ya so! J/K

 

[red states rule]

We are talking about the same women who defended Clinton's behavior for eight years, ran Peanut Carters failed (thank God) reelection in 1980, and looks like Carol Channing. That Estrich?

She will be in the DNC woodshed by midnight tonight

 

[Annie]

We are talking about the same women who defended Clinton's behavior for eight years, ran Peanut Carters failed (thank God) reelection in 1980, and looks like Carol Channing. That Estrich?

She will be in the DNC woodshed by midnight tonight

No, she's working for Hillary. You underestimate the Democratic fighting.

 

[red states rule]

Now she is working for a racial profilier who ordered the background check on the liberal black Muslim

This is going to get good

This could wind up on Monday Night Raw

 

[Avatar4321]

First, Biden is an arrogant man who is so full of himself that he somehow has managed to shove his butt inside his butt with his head. If he thinks he could ever be a serious candidate for President he is just a complete and utter moron. and having listened to him speak, I know he is.

Second, I think its interesting that once again the left is focused on appearance. Obama is a good candidate cause he looks good. He could be totally lacking of substance, and in fact essentially is lacking of substance, but he looks good.

Unfortunately for Biden, Biden in an inarticulate, dirty, ugly, dumb man who also lacks substance. So he has no chance against Obama.

 

[manu1959]

well i watched the press tonight give him a pass and chastise anyone that even hinted that biden was being inappropriate....

 

[Roopull]

I hope he stays in the run long enough to repeat something like this in a nationally televised debate:

“From the part of Hillary’s proposal, the part that really baffles me is, ‘We’re going to teach the Iraqis a lesson.’ We’re not going to equip them? O.K. Cap our troops and withdraw support from the Iraqis? That’s a real good idea.”

The result of Mrs. Clinton’s position on Iraq, Mr. Biden says, would be “nothing but disaster.”

Can you imagine the faces of the other Dems on the stage... I mean, they practically kicked Lieberman out of the party for saying the same thing!


I like it... stirs the pot! Granted, I'd be more likely to discover how to fly by over-eating beans & using my ass as a jet engine than I would be to vote for Biden, but whatever... should be fun (the election, not the jet engine ass thing.)

 

[red states rule]

Biden Comments Rate 'Oops' from NY Times, No Front-Page Mention by Globe or LA Times
Posted by Mark Finkelstein on February 1, 2007 - 06:36.
In our continuing calvalcade of coverage of the Biden "clean and articulate" comments, we thought it would be interesting to see how three of the leading liberal newspapers treated the story on their respective front pages this morning.

At the New York Times, the headline on the smallish front-page article brought a dash of downplaying humor to the story: "Biden Unwraps His Bid for ’08 With an Oops!"

But that was better than nothing - which was exactly how much coverage the Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times devoted to the story on their front pages.

Now, you might cut the Globe some slack since Beantown was focused on the Turner Broadcasting System marketing stunt for a Cartoon Network television show that littered the city with small battery-powered light screens, igniting fears of terrorism and shutting down much of the city for the day. Even so, the Globe editors found room on the front page for a variety of other stories including one on a pol caught in a sick leave scandal.

In any case, what's the LA Times excuse? Not a word about Biden on the front page, but plenty of inches for such vital matters as Las Vegas side bets on whether Prince will rip his pants during the Superbowl half-time show.

Again, let's play WIARHSI?: What if a Republican Had Said It? Think the LA Times and Globe might have found a front-page inch or two? Would the New York Times have sloughed things off with an "oops!", or would we have been treated to something along the lines "Candidate Accused of Racism: Echoes of Republican Record of Racial Insensitivity"

http://newsbusters.org/node/10541

 

[William Joyce]

I could not believe what this jerk was saying.

To me he seemed to be surprised a black guy could be articulate, bright, clean and a nice-looking

If a Republican would have said this, Jesse, Rev Al, The CBC, and the liberal media would be in a state of mouth frothing hysteria

True... though I saw Jesse on the ABC national news yesterday.

Biden's implication is fair. Most blacks don't speak like whites, have a sort of, if not literally "dirty," at least GREASY look about them (think Al's hair cream), and aren't bright. They don't look appealing to whites because they're black Africans, a somewhat scary-looking separate subspecies.

Harsh, yes. But true. The hysterics surrounding his comments are explained by this.

Obama is "clean" because he's half-white. He sounds white, walks white, acts white... and has a nice milk-chocolately hue to go with it. Perfect, right? None of the ickiness that goes with a full-blooded black, but none of the white guilt, either. He's like a racial version of Splenda.

 

[red states rule]

Of course the unbiased liberal media is spinningt this as I knew they would


MSM Forgive-a-thon Continues: Olbermann Calls Biden Comments 'A Slip'
Posted by Mark Finkelstein on January 31, 2007 - 20:46.
I'm feeling a lot of love out there. Directed by the MSM toward Joe Biden, that is, for having called Barack Obama the first "clean" and "articulate" black presidential candidate. Earlier this evening, as noted here, Chris Matthews, joined by MSMers Jay Carney and Anne Kornblut, cut Biden mucho slack.

The forgive-a-thon continued on Countdown. First, Keith Olbermann declared Biden's comments "a slip." Washington Poster Dana Milbank then got into the evening's understanding zeitgeist, assuring us that "nobody sees Joe Biden as a racist."

Olbermann spun a theory that "the conservative media establishment" including "bloggers" who are "doing a lot of Biden bashing today" are motivated not by outrage over Biden's comments but by "a desire to inflict damage on a Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."

View video here.

Milbank agreed: "That's exactly what it is. It's not inflicting damage on a Democratic presidential candidate. Nobody gives Joe Biden a chance of winning that nomination anyway. But he is the guy out there, front and center, and he has been having these hearings criticizing the president on Iraq, so he's potentially quite a fat target for that reason."

Please. How can Milbank possibly be so sure that Olbermann is "exactly" right? Has Dana interviewed a single member of that "conservative media establishment"? Speaking as one humble blogger, I can assure Keith and Dana that the notion of discrediting Biden as a Bush administration critic never crossed my mind. The thrust of my outrage is the hypocrisy of the MSM. What incites me is the MSM's willingness to so readily excuse Biden, whereas Olbermann and company would surely have had a field day excoriating the hapless Republican who made similar remarks.

And while I'm not calling Biden a racist, before totally letting him off the hook I'd be curious to know what he meant in calling Obama the first "clean" black presidential candidate.

UPDATE -- Kudos to ABC for its fair coverage of the flap on this evening's "World News". Charlie Gibson introduced the segment: "Delaware senator Joe Biden is the ninth Democrat to jump into the candidate pool. But tonight, he might be wishing for a do-over, after being accused of making a racially insensitive remark about a rival in his first day as an official candidate."

Senior national correspondent Jake Tapper took it from there, noting "Joe Biden hoped that launching his presidential campaign would bring headlines about his experience and gravitas. But he spent much of the day explaining comments he made to a news reporter about Senator Barack Obama, a rival for the nomination"

Tapper, focusing on what I consider the most controversial aspect of Biden's statement, said: "observers from both parties questioned what Biden meant, especially by the word 'clean.'"

Tapper then played a clip of Jesse Jackson saying Biden "should interpret what he meant by those loaded words," and even one of Rush Limbaugh observing "folks, this is the problem for the libs. Once they get off script, they expose their idiocy. They expose their prejudice."

http://newsbusters.org/node/10532

 

[glockmail]

Not from Rev Al, Jesse, and the left Kathianne. We will here more about it from the evil talk radio hosts, and the insidious Fox News, and rebel rousers like us

You forget that Hillary is already to be ordained as President. That means that the media will create a tizzy between Obama and Biden, likend between Rosy and The Donald, and keep it up as long as possible, thereby letting Hillary appear above the fray and "Presidential".

 

[ScreamingEagle]

This was Al Sharpton's retort to Biden's "clean" comment:
"I take a shower every day".

 

[glockmail]

You gotta hand it ol' Al.

 

[red states rule]

Rosie and Joy Defend Biden, Call for More Politicized Oscars
Posted by Justin McCarthy on February 1, 2007 - 17:51.
After avoiding politics the previous day, the ladies on Thursday's The View seemingly compensated for their lost time. Joy Behar led the way first calling for more political speeches at the Oscars, then cheered for Gore’s nomination, apologized for Joe Biden, Rosie said she’d never run for office, and took the solemnity of a political columnist’s death to attack President Bush.

Barbara Walters returned from Los Angeles where she interviewed some Oscar nominees for her upcoming Academy Awards special. Joy Behar wants more nominees to shove their opinions on all Americans.

Joy Behar: "I pray that somebody is controversial and assertive. I pray it. Because, it’s so tedious otherwise, you know. Thank you, thank you, my piano teacher. Who cares? Say something political and interesting."

After briefly giving a shout out to Al Gore’s Oscar nominee and calling for him to run for president, Behar as well as Rosie O’Donnell and Barbara Walters defended Senator Joe Biden’s recent controversial remarks about Barack Obama. Barbara Walters said "he meant no harm," and "Biden meant it as a great compliment." Behar mentioned that "he fights for civil rights," and Rosie O’Donnell does not "believe he has hatred in his heart." Finally, token non-liberal Elisabeth Hasselbeck asked the key question with Rosie O’Donnell’s non-response speaking volumes.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: "If George Bush had said it, would the response have been different?"

Rosie O’Donnell: "He wouldn’t have conjugated the verbs correctly."

During this segment, Rosie O’Donnell asserted that she will never run for office.

If that’s not enough, when discussing the unfortunate death of columnist Molly Ivins, the ladies used it as an opportunity to take some jabs at President Bush. Joy Behar’s favorite comment from the late Molly Ivins is when she claimed "shallow is like calling a dwarf short, if you call Bush shallow." O’Donnell used it to promote Ivins’s anti-Bush book Shrub.

The transcript from the two segments is below. First about Senator Biden.

Rosie O’Donnell: "Hi, we're back. And we’re on the air live. Ok, so politics. Joy."

Behar: "A lot of politics."

O’Donnell: "A lot of politics. Take it. What do you got for me Behar?"

Behar: "Well, Al Gore is nominated for a Nobel peace prize."

O’Donnell: "Fantastic, I think."

Behar: "And he could be getting an Oscar. That would be two statutes and to set another-what?"

Barbara Walters: "For An Inconvenient Truth."

Behar: "So that’s wonderful news for him, I think. I think he should throw his hat in soon, my opinion, because Joe Biden has just stuck his foot in his mouth."

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: "Just in a small way. That guy just is in trouble-"

O’Donnell: "Well read what, read what Joe Biden said and then we can talk about it."

Behar: "What did he say?"

Walters: "Ok, and I like Joe Biden."

Behar: "We all do but-"

Walters: "And he meant no harm. However, this is what he said. He's talking about Barack Obama. And that’s fine. He says, ‘I mean, you've got the first main stream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean’ -- boom -- ‘and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man.’ Clean? So then -- and Barack Obama said, ‘look it. I'm not upset. I knew what he meant.’ And then Biden says, ‘no I didn't know that he's clean. I mean that he's fresh. I meant clean as a whistle, fresh.’"

Behar: "It’s his phrase, yeah."

Walters: "I mean, the more he tried to get into it, the more he got out of it. Then also the fact that he’s saying that this is the first mainstream African American. Carol Moseley Braun, was a Senator from, dropped some notes, 1993 to 1999, she was going to run. Shirley Chisholm. Remember her in Congress?"

O’Donnell: "These are not men. He said men."

Walters: "Men? Al Sharpton."

Behar: "Al Sharpton is, is a very articulate."

Walters: "I think the word ‘clean’ was the problem."

O’Donnell: "But do you honestly think that Joe Biden was trying to imply that black people are not clean?"

Walters: "No."

O’Donnell: "Neither do I. I think that to parcel out words, that everything is about spin nowadays. You can take anything, take out one or two words [singing Entertainment Tonight theme] and it becomes a fact for everyone in the world. You know, Joe Biden has been in public service for a long time."

Behar: "And he fights for civil rights."

O’Donnell: "He certainly does. And I don’t believe he had hatred in his heart when he said this but, he misspoke, in a way, but I think also-"

Hasselbeck: "He did misspeak."

Walters: "He meant it as a great compliment."

O’Donnell: "And he was saying he’s the first viable black candidate. That’s what he was saying."

Hasselbeck: "I think the interesting thing will be how the African-American community would respond to that and how they feel. Because you don't know, you just don’t know how the person that he's talking about feels. I mean, Barack Obama responded, but he has to be very careful, too."

Walters: "But Biden meant it, Biden meant it as a great compliment. Biden is not a bigoted man he’s not a prejudice man."

Behar: "But this is a Democratic-foot-in-mouth disease."

Walters: "Right, yes it is."

Behar: "He's making John Kerry look like he’s electable now. I mean, all they do is stick their foot in their mouth, these guys."

Hasselbeck: "Maybe they just shouldn't talk."

Behar: "And, you know, I once read, the number one fear in the Guinness book or whatever one of those books, the book of lists, the number one fear is the fear of public speaking. Take it as a note, a word to the wise."

Walters: "Then they never can talk about anything."

Behar: "You have to note when you're a politician, just like she says, they'll spin it out of control. You have to really watch what you say. What was he thinking?

Hasselbeck: "It didn't leave much room for interpretation in his words."

Behar: "He’s really a very nice guy and he didn’t really mean it."

Hasselbeck: "I’m sure he is. He should know to be very cautious."





Hasselbeck: "So let me ask you this, with Al Franken, then, you know, coming into a Senate race, he has comedy on his side. What is he going to do?"

Behar: "Al Franken better watch it."

Hasselbeck: "That would be like if you were running, ok, say you entered politics or you entered politics-"

O’Donnell: "Which I will never do."

Hasselbeck: "How do you, how do you ever walk that line if you’re a comedian and you have to enter the politically correct world of politics?"

Behar: "Well, wait a second. See there's a difference. If you are a professional comedian, you might know how to say it. These guys are trying to be funny. It’s like don’t try this at home." Walters: "But Biden wasn't trying to be funny."

Behar: "Leave this to the professionals."

O’Donnell: "But I don't think he was trying to be funny, either."

Behar: "But Kerry was."

Hasselbeck: "Kerry’s not funny."

O’Donnell: "Listen, here’s the difference."

Hasselbeck: "Not at all."

O’Donnell: "You know, 50 years ago, there were three channels of television, that's all. There were three, now it's 24 hours a day. If you're running for anything or if you’re even moderately famous, a camera follows you everywhere, they edit these pieces, they pick one sentence out, and all of a sudden the world is against you."

Walters: "And we know this, they run it again and again and again, and they make a big deal out of it."

O’Donnell: "Right, absolutely. It runs sort of factual via the internet and people’s consensus."

Hasselbeck: "But you know it. You know that that's the case now. You know anything can end up on You Tube or in this paper or that paper."

O’Donnell: "But do we want even more robotic politicians? Do we want politicians who are even more fear-based to speak from their heart and worry everything- I mean, when you read what he said it’s not in- he didn't have racist overtones. I don’t believe it."

Hasselbeck: "If George Bush had said it, would the response have been different?"

O’Donnell: "Well, he wouldn't have conjugated the verbs correctly."

[Applause]

O’Donnell: "It’s a different thing."

Hasselbeck: "Here’s the key to the door I just opened. There you go."

O’Donnell: "You know, you can't throw me a log like that, Elisabeth."

Then about Molly Ivins.

Behar: "Molly Ivins, do you people know who she was?"

O’Donnell: "Yes. Fantastic writer."

Behar: She died. She was only 62 years old. She was a political columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for nine years and she died. She was such a funny, funny writer."

Walters: "Irreverent and..."

Behar: "Irreverent. My favorite, when she said Bush, about George Bush, she said ‘shallow was like calling a dwarf short, if you called Bush shallow.’"

O’Donnell: "She wrote a great book about him called Shrub. Which you should buy, about George Bush, the one who’s in office now."



http://newsbusters.org/node/10557