Aug 22 2008
The Biden Disaster
Update: And in case anyone missed it  Biden voted for the Iraq war and supported funding the troops while Obama supported retreat at any cost:
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday accused his rivals for the 2008 nomination who are fellow U.S. senators of voting against the safety of troops deployed in Iraq.“As long as there are troops who are in a position where, if we don’t fund them they are going to be hurt, I’m not going to cut off funding,” Biden said during a meeting with Des Moines Register editors and reporters “That’s what the other candidates said too, but they changed their mind.”Â
…
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“I find it absolutely unconscionable that I would delay, to make a point, a week to two to a month, the construction of these vehicles,” Biden added.
Obama said supporting the bill would have been consenting to President Bush’s conduct of the war.
“Senator Obama believes that we cannot simply give President Bush another blank check, and that we must negotiate a better plan to fund our troops, signal to the Iraqis that it is time for them to act, and begin to bring our brave servicemen and women home safely and responsibly,” Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
Think McCain can use this in a debate with Obama? Â This is the weekend the Democrats lost the 2008 Presidential Election. Â This is going to be one long and painful hangover from the Obama fantasy dream.
Update: I really liked this summary of the Biden Disaster, my thoughts exactly. Biden was so bad I had come to believe he was a simple head fake. Faked me out!
Update: AP calls the Biden selection a signal Obama lacks confidence:
Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence
Update: Yep, I am out here pushing the for the best VP selection John McCain could ever make – a VP who has run for ‘change’ in Washington DC:
Compare this to the Biden selection and everyone will be wondering why Obama had to run to the dusty-old-white-guy bin in the Senate for a VP>
Update: I had decided the choice would never be Biden after Hannity rattled off about ten derogatory quotes from Biden against Obama. These quotes are all McCain needs to run in ads this fall to kill the Obama-Biden ticket. Ed Morrissey notes the opening salvo is already out:
Honestly, I did not think Obama would be so dumb as to pick someone with an endless list of complaints on the record about him. I was wrong.
Update: I want to address the ridiculous idea Biden can shore up Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience – no way in hell. First off, the VP candidates never debate the Presidential candidates so Obama still has to face McCain one-on-one. Secondly, Obama has a foreign policy staff already feeding him details has fast as he can take them. If it hasn’t sunk in by now, another obnoxious and nagging voice isn’t going to make him any smarter in the coming weeks.
Update: I have to agree with Lawhawk on this selection of Biden for VP:
This has to rank up there as one of the most bizarre roll outs of a vice presidential nominee ever. I can’t ever recall an instance where a Presidential candidate ever decided to announce their choice prior to a convention where it didn’t get prime time positioning.
And it stemmed from the fact that the campaign decided that they were going to announce Obama’s selection via text message instead of the more traditional press conference. When media outlets started getting wind of Obama’s choice, the campaign decided that it had no choice but to run the text message.
At just after 3AM. 3AM!
Where is the magic in picking some old white guy from the Senate who can bring you the state of Delaware? I think Obama was struggling with the decision so much he delayed it way too long and then lost the opportunity. He is not controlling the message or setting the tone. He is letting others do it off the text message alert. He should have been on prime time TV framing the choice, explaining his decisions, assuring America. More here.
This is another typical Ivy League educated techno-idiot (like Al Gore) who think they are grabbing onto the cutting edge of technology when they actually have their hands gripping the wrong edge of the cutting edge knife. To rely on a text message in the dark of night is to lose control of the roll out.
I am reminded that Obama was the first fool to set up a campaign website where is opponents and disappointed fans could post their screeds all day long. Who set’s up a website for the enemies to destroy him through the death of a thousand angry cuts? Obama’s inexperience is showing through loud and clear now. I am expecting him to look a bit tentative and in doubt when we finally see him on the Biden selection. Why else sneak this out at 3 AM in the morning?
– end update
Â
After hours staking out Joe Biden’s Delaware home with no sign of the prospective VP candidate, reporters are now witnessing a flurry of activity.
Cars have recently pulled into the driveway — including a police car — and Biden’s daughter, son, and wife are now believed to be inside
As reported in her Nightly News spot, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, according to sources, were told they’re out of the running.
Â
What’s up with the Biden selection – except we now have the two largest egomaniacs ever to grace the Presidential and Vice Presidential tickets? Joe Biden brings what again? He is an old crotchety senator steeped in foreign policy. Â So is McCain. Â BFD.
If McCain is smart he will do something bold and go for a “minority” VP like Michael Steele of MD. That would end Obama’s clumsy run as the Messiah – a campaign that now looks like it is right out of the Life of Brian (or The Life of Barry, or whoever).
Â
Brian: I’m not the Messiah! Will you please listen? I am not the Messiah, do you understand? Honestly!
Girl: Only the true Messiah denies His divinity.
Brian: What? Well, what sort of chance does that give me? All right! I am the Messiah!
Followers: He is! He is the Messiah!
Brian: Now, fuck off!
[silence]
Arthur: How shall we fuck off, O Lord?[and]
The Crowd: The Messiah! The Messiah! Show us the Messiah!
Brian’s mother: The who?
The Crowd: The Messiah!
Brian’s mother: There’s no Messiah in here. There’s a mess all right, but no Messiah. Now go away!
[…] blogger writes: What’s up with the Biden selection – except we now have the two largest egomaniacs ever […]
Yup – it’s going to be Biden. We now even have Secret Service on their way to his house, which seems as definitive as anything else.
I now live in Delaware (after spending 12 years in the DC area, and growing up in the Philly area), and they really do love him here. My late father-in-law would have been ecstatic about this, God rest his soul.
There are a few different routes to go with a VP, and Biden hits two of them:
1) Experience – would anyone care to argue that the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is not experienced in foreign affairs?
2) He’s a frickin’ bulldog – he’ll have a blast spending the next 3 months attacking McCain on his foreign policy stances. Any debate issues between Biden and McCain’s VP that involve foreign policy will be a bloodbath.
Plus, this gives us full license on the new “Noun, verb, POW” meme with McCain.
BTW, AJ – I’m still waiting for any comment from you concerning 1) the suicide attacks in Afghanistan that killed 60 people on Thursday, or the announcement of a joint agreement between the Bush Admin and the Iraqi government for a timeline to withdraw trooops.
At a minimum, wouldn’t it be advantageous to withdraw those troops and bring some of them into the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, where they could actually fight the people that attacked us on 9/11?
maybe the big hope is that Chia Biden will carry Delaware for Obama, that’ll give him one state.
By the way, Breschau, when did you move over from scotland and why haven’t you updated your facebook?
What’s the question about a terrorist bomber in Afghan? Everybody knows the remnants of the ragtags from Iraq has moved to Afghanistan in a last ditch effort to blow their asses up.
And I think it’s great that the war in Iraq is under control enough that we can now work out a timeline for combat troop withdrawal. with any luck we’ll have all out in less time than Germany or Japan or Kosovo. I’m sure AJ is celebrating the success in Iraq as all patriotic Americans are. (don’t know about scotch guys.)
Redteam:
Please list my Facebook URL. I need another good laugh tonight.
First, Obama said, “We need a timeline for withdrawl.” Then, Bush said “Timelines are bad”. Then, McCain said “Timelines are bad. 100 years is fine with me!”.
Then, the Prime Minister of Iraq said, “We need a timeline for withdrawl.”
Now, we have a timeline.
Remind me of who the supposed expert on foreign policy was, again? Is it the guy who’s proposal is reflected by current developments (Obama, who wanted a timeline years ago), or is it the guy who insisted we should never leave Iraq, and now contradicts the current administration?
And out of nowhere:
Jack Reed might be the VP. No, I didn’t see that coming, and who knows where Wonkette’s source came from. But hey – there it is.
Reed’s a military guy (graduated from West Point, so come up with fun ways of attacking his patriotism, folks), and he’s a Ranger (getting my emotional vote already), and would also probably make for a nice bulldog in attack mode… but otherwise – eh? What does he bring?
But, he might be the kind of “no-negativity” candidate Obama is looking for. Guess we’ll find out in 12 hours or so.
just click on your bookmark, it’s easy.
Pres Bush has said from the beginning that once Iraq was secure the troops would be withdrawn, but if you think all US troops will be out of Iraq 10 years from now, you’re dreaming.
breschau:
Oh please. The whole issue of Iraq might very well be resolved by the time the election is here. Biden wanted to divide Iraq into pieces by the way. And we have been fighting AlQaida in Iraq, and they are the people who attacked us. As far as that is concerned, Saddam fired on our planes, tried to kill a president and made a point of refusing to comply with dozens of force resolutions and if I remember correctly Biden voted to give Bush authority to go into Iraq.
so spare us all the same old crap.
Well I have been hearing a lot of stuff about how McCain is too old for the office. He is a whole 6 years older than Biden and Biden has spent the last 36 years in the Senate.
So much for hope and change.
BTW, Biden is a supporter of open borders. That might be enough to get some of those hardliners to vote for McCain. How about that?
I don’t have one. Please share?
Hey, here’s another idea – share that URL, or admit you have just been making shit up for a week now. How does that sit with you?
Well it looks like Obama will wrap up that vital Delaware vote!
Geez, can’t even find his own bookmark.
here’s how you do it, type in Facebookdotcom into google search, it’ll bring up a list that will help you find the site, then type in your username and password and viola, you’re there.
let’s list the pluses for Chia
he’s a plagiarist, so Obama and crew can depend on him to find copies of old speeches to give.
that means he can probably copy videos also, so that he can remember how to feed Obama that line on how many states there are.
he’s almost as old as McCain, so that removes the age argument.
he’s from a huge state with lots of electoral votes, so that makes it easier for mcCain to take the smaller states like Ohio and Michigan
all the way around, a really good pick, for the Republicans.
Breschau
Breschau
Joined: March 05, 2006
Age: 28
Country: Sweden
damn, do you even know where you’re from
Ah, Change? or politics as usual?
Gee whiz!! Obama picks Biden over Clinton? That will surely anger the other 50% of her followers who have said they will vote for Obama. I imagine Clinton is boiling mad now. The idea that Slow Joe would be a better vice president than she would. Can’t you just see Biden presiding over the senate? An idiot in control for sure. A gaffe a minute and beats Obama’s record.
In the Dead of Night, Obama Picks Joe Biden As VP…
This has to rank up there as one of the most bizarre roll outs of a vice presidential nominee ever. I can’t ever recall an instance where a Presidential candidate ever decided to announce their choice prior to a convention where it didn’t get prime t…
Regarding the “midnight” pick…there is DEFINITELY more to this story than meets the eye…someone somewhere is NOT happy about Biden as the pick. Perhaps o, himself? Was he forced into this? Were the polls just so damning that he HAD to do this?
Desperation, thy name is democrat.
I agree, Barbara – Biden is arguably the worst possible pick that Obama could have made!
Think about the possibilities – obviously, there was Hillary, and failing her, at least a woman to throw a bone to the dedicated Hillary supporters. A pick of Biden (who had almost 0 support among democrats in the primaries) show casual disrespect for that entire group.
But how about a midwesterner, like Bayh? Important battleground area, and it doesn’t count to say Obama’s from Illinois, because he isn’t. He has a connection to the Chicago political machine, but no connection to midwesterners. He needed to pick one to shore that up. (Like Evan Bayh)
Or how about someone who would help in a key battleground state? Kaine, from Virginia. Maybe he would have helped, maybe not, but it’s a good electoral college play. With Biden, he brings in – Delaware???
Or how about someone who would appeal to southern voters? Chet Edwards was rumored. How about someone to appeal to his ardent left supporters? Micheal Moore begged for Caroline Kennedy. (Interesing name, would have addressed the Hillary problem and added the Kennedy name to the ticket.)
Point is *Every*possible choice was better than Biden. Biden’s foreign policy experience only puts Obama’s lack of experience into sharp relief. Is Obama going to propose that Biden handle all foreign policy, become an even stronger veep than Cheney? If not, what good is his experience?
Obama has just written off women, written off the south, written off the midwest, and aggravated his most ardent hard left supporters.
This is the worst vice presidential selection since Dan Quayle. What a disaster!!!!
So, the general response is: “This is great news for McCain!”. Wow, what a… shock. Never saw that coming.
“First off, the VP candidates never debate the Presidential candidates so Obama still has to face McCain one-on-one.”
No, but the VP candidates do debate each other. Can you imagine a Biden/Romney debate on foreign affairs? It’d look something like Tyson/Spinks.
“Where is the magic in picking some old white guy from the Senate who can bring you the state of Delaware?”
And if that’s all he was, you’d be right. But first, he’s extremely popular in PA, a battleground state (he’s been called “PA’s third Senator”). He’s extremely popular with the Broder set of the media, so maybe they’ll take the collective stick out of their asses for the next couple of months. And he’s a bulldog – he’ll go after McCain (and his VP pick) with a tenacity that Obama can’t afford to show publically. Yeah, he might say something he regrets later, but if he comes up with another line like “Noun, verb, and 9/11”, it’ll be WAY worth it.
All anybody talked about last night was “who’s the pick?” All anybody will talk about today is Biden. Tomorrow, in the Sunday papers and the AM talk shows, the only topic will be Obama/Biden. On Monday, the Democratic convention starts. That’s the main point of coverage through Thursday.
Do you know who people won’t be talking about during those 6 days? John McCain. He’s going to have to shoot a guy in the face just to show up on memeorandum.
This pick is so boneheaded that I believe it was planned as an exit. The internal poll numbers must be devastating. I suspect that the DNC convention will be interesting to the point that Barack will not get the nomination. Remember. We are talking the Clintons here! Buy stock in Orville Redenbocker!
Re: the video update.
Easy refute in the history of politics:
1) “I never said he wasn’t ready.”
2) “I would have been happy to run with the McCain of 2005. But that McCain wouldn’t even recognize the McCain of 2008, who has flip-flopped on every important issue since then.”
Breschau, Here’s your new theme for the next couple of months (rest of your life? Depends on how much you want to wallow)
Remember, stick to this, this is going to be the official Party Line from now on:
http://www.slate.com/id/2198397/
If Obama Loses: Racism is the only reason McCain might beat him.
“To the rest of the world, a rejection of the promise he represents wouldn’t just be an odd choice by the United States. It would be taken for what it would be: sign and symptom of a nation’s historical decline.”
so get ready to stick to that – The US is a backward looking, hateful, racist country in a longterm decline. Good luck in this election and all future elections with that one!
(Oh, and I know you’ll be there – if not now, then definitely by Nov. 8.)