From the LA Times:
Like I've been saying since last August, Biden is "kind of a bozo," which is fine in a Senator or blogger or whatever, but not so fine in a Vice President, especially when he's talking foreign policy, because foreigners might not realize he's just Old Joe Biden running off at the mouth again, but might take what he says seriously on the assumption that he's, like, you know, the Vice President of the United States of America. (As a commenter points out, Biden was brought on board specifically to impart foreign policy gravitas to the newcomer from the South Side of Chicago.)
Biden is just a veteran local hack politician -- he represented in Delaware less than half as many people as a Los Angeles County Supervisor represents, not one of whom is the second coming of George Kennan, either -- elevated to the Vice Presidency by the infallible wisdom of Obama.
But, who cares about the actual Vice President's performance? Now, back to wall-to-wall coverage of the former Vice Presidential candidate!
President Obama, issuing an unusual clarification of his vice president's words, said today that his administration has "absolutely not" given its blessing for an Israeli attack on Iran.
Obama said that though Israel has the right to defend itself, U.S. officials have emphasized the need to avoid "major conflict in the Middle East."Vice President Joe Biden created a stir Sunday by suggesting that the United States would stand aside if the Israelis wanted to attack.
"Israel can determine for itself -- it's a sovereign nation -- what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else," Biden said on ABC's "This Week."
Biden's words set off a debate over whether the White House was hardening its line on Iran in the wake of Tehran's postelection crackdown, or whether Biden had simply committed a gaffe. ...
Obama's comment was not the first time that administration officials have had to clarify Biden comments that varied from the official line. In April, White House officials struggled to explain that they were not recommending the public avoid airplanes and subways, even though Biden said that he would not want family members to use them because of the threat of swine flu.
Like I've been saying since last August, Biden is "kind of a bozo," which is fine in a Senator or blogger or whatever, but not so fine in a Vice President, especially when he's talking foreign policy, because foreigners might not realize he's just Old Joe Biden running off at the mouth again, but might take what he says seriously on the assumption that he's, like, you know, the Vice President of the United States of America. (As a commenter points out, Biden was brought on board specifically to impart foreign policy gravitas to the newcomer from the South Side of Chicago.)
Biden is just a veteran local hack politician -- he represented in Delaware less than half as many people as a Los Angeles County Supervisor represents, not one of whom is the second coming of George Kennan, either -- elevated to the Vice Presidency by the infallible wisdom of Obama.
But, who cares about the actual Vice President's performance? Now, back to wall-to-wall coverage of the former Vice Presidential candidate!
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
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32 comments:
and lets not forget that joltin' joe was selected to bring foriegn policy gravitas to the obama ticket.
I'll admit I was puzzled by Obama's choice of Biden for VP. He actually ran for President twice, and the first time had to drop out over a minor but embarrassing scandal, and the second time he got almost no votes. Both were joke campaigns. Its not like the public was crying out for this man to be in national office. He represents a state the size of, well, Alaska and has never held executive office.
The selection was overshadowed by the even worse selection of Palin, and the fact that the other possibilities being mentioned in the mainstream media were also pretty dire. Also, there is something of a US tradition of mediocre Vice Presidential nominations. We've gotten pretty lucky with the VIce Presidents who did have to take over for the President given some of the people who have been nominated or who have held that office.
In retrospect this was the first sign of Obama's tendency to appoint hacks to key positions.
"I'll admit I was puzzled by Obama's choice of Biden for VP."
Steve strikes again with his new unstoppable blogging method. We're supposed to speculate as to the real reasons Biden was chosen as Obama's running mate since it obviously has nothing to do with either merit or popularity.
Joe Biden suffers from pseudologia fantastica (mythomania). I'm not joking. He is a compulsive "storyteller"--a compulsive liar. Sometimes his stories are hyperbolized, but many times they are outright untruths.
One of my favs is his adamantly telling someone who was testifying before the judiciary committee that he had a very high IQ. He challenged the guy with something like, "I'll bet my IQ is higher than yours! You don't think so? I'll bet it is! I have a very high IQ you know." IIRC, he asked the guy to guess what his IQ was.
I just did a quick search but unfortunately couldn't find it. It's not that old either. Instead, I found this one, from the 1988 Presidential election. It's not as good, but it's the same basic thing.
I know that many in Washington find Joe Biden to be a likeable guy in other ways, but they also know he is a loon, off the wall.
I was shocked when Obama chose him. I guess he himself had not spent enough time in the Senate to know what all the others know, *really know* about Joe. Even more troubling to me is that Obama obviously didn't listen to those who warned him about Joe's "problem." My guess is that Obama had no idea the guy was this bad. Although warned, he probably didn't realize that the problem was pathological. That bothers me.
It's not just gaffes, not Dan Quaylisms--Biden is a compulsive liar. It's part of a disorder, way beyond what is called "bullshitting."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyEqyYUGk4I
Boy, I'm glad we didn't get that idiot Palin as VP! We can't have idiots a heartbeat away from the Presidency ....
Biden never said that Israel had the US's "blessing" to attack Iran, so I don't see how this can be read as Obama dissing Biden.
Joe Biden suffers from pseudologia fantastica (mythomania). I'm not joking. He is a compulsive "storyteller"--a compulsive liar.
My favorite example of this is Biden plagiarizing Neil Kinnock's autobiographical speech and trying to pass it off as his own. He didn't just lift a few fine phrases--he stole the guy's life story! WTF? It reminded me of Ronald Reagan telling Yitzhak Shamir and Simon Wiesenthal that he (Reagan) had personally helped liberate the inmates of the Nazi death camps. Where the hell do we find these people and how do they ever get elected?
Wow. For a guy obsessed with IQ it's funny you're such a Palin supporter.
Obama didn't pick Biden for his IQ. He was in the mix because he ran for Prez at the time and didn't piss off as many people as Hillary and some of the other guys.
No matter how much you love Palin, she LOST, fair and square. Don't blame this on affirmative action.
Caesar Rodney said...
The real Cæsar Rodney had a proper classical ligature.
I gave a link to the 1988 Biden IQ comments, but this link is better/longer (although it's the same event.)
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8b5_1219507341
Obama could have picked a Lieberman, or a Sam Nunn, or any of the endangered Hawks in the Dem Party to shore up concerns he was weak on defense and national security (and he is). But he did not, he wanted a malleable doofus who is a gaffe-a-rama, and whom people have speculated had an aneurysm.
Regardless of that, IF Israel thinks it's going to get nuked in a surprise first strike, and believes Obama has thrown them under the Bus along with all the others, they'll strike.
Obama can do nothing to stop it, save launch his own pre-emptive strike on Israel. If he suspects they will strike (they are likely to conceal preparations well). What, he'll say "don't strike or we won't send you money when not if you are a glowing cloud of radioactive dust."
That's Obama's basic problem with Israel. On the biggest issue (Iran and it's nukes) he has no leverage. Israel if it's convinced Obama has OK'd Iran's nukes will strike. To survive. [Iran has reasons to nuke Israel off the map, not the least of which is to frighten the Saudis and other Gulf powers into oil/territorial concessions which are the same basically.] Obama only has leverage on Israel striking if Isreal's government is convinced he'll protect them otherwise. His behavior with everyone, not just them, suggests that's a sucker's bet.
I'll bet Poland nukes up too. They probably already figure Obama threw them under the bus to make the Russians happy, but even a few nukes can deter Moscow. Nukes are the great equalizer.
I don't see what's so terrible about the Biden quote. Israel is indeed a sovereign nation that should act as it sees fit.
The value of Palin is that she pisses off and scares the establishment. I bet if by some fluke she became prez, she would toss out many of the old-boys networks in Washington out on their ears. She did it in Alaska. I think many realize this and also see that she connects with the avg Joe. This is why they loathe her so much. It cannot be the IQ thing since most pols in W are as dumb as she is, and ugly on top of it. At least she is a babe.
Biden is TPTB's babysitter for Obama, just like Cheney was for Bush. When he blurts things out he reveals the real agenda. By the end of the week Obama will backtrack and concede that Israel does have the right to suck the US into another sand trap.
"No matter how much you love Palin, she LOST, fair and square. Don't blame this on affirmative action."
I didn't vote for either party. However, she/he did not lose "fair and square." There was considerable voter fraud. Nobody who's studied it really disputes that. Don't tell me Obama won Ohio and Pennsylvania coal towns. But after 2000 (not to mention some other elections like 1960) nobody was going to challenge this. It would have caused considerable civil unrest not to mention voter fatigue, and anyway, the Republicans weren't worth the effort.
Obama obviously picked Joe Biden because he needed a WASP front man so guilty white liberals would feel a little more comfortable about voting for him. He also had a very limited VP pool to choose from. He could not pick Chuck Schumer, a black and a Jew would not fly with a large segment of the country. He could not pick the scandalous Bill Richardson or Tom Daschle. Obama’s only choices were pretty much Biden and Wesley Clark. I honestly think he flipped a coin.
"My favorite example of this is Biden plagiarizing Neil Kinnock's autobiographical speech and trying to pass it off as his own. He didn't just lift a few fine phrases--he stole the guy's life story! WTF?"
Neil Kinnock? Out of all the lives to steal!
John Anello said...
Obama’s only choices were pretty much Biden and Wesley Clark. I hon
...a Jew would not fly with a large segment of the country.
Ain't Clark a Jew?
Biden and Obama have a lot in common, especially their shared sub-115 IQs.
Wow. For a guy obsessed with IQ it's funny you're such a Palin supporter.
Steve never mentioned Palin in the post, you illiterate twerp, and he's not a Palin supporter. But don't let mere reality intrude on your happy fantasy life.
Regarding Obama's VP pick, a poster said,
"He also had a very limited VP pool to choose from."
Why couldn't he have picked Evan Bayh? Bayh has foreign policy cred, is well-liked by both party sorts and his constituents, not at all the type to embarrass anyone. In fact, a mighty fine pick.
Would Bayh have declined? I seriously doubt it. Once you have been asked to be Veep, you are risking a great deal in party politics/power if you turn it down.
The only thing I can think of that kept Obama from choosing him is that Bayh himself has presidential aspirations, but even that doesn't hold a lot of weight as an explanation.
Any answers?
I wish the Israel bashing would just stop.
They have a right to make their lands as race-pure as they can.
Under Jewish law they have a duty to genocide an attacker people if they know their intentions. They don't have to wait to be attacked.
So if they want to nuke Iran, let them. And we shouldn't embargo them afterwards, either.
Let the world have a good, healthy fear of Jews as mass killers who will protect their own.
I think it would destroy the Jews-are-poor-but-righteous-and-noble-victims culture in which we Westerners are daily marinated.
Well, Mr O did want to soothe nervous voters in Pennsylvania and Virginia, two states where Delaware's six-term senator was a familiar face.
Though Biden may not seem to know much about what really matters in foreign policy, neither did any of the people who would be interviewing him during the 2008 campaign. Most campaign correspondents are likely to be pleased with themselves for knowing who the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is. They certainly aren't going to make a run at him with a series of probing questions that could expose weirdness in his conceptions of international relations.
Foreign governments and major non-governmental players in world affairs pay close enough attention to the US political system to discount the stupider remarks of any vice president. Of course, some anti-American politicians will seize on Biden's comments to inflame public opinion in their countries, but they did that when Biden was a senator, too. Look at the reaction in Iraq when he announced his partition plan. That plan may not have raised Biden's profile in this country, but it sure made him a superstar over there.
The only way Biden's position as vice president will really cause problems is if he becomes president. In that case, Mr O will already be dead. I doubt that many successful politicians really care what happens in the world after they leave office, much less after they leave this life. Mr O certainly does not seem to be overburdened with concern for posterity.
"There was considerable voter fraud. Nobody who's studied it really disputes that. Don't tell me Obama won Ohio and Pennsylvania coal towns."
Not to be a bother, but do you have any links you could share discussing that further?
I remember thinking back in November that Obama winning GOP stalwart Indiana was fishy, but I never questioned the PA or OH results.
-Vanilla Thunder
Why couldn't he have picked Evan Bayh? Bayh has foreign policy cred, is well-liked by both party sorts and his constituents, not at all the type to embarrass anyone. In fact, a mighty fine pick.
There are rumors of bisexuality that have followed Bayh for awhile. I have no idea if they are at all credible--just noting that the rumors do exist.
"There was considerable voter fraud. Nobody who's studied it really disputes that. Don't tell me Obama won Ohio and Pennsylvania coal towns."
Not to be a bother, but do you have any links you could share discussing that further?"
well, you could start here I guess. It's fairly MSM.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124182750646102435.html
http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/obamas-acorn-weekend-open-thread/
If you're feeling edgier, you could look here:
http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/obamas-acorn-weekend-open-thread/
I'm not from Texas and don't fly the flag on a pick-up, but the info is pretty much what happening.
If McCain had won there would have been civil unrest, as in Africa and other 3rd world countries. Much of my info comes from alternative, nonMSM sources that I've trusted, and from people who actually lived in Pennsylvania and Ohio. One guy was a young Irish-Jewish businessman who told me quite a few startling things about some rallies in Pennsylvania--bussed in attendees, ACORN not counting who they were registering. Polls that just didn't add up to the final vote.
Curiously one of the fraud stories from a personal contact came from Washington State, which probably voted democratic anyway, so I don't know if such tactis necessary. However, an author of my acquaintance said his mother, who worked the voting booths, had reports of people bussed in from other states to register during the primaries.
Obama had already been selected by the powers that be, whom he would owe big-time, and they made sure he'd win. Of course they were ready to ensure votes for whichever candidate worked for them at that time. Obama was picked long ago. He's eminently blackmailable, excuse the pun, and that always facilitates things for the puppetmasters.
I am pretty good at ignoring presidents. I may be the only person in America to never have watched a Reagan speech.
>Biden is just a veteran local hack politician.....elevated to the Vice Presidency by the infallible wisdom of Obama.
obama didn't choose biden: the finance lobby chose biden as vp......the president and vice president are ceremonial positions...
the president employs a spokesman that deals daily with the press corp and likewise the finance lobby puppet masters employ the president to deal daily with the public......
the position of president of the united states becomes more ceremonial with each passing administration.....potus is a mouthpiece for the international financial elite........
---They have a right to make their lands as race-pure as they can.---
Agreed. I want for the US what Israel has. No more, no less...
His sexuality aside, Bayh was far too conservative for Obama to select as Veep. He might have actually voiced some concern over spending trillions of dollars for Obama to experiment with his utopian vision for our nation. Biden offered no such risk. He was after all the third most liberal senator at the time.
I never knew that Wesley Clark was Jewish, albeit only partial. I guess Obama’s only choice was Biden.
"I never knew that Wesley Clark was Jewish, albeit only partial."
He's no Moshe Dayan, that's for sure.
Just a few days ago I wondered why Obama chose this idiot to be his VP, and it occurred to me that it might be because he is an idiot.
Especially after the example of Cheney, a "young", 1st-term black senator would be seriously risking his ego by picking some skilled political player whom everyone recognizes as a skilled political player, cue the rumors of a power behind the throne, etc.
Obama wants all the credit for his presidency, and he was willing to put a moron just a gunshot away from the Oval Office to see that he got it. This fits with my general notion that Obama's greatest character flaw is pettiness, a lot of his stranger decisions make sense if you consider him as a fairly small-minded man.
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