CE Week #5: “Biden’s Foot-in-Mouth Disease”
September 27, 2008
By Jack Kelly
One wonders how Sen. Joe Biden can talk so much with his foot in his mouth.
“We’re not supporting clean coal,” the Democratic vice presidential candidate said while campaigning in Ohio last week. “No coal plants here in America.”
Coal mining is an important industry in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, all tightly contested states in this election, so Sen. Biden’s remarks were impolitic. Especially so since Sen. Obama supports clean coal technologies.
“Obama’s Department of Energy will enter into public-private partnerships to develop five ‘first of a kind’ commercial scale coal-fired plants with clean carbon capture and sequestration technology,” the Obama-Biden campaign Web site says.
Sen. Obama’s efforts Tuesday to depict Sen. John McCain as too quick to oppose a federal bailout of insurer AIG were undermined when he was reminded by NBC’s Matt Lauer that Sen. Biden had said the same thing on the same day.
“I thought it was terrible,” Sen. Biden told CBS news anchor Katie Couric in an interview broadcast Monday. “If I had anything to do with it, we never would have done it.”
Sen. Biden was referring to an Obama ad that mocked Sen. McCain as an out of touch old fogy because he doesn’t use a computer.
The ad was terrible. (Sen. McCain doesn’t use a computer because his war injuries prevent him from typing on a keyboard). And it testifies to Sen. Biden’s basic decency that he thought so. But there are some opinions you just don’t voice.
In the same interview, Sen. Biden told Ms. Couric: “When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened.’”
Franklin Roosevelt didn’t become president until three years after the stock market crashed in 1929. Television didn’t go into widespread commercial use until years after FDR died in 1945.
Sen. Biden has said something foolish or indiscreet so often the Republican National Committee has started a “Biden Gaffe Clock” to chronicle them all. Can you imagine the media frenzy if it were Sarah Palin who was saying these things?
Sen. Biden wasn’t chosen to provide comic relief. Sen. Obama thought his 35 years in the Senate, most of it on the Foreign Relations Committee, of which he is now chairman, would give the ticket foreign policy credentials Sen. Obama himself lacks.
The most hypocritical of the legion of double standards employed by the news media in this campaign is that a paucity of experience in foreign policy is considered disqualifying in the Republican candidate for vice president, but inconsequential in the Democratic candidate for president.
Sarah Palin’s only claim to experience in national security policy is that as governor of Alaska, she’s head of the state’s National Guard, and she has a son in the Army. That’s mighty thin gruel. Sen. Obama has served on the Senate Foreign Relations committee since coming to the Senatebut hasn’t shown up for many hearings in the last two years. If you think inexperience in foreign policy is a bad thing to have a heartbeat away from the presidency, why is it acceptable to put inexperience directly into the White House?
Gov. Palin has been in public life longer than Sen. Obama. She served four years on the city council in Wasilla, eight years as that town’s mayor, a year as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and the last 22 months as governor of Alaska.
Sen. Obama served eight years in the Illinois legislature and a little less than four in the U.S. Senate, of which he’s spent most of the last two running for president.
All but four years of Gov. Palin’s public career has been spent in the executive branch. Sen. Obama has no experience in the executive branch, nor any private sector managerial experience except for his role in the failed Chicago Annenberg Challenge, about which he is reluctant to talk because it brings up his association with unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers.
As mayor, Sarah Palin managed explosive growth in Wasilla while cutting property tax rates 40 percent. As governor, she worked out a deal to build a natural gas pipeline to the lower 48 that her predecessors had been trying, and failing, to do for 35 years.
Sen. Obama’s tenure in the Illinois legislature was noted chiefly for his having voted “present” a remarkable 130 times. His brief time in the U.S. Senate has been devoid of significant accomplishment.
Sen. Obama argues judgment is more important than experience, and Sen. Biden is living proof that experience without judgment is not a pretty thing.
The most important decision Sen. Obama has had to make as a presidential candidate was his selection of a running mate. He chose Sen. Biden. Inexperience and bad judgment is the worst combination of all.
Biden definitely says idiotic things, and he’ll need to watch himself in the VP debate that’s upcoming. However, I largely disagree with the statements the author made regarding experience and judgement. Executive experience over a small town and a low-population state governorship and short legislative experience both mean nothing in terms of running for President. As Mr. Kautzman has said, the Presidency is on the job training, as no other job is like it. So while Biden may say inane things, Sarah Palin says little of substance, possibly having been overcoached for interviews. The author tries to paint her experience as better than Obama’s, and seems to be trying to make this a Palin-Obama race. Which is funny, because the author is trying to bring down the Democratic VP and President, while lifting up the Republican VP and not even mentioning where John McCain weighs in on everyone elses experience and judgement. The thing is, while Biden can and will run his mouth and commit gaffes, he will be Vice President, and is only constitutionally required to break Senate ties. He can advise Obama, while McCain has nothing that aids him Post-election in Sarah Palin. She doesn’t have experience and while she may or may not have judgment depending on who you ask, she won’t be able to exercise it in a way that matters except rarely. I’d rather take two candidates that will be able to discuss problems with each other, even if it does come with gaffes. Sara Palin was seriously brought to the McCain campaigns attention via an independent blog. If this is how he went about choosing her, I’d say it is the McCain ticket lacks judgment and experience.
I’ve hear that Biden often slips and says stupid things (mainly from Mr. Kautzman) but I’ve never actually heard them myself, nor have I read an article about it. Now I have, and I’m glad. I’m glad that someone notices that Sarah Palin is not the only person to slip up in this race. Now I know for sure that I just don’t like politics. Either all politicians are truly stupid, or (more likely) people just fabricate their normal human mistakes. As for the argument that Palin has more experience than Obama, I don’t think it is completely invalid. I agree that she often sounds completely stupid sometimes, but the argument that she had more executive experience made sense. It honestly doesn’t matter where someone gets their experiences, only that they have them. So, the fact that Palin was mayor of a small town is of little consequence. Obama does know more (a little more) about foreign policy, but Palin has had more experience being a leader in general. Finally, I would like to bring up one last point that I would not have thought of without having read Kyle’s comment. The author does seem to be making this about Palin-Obama. I mean he starts talking about Biden and switches to Obama, without ever mentioning McCain. I though that was Bizzare.
What strikes me as even more remarkable than Biden’s ridiculous blunders is the fact that, until this past week, the media has hardly touched Biden. There has been a complete focus on Palin’s lack of tact and knowledge but no mention of the fact that Biden is, obviously, another top contender in the race to dethrone Bush as Speaker of the Year. His remark regarding coal mining was probably one of the biggest mistakes he has made so far. Not only did it show, or at least suggest, a lack of knowledge regarding the American mining industry, it also hinted at a complete lack of understanding of one of Obama’s industrial and environmental policies. Also, in disagreeing with his own campaign’s decision to run the anti-McCain ad, Biden showed a lack of unity with his political team.
On the other hand, I disagree with Kelly’s comparisons between Palin and Obama. I agree that Obama is not the most experienced, but he does have much more national experience than Palin. Also, I feel that there is much more to being a great leader than experience. Obama exhibits many of the qualities that I would like to see in the leader of our country. The decision to take Biden as VP was probably more of a party decision than one made strictly by Obama. Biden is very experienced and, luckily, if Obama wins, will rarely be required to talk. If it comes down to comparing VPs, who would you prefer, the guy who doesn’t know when to stop talking or the woman who doesn’t know that being able to see Russia and being able to run a country are two very different things?
I do think that it is very odd that Barack Obama’s running mate doesn’t even know some of Obama’s programs, like the supporting of clean coal technologies for instance. But I don’t think that we all need to get up in arms over this because, in case you haven’t noticed, Sarah Palin doesn’t know a whole lot either. So I guess both potential vice presidents are pretty much at the same level knowledge wise. I do like the fact that Biden apologized for the statement that Obama said. It shows that he was some “decency,” like the article says. I do think that is rather interesting this double standard the media has. Why do we think Palin isn’t ‘good enough’ because she doesn’t have enough foreign policy experience, and yet we could be allowing a presidential candidate, with just as much foreign policy experience, take over the white house. I do agree with Obama’s statement “judgment is more important than experience.” Who cares if you “served four years on the city council in Wasilla, and eight years as that town’s mayor.” None of it really matters if you don’t have a good sense of judgment. However, I don’t think these accomplishments should be looked over. I just don’t think they are all that count.
We have all seen that guy who says more than he knows simply so that people think that he is more intelligent or well informed than he really is. What I see this as is Joe Biden’s attempt at just that. He is saying things that sound impressive, but are just plain wrong. “No coal plants here in America”, that sounds good. We don’t have any coal plants, they are a huge polluter and after all of the focus on China for it’s pollution from its numerous coal plants not having any in America has to be a good thing. Comparing anyone to Franklin Roosevelt is a good thing, he is one of the most looked up to and one of the best presidents we have ever had. But he did this in a way that proved his ignorance. People are clamoring about Obama’s ability to give a great speech, if Biden’s experience can be used to balance Obama’s inexperience, then why can’t Obama’s talent be used as a counter to Biden’s foot? I believe that dropping Biden at this point would prove to be a mistake for Obama. The best thing to do would just get him a couple good writers and hope that no one asks him any unforeseen questions.
Okay first things first, how can you have a president and a vice president who don’t agree on things? Biden stated that they don’t support clean coal even though Sen. Obama supports clean coal technologies. This doesn’t even make any sense to me. Coal mining is important in 3 different states all of which are contested as of right now. That was probably the worst thing Biden could say.
I seriously doubt Biden was telling the truth about him not choosing to create the ad with Sen. McCain not being able to use a computer. What is the ad trying to say anyway? That McCain is too old or just not electronic friendly? You have to know how to use a computer to play a role in this country. Besides, what does using a computer have to do with anything? Obama did make a good choice because of his lacking ability in foreign affairs; I have to credit him for that. But I have to wonder if there is any other good reason why Obama chose Biden.
The building of a natural gas pipeline in Alaska shows that Palin has both experience and judgment. The quantity of both still remains to be seen. She was able to get something done her predecessors had been trying to do for 35 years. Biden on the other hand is all experience and no judgment.
First of all, I think the author made a really good point when he rhetorically asked, “Can you imagine the media frenzy if it were Sarah Palin who was saying these things?” The media seems to find every stupid little thing that comes out of Palin’s mouth and blows it up into huge proportions. Then why don’t they tally up all of Biden’s mess-ups as well? We’ve all heard about Palin’s “inexperience” but what is this about Obama’s role in the failed Chicago Annenberg Challenge and his association with domestic terrorist William Ayers? How come we haven’t heard anything about this? Does there seem to be a double standard at play here? And how does Biden mess up with something as big as confusing his presidents and dates (Roosevelt talking about the stock crash on the television…?) and still get away with it? Of course there will be biased reports for each side, but that’s where we as the voters need to think critically for ourselves and not just buy into everything we might hear on the tv. We need to stay informed and not become easily swayed by all the propaganda and biased statements that come our way. Thus, we know that both Biden and Palin are human and make mistakes but we ultimately need to think before we just assume.