According to John Podhoretz, Obama picked Biden as his Vice President (and will keep him on) is because Biden has no constituency of his own, comes from a state which nobody cares about, is not Hillary Clinton, and is a complete nonentity i.e. a time sucker like so many people in Washington D.C.
by John Podhoretz
Everyone who has done time in Washington politics or media has a Joe Biden story, and every story is pretty much the same. Here’s mine:
A quarter-century ago, Sen. Joseph I. Biden of Delaware, then in his third term, came in for a lunch with a few editors and reporters at the newspaper where I worked. Its editor welcomed Biden and asked him a question about whatever story was at the top of the news agenda that day.
Biden started talking. And talking. And talking. He spoke and he gesticulated. He wandered off into secondary subjects, and secondary subjects of the secondary subjects. He conjured up a memory of his childhood, and then told a tale from his first campaign.
After 20 minutes without so much as a breath, it was clear to me and others around the table that there was something wrong — that our guest simply did not know how to conclude his peroration.
[........]
It was not until 45 minutes after he had begun that Joseph I. Biden simply ran out of gas. He came to no conclusion, no closing thought. He just stopped talking, looked down, and at last took a bite of food and drank some water.
I had never been through anything like it. Biden had displayed a literally clinical display of logorrhea, a term Google defines for me as “pathologically incoherent, repetitive speech.”
That condition has never gone away. On April 3 of this year, Biden appeared at a high school in Norfolk, Va., where he was asked a question about gas prices.
[.......]
He then proceeded to speak . . . for 11 minutes. You can watch the video. It’s a little bit like watching Dustin Hoffman in “Rain Man.” Biden walked back and forth, making little eye contact with the audience, as his thoughts poured out of his mouth. Going on. And on.
He spent decades in the Senate doing just this, which was permissible since there are no limits imposed on the amount of time a senator may speak. In her book, “The Obamas,” Jodi Kantor tells a story about Barack Obama, in the first of his three years in the Senate, listening to an endless Biden oration. The future president scribbled a note to an aide. It said: “Kill. Me. Now.”
So why did Obama choose Biden as his running mate? And why is he keeping Biden on as his running mate?
The question naturally arises as a result of Biden’s preposterous and offensive performance on Tuesday, in which he likened the rival ticket’s views of how best to regulate Wall Street with the reimposition of slavery (“They’re gonna put y’all back in chains”).
In a very close race, Biden’s inability to control his own tongue poses a threat to Obama’s chances — simply by virtue of his ability to throw the campaign off course and into the thicket of an unnecessary controversy, even for a day.
The point is, that danger was predictable from the get-go. Obama wanted someone to put him out of his misery listening to Biden in 2005; why did he choose to subject the nation to it in 2008?
First, Biden was chosen in 2008 because, for whatever reason, President Obama did not want to make the obvious choice: Hillary Clinton. The president had the same choice this year and chose again not to make it.
(And for those who say changing running mates in midstream would smack of desperation, there would be a ready answer: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his role model, ran and won with three different VP candidates in four elections.)
Second, it’s said that Biden was the choice because of his experience. As Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post noted, “a pick designed to shore up the Illinois senator’s foreign policy credentials in advance of the November election against John McCain.”
OK, but Biden’s own foreign-policy credentials — then and now — were and are highly problematic, to put it mildly.
In 2008, he was best known for an utterly cockamamie proposal that the United States should have divided Iraq into three countries after the war concluded. And during the Obama administration, he has become best known for enunciating a peculiar view of Afghanistan according to which the Taliban “per se is not our enemy.” An interesting opinion, given that we’ve been at war with the Taliban for a decade — a war that Barack Obama chose to broaden considerably in 2009.
Biden also opposed the operation that killed Osama bin Laden.
One is forced to conclude that Obama chose Biden because he wanted a running mate who would have no independent standing whatever.
In the end, Biden was and remains a pol from a small state who had never gotten more than 165,000 votes in an election in his life, who came across to those who knew him as a garrulous coot at best and as a solipsistic bore at worst, and who would represent no particular constituency in Obama’s party that would seek to influence the president.
He’s a time suck, as I learned 25 years ago. Unfortunately for the president, Joe Biden might also be a time bomb.
Tags: John Podhoretz
Wow! So, what you’re telling me, something I already believed, is that Barack Obama picked Joe because he is such a weak figure that Obama would not feel threatened by having a stronger intellect in the room with him. How fragile is that ego? He is the perfect portrait of a child suffering separation from a strong father figure early on in his life. Are there any Democrats rising to national prominence with out severe psychological damage?
Biden is an idiot!
Rodan wrote:
A blithering idiot.
@ Rodan:
without a village
Could it be that Joe Plugs is a Republican party paid operative?
@ Rodan:
Yes he is but he is the idiot that keeps giving us great ways to nail The Zero. Everytime Biden opens his mouth, something stupid comes out. You listen to Ryan speak off the cuff and its amazing. Biden is the crazy uncle we all don’t want to sit next to on Thanksgiving.
MikeA wrote:
And that’s but one day out of 365.242!
@ MikeA:
Reminds me of an old Addams Family ditty:
“The Addams Family started
When Uncle Fester farted!
The children are retarded!
The Ad-dams Fa-mi-ly!” [snap snap] 8)
Saw CNN as I was walking through the lobby at work. Seems The Zero said Syria better not use Chem weapons or it will cause him to rethink his options. Like what is he gonna do? Invade? Nuke em? Tell them to stop it or he will write a strongly worded letter?
@ MikeA:
Biden is the gift that keeps on giving.
Let us hope, for the sake of the country, that Biden isa time bomb, and that he goes irretrievably off the first week of November.
MikeA wrote:
Remember what happened to Hans Brix….
The state of Delaware actually does exist.
MikeA wrote:
The Assad Bunch must be trembling. /
from down thread
Old Joke, New Again: Employee says,”You’re firing me
because I’m black” Boss says, “Wrong I hired you because
you are black. I’m firing you because you are useless.
Todd Akin says he is staying in Senate race despite furor over rape comment
Just swell./
Harry Reid is grateful.
Flyovercountry wrote:
Short answer, no.
The democratic leadership are better suited to be characters in some dopey sitcom rather than real-life governance.
The only thing that gives me some solace in observing the farce of much of our leadership is the fawning coverage by the state media of North Korea of their dictator.
@ Speranza:
Fits with “It is a woman’s fault if she doesn’t bear sons”
@ Macker:
Hey Mack. Got your message, but alas I don’t do texting. Anyway, I’m doing great, and thanks for asking.
To the thread.
Too bad filibustering is going the way of a lost art because Joe sounds like he’d be perfect at it.
Speranza wrote:
Angle/O’Donnell 2012!
Iron Fist wrote:
I’m hoping he says something utterly ridiculous at the DNC Hee Haw. In prime time.
This oughta be fun. For Ryan that is.
October 11, 2012
Topic: Foreign and domestic policy
Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: Centre College in Danville, Kentucky
Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates
Participants: Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan
Moderator: Martha Raddatz (ABC News Chief Foreign Correspondent)
song_and_dance_man wrote:
the odds are in your favor
Rodan wrote:
The Tea Party is about reduced government spending so we don’t end up like Greece. The Tea Party has nothing to do with pro-life/pro-choice etc.
The Democrats show more savvy in these Senate races then we do (as the Powerline guys have noted).
Have you guys seen the cover of Newsweek?
I’m shocked.
song_and_dance_man wrote:
Go a few threads down.
In other words, diarrhea of the mouth.
song_and_dance_man wrote:
My dad would have just said he had diarrhea of the mouth.
@ Speranza:
O
song_and_dance_man wrote:
don’t be, they are just doing what rats do when the ship starts leaking…
@ The Osprey:
GMTA!
@ song_and_dance_man:
The thinking is that Joe Biden is the man with real foreign policy gravitas in this campaign. Joe after all spent his entire adult life on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The problem of course is that he was sober for zero percent of those sessions. He has been wrong on every single foreign policy issue to have ever been discussed publicly. Somehow, that does not fill me with feelings of confidence in his advice. Which if it were my advice that the President were following, I sure as heck would never admit it in public anyhow. Our foreign policy has been an unmitigated disaster for the last four years, and my guess is that Hillary is going to spend at least two solid years trying to figure out how to distance herself from it for her upcoming 2016 Presidential bid. Ryan will destroy him, no matter what the topic of debate they happen to pick.
MikeA wrote:
No, he’ll just ask Netanyahu to do the heavy lifting.
@ citizen_q:
Yep. He should wear a tie that looks like a roll of TP.
waldensianspirit wrote:
Really?
brookly red wrote:
That’s what someone in the comments section said at a site I saw the cover.
Speranza wrote:
As anyone with greater intestinal fortitude than I taken a look over at the Swamp to see what Chucky is saying about this?
song_and_dance_man wrote:
the one thing a media outlet can’t be is wrong… you will see the MSM turning on him more and more as we get closer to the election
Flyovercountry wrote:
I can say with certainty when it comes to foreign affairs BO does not consult Joe. I think he consults with himself and a few select Muslim leaders. Who in their right mind here in America, other than those who admire BO’s affection to Islam and the countries they occupy, would have advised him to give his first foreign speech in Cairo, give back the bust of Winston, and reach out to Muslims?
Now Biden will, hopefully be asked about this, and his answers better be on point in backing BO, or he will bring division to the issue and the camp of his boss. This will fall into Ryans hands to demonstrate just how skewed the policy is, and he may be able to shed light on how it has deviated from the former POTUS’.
Maybe Akin’s just espousing the Whoopi Goldberg view that it’s not “rape-rape.” /
The Osprey wrote:
I don’t have the strength for that.
The Osprey wrote:
I’m sure he’s not calling it what it is. A tempest in a teacup. The man used the wrong word to make a valid point. Sure there is no such thing as ‘legitimate’ rape; and I think he meant whether or not rape was actually committed. Now I have not read much about the story so I’m just taking a guess at what he meant, and the benefit of a doubt brings me there.
brookly red wrote:
That has value. Recall how they treated Wet Willie when it got close to the end of his term. Even Chris Matthews chided the man and said, ‘just get out’, we’re all tired of him’.
Ted Cruz backhands WAPO lib talker
song_and_dance_man wrote:
And that is a fatal flaw of the left, they fell in love with the media, and a whore is whore.
@ The Osprey:
@ Flyovercountry:
I sometimes wonder what he smokes to combat the aftereffects of his strokes from the past….
Ricochet: Biden Should Submit to Neurological Examination
huckfunn wrote:
That’s the stupidest remark from a journalist I’ve heard in a while.
Macker wrote:
They might have to create a whole new chart.
brookly red wrote:
Oh and the unions will turn on him too, he save some stimulus money to pay them off before the election but not enough as soon as the see their pimp can’t protect them they too will turn on him.
Speranza wrote:
He used the wrong word with legitimate.
What he wanted to exclude are cases where women claim they were raped because they are under social pressure to not be pregnant. Or even screwing around
brookly red wrote:
I think it has more to do with legitimacy for the MSM. They see the man is tanking and they want to get off that ship and in so doing accuse the captain of mishandling the cruise. They don’t want to appear— as they do to us who understand the issue of media bias—and want some credibility to say. They are late in finally getting around to doing their job correctly, and will use this time to re-group for future propaganda.
But resulting pregnancy is definitely no proof of state of mind during conception!
@ song_and_dance_man:
I should have pimf’d that. After reading it I noticed I lost my train of thought. I blame and claim a Biden influence and I’m sticking to my story.
song_and_dance_man wrote:
They’re saying some pretty stupid things these days. It’s almost like a contest to see who can out-stupid the others. EJ Dionne wins for today but there will be a challenger tomorrow.
song_and_dance_man wrote:
That too. Do you remember the Who’s Tommy? … let’s forget you better still… False messiahs fall hard.
waldensianspirit wrote:
And right on cue the Left plead ignorance to the gaff. I think as you do about what he said.
huckfunn wrote:
I try not to read the Left diatribes, so my scorecard is kindy outdated.
The Osprey wrote:
Biden can sure dream can’t he?
Another example of media turning… AP is reporting record gas prices. They haven’t blamed Obama yet, but they are putting it out there and not trying to sweep it under the rug.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OIL_PRICES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-20-11-19-24
waldensianspirit wrote:
he is living the dream! In any other (advanced) country everyday he would be taking a short yellow bus to his job sorting recyclables at the dump… only in America could this man be vice president (and God forbid a mishap, president)
The community organizer affirmative action in chief narcissist needs Slow Joe to be around to take the blame.
Something to ponder.
There are a lot of Conservatives that want Akin’s scalp.
Joe Biden?
Oh the libs are standing by their
manidiot.Conservative are willing to lose a Senate seat not to besmirch their standing.
Liberals will screw over anyone to keep the crap of off of their guy. That apparently even means putting a moron one dreadful moment away from the presidency.
This is the point that needs to be hammered home. The libs “discipline” is at the cost of citizen and country.
The conservatives would rather have a Dem win than sacrifice their good name.
Biden’s middle name is “Robinette.” Be nice if Podhoretz could get Biden’s middle initial right.
Chico Marx, desperately, as he plays the same piece of music for the third time: “I can’t think of the finish!”
Groucho, in the audience, replies, “That’s funny. I can’t think of anything else.”
@ The Osprey:
Charles is gloating over this as proof Republicans are pro-rape.
Rodan wrote:
It figures. The fact that Republicans are leading the call for his to step aside cannot penetrate is fat head.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
He (Biden) is still a douche bag no matter what his middle name is.
Speranza wrote:
True. I just think it is sloppy as hell for a professional pundit to get the middle initial wrong when he didn’t have to use it in the first place. Podhoretz is trying to add an extra bit of snark to his piece by using the initial, and he ends up looking like a jerk.
@ The Osprey:
@ Rodan:
@ Speranza:
Who gives a damn what The Man With the Atrophied Legs has to say about it? He’s not about to let facts interfere with his opinion.
unclassifiable wrote:
I think of it in terms of the Right not wanting the distraction.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
They may have given him that name later once they discovered he was a goof.
@ song_and_dance_man:
It’s a little worse than than that. Akins apparently said that a woman could not become pregnant from rape because her body would automatically shut down its fertility owing to the trauma of the force used. That’s blatantly untrue, and there are thousands of instances where women have been impregnated in actual cases of rape. It is equally true that most rapes don’t result in pregnancy, just as it’s true that most one-night stands don’t result in pregnancy. Bottom line is that pregnancy is simply not a determinant of the circumstances of the sex act that leads up to it. Full stop.
Akins needs to say, “I was misinformed, and I made a stupid statement as a result. I won’t make that mistake again.” But he probably won’t.
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
Yeah I just heard that on a radio show on my way to the market.
Well that changes my opinion.
Alberta Oil Peon wrote:
He needs to be told the the RNC will not give him one dime and that they will support an independent 3rd party candidate. Therefore Akin will not only not be a Senator but will lose his congressional seat as well.
Alberta Oil Peon wrote:
That’s probably why the Right is ganging up on him. Maybe behind closed doors he was advised to do so.
And this is fine example of what the Right does. They chastise their own, whereas the Left goes into a huddle to back their gaffer. Biden being the latest.
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
he thinks the election is providence. This guy is a Angle/O’Donnell style loon and should have never gotten near the nomination. I would not be shocked if he’s a false flag operative.
@ song_and_dance_man:
I think this guy is a false flag operative.
@ Rodan:
To change the news cycle away form the Mitt tax issue?
@ song_and_dance_man:
No He’s a Democratic plant. He’s a straw man of what they claim Republicans are.
@ Speranza:
Well, I believe if he were to make a real heartfelt mea culpa on this, and promise to be more rational in future, he might be able to put it behind him. Reading between the lines, I think what prompted him to make that silly statement was a belief that some women are falsely claiming rape in order to get a free abortion on the taxpayers’ dime. If indeed that scenario is happening often enough to be an actual problem, something should be done. But there are laws in place to handle such cases. Fraud, and making a false police report come to mind right off the bat.
If Akins is smart enough to own this mistake, he may be able to overcome it, as it will lose its potency as a weapon with which to beat him. But if he tries pass it off as being “misquoted” or does the deny, deny, deny routine, it will come back to haunt him again and again.
Rodan wrote:
…or, perhaps, something Akin to that…
Rodan wrote:
Well, he is only one state over from the king of false-flag faux-conservative operations, Fred Phelps…
@ Rodan:
Rodan, he’s been a GOP congressman from Missouri for I don’t how many years. Pretty strange history for a Dem plant, LOL.
Maybe he has a few bats in the belfry, or maybe he’s a good guy who got out of his depth in a subject that he knows next to nothing about.
But either he drops out of the race, or he admits that he screwed up, and promises to become better informed on that issue.
Returning to the thread topic, if Biden were a Capitol Hill bird, would he be a jello-bellied timesucker?
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
No, just a Do-Do bird.
Alberta Oil Peon wrote:
I disagree, a guy who could not see the mine field that he was marching into with a statement that he gave is just too stupid (just like Joe Biden) to not repeat it again. He is a stupid, stupid man and ought to commit symbolic seppuku and leave.
song_and_dance_man wrote:
Wrong.This is an example why the Right is more ethical then the Left. When we find a blithering idiot of our own we try to remove them before they do a lot of damage. Circling the wagons around an asshole is no virtue. Do you want to defeat Claire McCaskill or not?