Oh, That Joe! (No. 46 in a Series) — Gaffes? What Gaffes?
Speaking to reporters on his campaign plane Monday, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said that in the past two and a half months since Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., selected him as running mate, he has not made any "big gaffes."
"I think we’ve run a really good campaign," Biden said on his trip from Kansas City, Mo., to Columbus, Ohio.
"And for all the stuff about gaffes, I don’t think there have been any real gaffes," Biden said. "I mean, I don’t see anything in your polling data demonstrating any of that stuff you guys love to write about.
"I never make any big, big gaffes," boasted the loquacious Blue Hen. "I mean, you guys love saying that about me, but I tell you what, just look at the numbers. I don’t have any problem with what I’ve said and there’s nothing I’ve said that I would back off of."
Really? Not even that Obama would be tested by the world and his response wouldn’t immediately be apparent as the right one? Which Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., immediately seized upon?
Gird your loins!!
– Jake Tapper and Matt Jaffe
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“In the White House there is no time for speeches and on-the-job training. Senator McCain will bring a lifetime of experience to the campaign and Senator Obama will bring a speech that he gave in 2002. I think that is a significant difference.” – Hillary Clinton
Posted by: Ouch! | November 4, 2008, 8:37 am 8:37 am
It’s okay Joe. Good luck!
Posted by: Michelle | November 4, 2008, 8:42 am 8:42 am
Hey, where is the BIG troopergate story….hey, where is the “Palin medical paper story…..I want to see the next big headlines :MEDIA DIES IN 2008….NO SERVICES….NO FLOWERS! SURVIVORS INCLUDE: FOX NEWS, DISNEY CHANNEL AND DISCOVERY! PLEASE SEND DONATIONS TO MIDDLE CLASS ELDERLY IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD!
Posted by: mfmros | November 4, 2008, 8:48 am 8:48 am
Well…..there was the explanation for his abortion stand being ok with the Catholic Church now that the bishops rebuked. Joe likes to use his catholic roots to get votes…he’ll be judged some day!
Posted by: Kathy | November 4, 2008, 8:50 am 8:50 am
Oh Joe, if Obama is elected you will become the late night talk shows best friend! Because of political correctness they can’t say anything that could be thought of as offensive toward Obama, but you will go down as the biggest joke of all time with your constant foot in mouth disease.
Posted by: robert | November 4, 2008, 8:52 am 8:52 am
go
Posted by: nicole hopson | November 4, 2008, 8:52 am 8:52 am
This dried up old buzzard is senile.
He hasn’t done ONE THING in the past 35 years as a senator—what makes him think he’s an authority now?
My worst nightmare is Obama being elected; the second worst nightmare is Obama being assassinated after the election and this Biden fool becoming President. God help us all.
Posted by: bidenwho? | November 4, 2008, 8:55 am 8:55 am
Joe, your an idiot but I like you. I really never reilized what a goof you are…I’ve watched you during your life in politics and thought you were an upstanding guy – you are, your just an idiot!….
Posted by: Roc1 | November 4, 2008, 8:56 am 8:56 am
Joe Leiberman said the same thing almost word for word, plus many in the past, apparently there’s some truth to this, so what is the big deal? Maybe people don’t like to hear something uncomfortable to them even if it’s the truth.
Posted by: SmileAlready | November 4, 2008, 8:57 am 8:57 am
Boy, we will be in big trouble if Obama and Biden wins. What if something happens to Obama and Biden has to step in as acting president. What a scary thought.
Posted by: Fran | November 4, 2008, 9:02 am 9:02 am
Biden’s gaffes = Foot in the mouth, talking too fast at times.
Palin’s gaffes = She actually has no fricking clue what she’s talking about.
Posted by: Grey Matter | November 4, 2008, 9:03 am 9:03 am
Let’s be a nation of God. Stop killing babies and end abortion. We need pro-lifers like McCain and Palin to preserve life and protect our children’s generation.
Posted by: Fran | November 4, 2008, 9:05 am 9:05 am
So the republicans think that Obama won’t be tested? Every new president is tested. And the repubs think that Obama WILL be immediately apparent as the right one?
They’re really reaching to try to make a gaffe out of nothing. A gaffe is when someone says something totally stupid (See Palin, Sarah).
They’re desperately trying to come up with something, anything, to get people from focusing on the real issues, like the fact that McCain is a crazy, sick old man who would continue the failed policies of George Bush, or that McCain’s VP would be totally unprepared to be President in the very likely event that McCain could not complete 4 years.
Posted by: Truth | November 4, 2008, 9:06 am 9:06 am
Fran,
America is a secular country. We cannot forgot that.
No one is pro-abortion. People are just pro-choice. I find it ironic Republicans can be pro-choice, but would send these children, eighteen years later, to die in a meaningless war. How is that pro-life? How is starting a war pro-life? Everybody loses in a war.
Posted by: Grey Matter | November 4, 2008, 9:07 am 9:07 am
Sorry, (Republicans can be pro-life*) I mean. Typo.
Posted by: Grey Matter | November 4, 2008, 9:08 am 9:08 am
All the abortion fanatics need to realize that during the Clinton years the number of abortions went way down. I suspect they will go down during the Obama years too. Shouldn’t this be the real goal, to lower the number of abortions needed. Obama/Biden 2008!!!
Posted by: pt | November 4, 2008, 9:08 am 9:08 am
Republicans CELEBRATE a “Joe” that makes Biden look like Einstein. The problem with Biden is with his foreign policy experience he is not STUPID enough to appeal to the Republican base. And of course he can’t see another country from his living room window.
Posted by: mila | November 4, 2008, 9:09 am 9:09 am
Will Biden be making a Public Service Announcement to show us how to “gird our loins”?
Posted by: jeanette | November 4, 2008, 9:12 am 9:12 am
Gaffes are different from freudian slips that reveal supreme ignorance- Palin, for example.
Biden, in the debate, has shown his sharp and keen intelligence befitting of a President’s closes advisor and confidant.
Even then, I hate the way McCain is just using Palin to win the election. They didn’t even bother ask her opinion-which I think should have some merit in the campaign, as much as I dislike her-about robocalls or pulling out of Michigan. You can see he’s not going to bother have any use for her if they (God forbid) win. That’s real low.
Posted by: Grey Matter | November 4, 2008, 9:15 am 9:15 am
grey matter: every woman that makes an appointment to have an abortion IS pro-abortion, or they wouldn’t be there. The sad (for their unborn child) truth is that many are anti-abortion after the fact.
Posted by: roberto | November 4, 2008, 9:18 am 9:18 am
Small businesses don’t provide jobs for America but unauthorized to work aliens who don’t pay payroll taxes…those who own homes know who comes to their homes to do the work-lawn mowing,driveway,roofing, tree cutting, plumbing etc. so today as people vote these are the things to think of.
Posted by: nicole | November 4, 2008, 9:20 am 9:20 am
Roberto,
Women who are carrying beyond deformed children that can’t survive and are in tears going for an abortion are pro-abortion? Women who have been raped and are so traumatised? Do you think any of them likes going for an abortion? We women feel an emptiness whenever we lose a child, do you think we WANT to have abortions?
We just think women have a choice, and we would like more education to prevent teenage pregnancies so abortions are safe, but rare.
Posted by: Grey Matter | November 4, 2008, 9:30 am 9:30 am
Joe Biden is guilty of the heresy of failing to subscribe to the dominant media narrative! Send him to the rack!
Posted by: Flash Override | November 4, 2008, 9:46 am 9:46 am
IN all honesty, gaffes are something you folks like to write about. Voters don’t really seem to care as much.
Posted by: Gene | November 4, 2008, 10:37 am 10:37 am
A gaffe is when a politician accidentally tells the truth.
“…we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.” – Senator Joseph Biden, October 19, 2008
“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.” – Sen. Barack Obama July 2, 2008
“Some bloggers are speculating that Obama’s unpopular move might be to reinstate the draft. Remember he already tipped his hand and called for the creation of a citizen’s army. That was promptly expunged from recorded versions of his speech.” – Clinton Democrats for McCain/Palin (a website)
Posted by: topo2005 | November 4, 2008, 10:38 am 10:38 am
Gosh,
Do you guys know what a civilian security force is?
It’s countries like Israel or Singapore where it’s compulsory for healthy males (or females) to undergo training in the military for a few years before they go out to work, or they can stay in the military if they want. These people can be called on to serve as a back up for the permanent armed forces.
There’s a lot of debate, but it’s not neccessarily a bad thing.
Posted by: Grey Matter | November 4, 2008, 10:48 am 10:48 am
If Obama wins today, it will be God’s will and right for America. Sarah Palin said so.
“I’m going to know at the end of the day, putting this in God’s hands, that the right thing for America will be done, the end of the day on November 4th.”
Posted by: WWW | November 4, 2008, 10:50 am 10:50 am
if we did have something like that,
there is nothing wrong with it.
it can be called national service.
and the only reason those blow hard
republican, mccain supporters are against it. is because they are really chicken ####.
it will give all of those we support, run and invade countries, military
might, to put their live where their mouth is.
go barr
Posted by: mccain supporters are hateful people | November 4, 2008, 11:05 am 11:05 am
Gosh,
Do you guys know what a civilian security force is?
It’s countries like Israel or Singapore where it’s compulsory for healthy males (or females) to undergo training in the military for a few years before they go out to work, or they can stay in the military if they want. These people can be called on to serve as a back up for the permanent armed forces.
There’s a lot of debate, but it’s not neccessarily a bad thing.
Posted by: Grey Matter | Nov 4, 2008 10:48:03 AM
So you think a civilian national security force, perhaps under the aupices of the State Department which is often at loggerheads with the Penatgon, is a good thing? I’m sorry, but to me this sounds like a dysfunctional approach to national security — and possibly worse.
Posted by: topo2005 | November 4, 2008, 11:07 am 11:07 am
Or how about (on September 23, 2008) telling a woman in a rope line that Obama-Biden is against clean coal, and that “we will never build another coal burning plant in the United States”.
I am sure that went over well in OH, PA and VA.
Posted by: Stephen Gianelli | November 4, 2008, 11:10 am 11:10 am
Why did Obama pick that guy. Biden was he first to say Obama is not qualified and to say Obama was “Clean and Articulate”. We are stuck with Biden’s mouth flapping in the breeze for 4 or 8 years. OK, and Biden is just creepy – the kind one gets off the elevator to avoid.
Posted by: today | November 4, 2008, 11:17 am 11:17 am
More in context, Biden said Obama would be tested like John F Kennedy. In addition to a positive historical comparison, Biden reassuringly referred to Obama as brilliant. Realistically and of course, Obama would have major challenges in the first 6 months of his administration. Sometimes right action isn’t apparent, especially after the previous eight years of simplistic and overconfident behaviors in foreign policy. For anyone who has listened to Biden on foreign affairs, it’s evident that he has a vast knowledge base in foreign affairs. Biden has competencies far beyond that of a loquacious Blue Hen.
Posted by: kat | November 4, 2008, 11:43 am 11:43 am
Yes John McCain would bring a lifetime’s worth of experience to the White house…none of it even near mediocre. Bottom of the barrel in academics; ethical mistakes; crashed aircraft… but let’s ot forget, he also would be bringing the intellectual equivalent of a blow-up doll as a VP. Now that’s SCARY. go home and stay there, Gidget and Geezer.
Posted by: Lee | November 4, 2008, 12:16 pm 12:16 pm
The “Obama will be tested” remark was a gaffe in the sense that McCain tried to use it against Obama; it broke message discipline. It was NOT a gaffe in the sense that it was an interesting remark that deserved a little serious conversation–think about Kennedy’s first year of office!
One of the things that bothers me about modern political campaigns is that there is no substantive discussion of the issues. We know McCain accuses Obama of being a socialist, but what are the merits of their tax plans, etc? Everything seems to be about the horse race (did Biden say something McCain can use) and not about the things that matter (was Biden right and does it matter?).
I’m sure I’m not the first to point that out. :-)
Posted by: Mark | November 4, 2008, 12:28 pm 12:28 pm
Obama has had plenty of gaffes himself – the comment about bankrupting the coal industry, the bitter people klinginf to guns and religion, 57 sates in the US, etc.
With Obama one does not get the impression that it is a mental defect, the way one does with Biden. And Obama is very disciplined – not like Biden.
Why Obama picked Biden when there were plenty of very well qualified candidates is any one guess.
Posted by: today | November 4, 2008, 1:23 pm 1:23 pm
Have you ever seen a man that craves the spotlight more than Joe Biden?
Obama is just about as bad.
Posted by: sam | November 4, 2008, 2:04 pm 2:04 pm
sam if you don’t like the spotlight, you aren’t running for an office like President or Vice-President.
Think Sarah Palin superstar.
Posted by: pefros | November 4, 2008, 2:06 pm 2:06 pm
Obama and Biden are gaffe machines.
Maybe the next 4 years won’t be so bad since they will get the blame for everything.
Posted by: bailey | November 4, 2008, 2:06 pm 2:06 pm
Obama’s Civilian Security Force…
Is that like those creepy uniformed guys that protect Farrakhan–the Nation of Islam?
The new America thanks to Obama, the media, and his supporters.
Posted by: riley | November 4, 2008, 2:10 pm 2:10 pm
Remember that girl in the McCain camp who pretended she was attacked by a black man who carved a “B” in her face because she supported McCain?
Why wouldn’t people try to protect themselves from this type of abuse and fraud?
Posted by: pefros | November 4, 2008, 2:14 pm 2:14 pm
Anything like the Black Panthers not allowing whites to vote in Philly?
Posted by: God Help Us | November 4, 2008, 2:25 pm 2:25 pm
Biden’s eyes have been stretched too tight. He obviously doesn’t believe he’s said anything wrong. Nice egotistical ticket the left has presented. Wouldn’t it be nice to see McCain/Palin shock the world and have the leftist media make racist/illegal/stealing/Bush-related accusations for the next 4 years? HA!
Posted by: Obama-Ha-Ha | November 4, 2008, 2:26 pm 2:26 pm
“Anything like the Black Panthers not allowing whites to vote in Philly?”
That’s a joke. I’ve heard it reported they were ‘blocking the door’ and that also is nonsense.
As far as the video shows, these two are standing a distance away from the door and not blocking access at all! And certainly no indication they were ‘not allowing whites to vote”.
Posted by: pefros | November 4, 2008, 2:30 pm 2:30 pm
I guess they’re “gaffes” if you say so, Jake.
“Not even that Obama would be tested by the world and his response wouldn’t immediately apparent as the right one?”
I think you’re missing a ‘be’ there, Senior National Correspondent. And I think Biden was right on when he said that. It was you and the GOP that twisted it into some kind of tragedy. Obama will be tested by the World. There’s a global economic meltdown going on out there, not to mention a war. Is that not a big enough test for you?
Posted by: ANNOYED | November 4, 2008, 2:49 pm 2:49 pm
“That’s a joke. I’ve heard it reported they were ‘blocking the door’ and that also is nonsense. As far as the video shows, these two are standing a distance away from the door and not blocking access at all! And certainly no indication they were ‘not allowing whites to vote’.”
No, of course not! Those nice Black Panthers were only ‘HELPING’ people to vote. And gently ‘prompting’ them with a few blows from a nightstick to ensure that they ‘remembered’ their intention to vote for Obama!
Posted by: The Chicago Mafia | November 4, 2008, 6:12 pm 6:12 pm