Aug 23rd, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Biden Clip Reel
Via James Fallows, here’s a kind of greatest hits reel of Joe Biden at a Democratic debate:
From a Heads in the Sand point of view, I’d be much happier if Joe Biden had opposed the 2002 Iraq AUMF. And even beyond that, I don’t always agree with his substantive positions on the issues. But one clear asset he has is that like only a handful of other prominent Democratic leaders (Wesley Clark one among them) Biden consistently approaches national security debates with an attitude of confidence that projects a desire to win the argument rather than wriggle away from it.
49 Responses to “Biden Clip Reel”
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August 23rd, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Biden — the perfect foil for Palin!
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:23 pm
He’s definitely a fighter. I’m looking forward to this campaign.
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
i would say the primary job description for the democratic vice presidential candidate this year is to repeat, every day, that john mccain is too much of a hothead to be trusted in the oval office.
can’t think of a better choice than biden to do that….
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
If McCain picks Romney, it will set up an interesting contrast where in the VP debate, the Dems will be stronger on foreign policy but the GOP might be stronger on economic policy, while in the Presidential debates the exact opposite is true (in terms of the candidates’ confidence and perceived experience, not on the policy merits). I don’t know what the implications of this are but it will certainly confuse the media narrative.
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Biden’s also the perfect guy to say “All we ever hear from John McCain’s campaign is a noun, a verb, and POW”.
But one clear asset he has is that like only a handful of other prominent Democratic leaders (Wesley Clark one among them) Biden consistently approaches national security debates with an attitude of confidence that projects a desire to win the argument rather than wriggle away from it.
That’s in part because he has an excellent staff. Check out this post by Moira Whelan at Democracy Arsenal.
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:33 pm
He’s also the perfect guy to say “All we ever hear from John McCain’s campaign is a noun, a verb, and POW.” Bam!
But one clear asset he has is that like only a handful of other prominent Democratic leaders (Wesley Clark one among them) Biden consistently approaches national security debates with an attitude of confidence that projects a desire to win the argument rather than wriggle away from it.
That’s because he has an excellent staff and is very pro-active on policy. Check out this excellent post from Moira Whelan at Democracy Arsenal.
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Like Clark, he has the ability to frame and articulate arguments in a trenchant fashion.
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Right:
How exactly does picking Romney say the Republicans know anything about the economy? Romney got rich running a hedge fund. That doesn’t mean economic expertise. Just another out of touch rich guy.
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Makes no difference. Senator Obama is going down the tubes.
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/13074.htm
Some juicy excerpts
As Obama’s poll numbers plunge, he reaches out to Jews for support
Arab-American pollster James Zogby says that the news for Obama is “terrible” and that he should be plenty worried.
A July piece by Jennifer Rubin explains why more Jews won’t be voting Democratic this year:
In every significant interaction in Obama’s adult life with those who distain and vilify Israel – from Rashid Khalidi to Reverend Jeremiah Wright to Louis Farrakhan – Obama has demonstrated passive resignation and indifference….
… Some Jews are incapable of deluding themselves that Obama would be the most resolute candidate in defending Israel. In quiet moments of contemplation and in noisy debates with family members and friends, they worry about the tenuous nature of Israel’s existence and the dangers which lurk from within and outside Israel’s borders. These Jews cannot imagine a world without Israel and could not countenance election of a president who, in Israel’s moment of peril, could well falter.
And that is why these obstinate Obama skeptics, some even after a lifetime of Democratic voting, will not pull the lever for him. For them some things rank higher than even the top items on the liberal political agenda. The risk is, in their minds, too great that when Israel needs help the most, Obama will buckle and Israel will be crushed.
But it appears that it’s not only the Jews who are seeing the danger in an Obama presidency. Even Obama’s core base among young people and Black Americans appears to be collapsing, with even the most extreme utterances of suspicion (some might say paranoia) finding expression and viral distribution in the notion gaining currency that the self-posessed man-who-won’t-publish-his-birth certificate and may have held citizenship in as many as three nations (Indonesia, Kenya and the United Kingdom) other than the United States may be nothing less than a one-man “sleeper cell” that aims to infiltrate the oval office.
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
The best argument in favor of Joe Biden is that Charles Kushner felt it necessary to destroy’s Biden’s Presidential bid with a dishonest smear. One which even Matthew fell for.
See http://www.matthewyglesias.com/archives/2007/01/clean/ and then my comments down below starting at
http://www.matthewyglesias.com/archives/2007/01/clean/index.php#050788 (scroll downward.)
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:26 pm
After the porking he got from Charles Kushner, I suspect Joe Biden see eye to eye with Barack Obama re malign smears from the Israel Lobby. And the need to retaliate in a massive way.
Shit hammer’s gonna fall, SLC. Better find a big rock to hide under.
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Anyone know how much Hillary has paid off on that $14 Million campaign debt? Heh heh heh
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I can’t stand his support for the bankruptcy bill, but the guy swings a mean mace.
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Re Don Williams
Apparently, Mr. Williams, the blogs favorite Bolshevik, has joined Richard Steven Hack on the smack bandwagon. Mr. Williams’ fantasies will occur when the shrimps learn to whistle, as he favorite leader, Nikita Khrushchev, once famously stated. Repeat after me, Senator Osama is for the high jump.
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:43 pm
SLC, I realize that Bill Kristol doesn’t keep his lowly car washer up on what the Elders are doing. So here is some more info for your re who Charles Kushner is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Kushner#cite_ref-2
Actually, when you think about it, Joe Biden got off lightly. Look at what Charles did to his brother-in-law and sister.(The targets of his prostitution blackmail scheme)
And look what he did to his friend, New Jersey Governor
Jim McGreevey. Who do you think sponsored gay lover Golan Cipel’s VISA? heh heh heh
Although my understanding is that Golan has returned to Israel.
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I’m with Calvin Jones. Romney’s economic expertise was forged at McBain, where he convinced a bunch of companies to consolidate operations, reduce costs, and cut jobs. Couple that with his massive wealth and multiple homes and what you have is a gigantic, gaping liability in places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and any other rust-belt state you can think of, including New Hampshire, which McCain desperately needs. Maybe he gets on the ticket, but if he does it will be because his LDS faith might help in Nevada and his father’s name might help in Michigan. The Democrats have little to fear from him from an economic perspective.
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Re SLC’s comment “Apparently, Mr. Williams, the blogs favorite Bolshevik ”
————
Bolshi? Moi?
Although I do agree some our Neocons deserve the same hood ornament that the Bolshis installed on the Neocons’ spiritual leader Trotsky.
Actually, Sidney Reilly is my hero. Ever hear of him?
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Too bad they didn’t drop the hammer on Kushner sooner, SLC. He didn’t go to the pen until after Richard was released. Richard could have used a rich bitch to buy him cigarettes.
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Re Don Williams
1. Never heard of Sidney Reilly, ne Georgi Rosenblum. I have heard of Moe Berg, a former baseball player and sometime spy.
2. Sidney Reilly Mr. Williams hero? And all this time I thought Mr. Williams’ hero was Eric Prince. What a revolting development.
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Re Don Williams
I suspect that Kushner, like most white collar crooks, will spend his prison time in a country club prison. Leavenworth is not a country club prison; it’s designed for degenerates like Mr. Hack.
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Obama/Biden – The Gasbag Express
August 23rd, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Slow Joe Plugs Biden – arrogant, boorish, clean and articulate, serial-plagiarizing, Dunkin-Donut-frequenting, elitist, grandstanding, narcissistic, mean-spirited, cerebral welterweight and consummate DC insider. What was BO thinking?
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:09 pm
How exactly does picking Romney say the Republicans know anything about the economy?
I didn’t say that it did, only that Romney might seem more confident and at ease when the topic is the economy whereas Biden might be a little out of his comfort zone. Of course Biden seems confident basically all the time, so maybe he can hold his own on that front. Will be interesting to see.
Anyway, this is a good pick, but hardly a game-changer.
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Slow Joe Plugs Biden – arrogant, boorish, clean and articulate, serial-plagiarizing, Dunkin-Donut-frequenting, elitist, grandstanding, narcissistic, mean-spirited, cerebral welterweight and consummate DC insider.
What’s wrong with Dunkin’ Donuts?
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Slow Joe Plugs Biden – arrogant, boorish, clean and articulate, serial-plagiarizing, Dunkin-Donut-frequenting, elitist, grandstanding, narcissistic, mean-spirited, cerebral welterweight and consummate DC insider. What was BO thinking?
That “a new kind of politics” is just fine when you want to propose a new agenda, but when you want to kick someone’s ass in an election, you bring on a guy just like you’ve described.
(also, how can you be both Dunkin-Donut-frequenting and an elitist?)
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Speaking of Wesley Clark — he would have been a way better choice than Biden in every way. Too bad instead of doing that, Obama just left him twisting in the wind after he rightly defended Obama against a ridiculous attack from McCain.
I’m sorry, Obama’s judgment blows.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:33 am
I for one would welcome Karzai on Jeopardy
August 24th, 2008 at 1:19 am
SLC is right that rich guys don’t end up in Leavenworth. But then, neither do guys with 11 points which is what I had when they sent me there. I was supposed to go to a lower security FCI than even Oxford, Wisconsin. But the head of the B.O.P. wanted to go to Congress and lobby for five more penitentiaries, so they upped everybody’s points and shipped people to the existing penitentiaries no matter what reason had to be concocted. In my case, it was saying “Good morning” to the secretary in the office every day – that meant they could tag me as a stalker and raise my points.
SLC is too stupid to use Google, but Sidney Reilly was the model for James Bond. As for Moe Berg, if you listened to the “Terminator” show, you’d know that he was sent to Switzerland to shoot Jewish nuclear physicist Werner Heisenberg in the head if he thought the physicist was close to making a nuclear bomb. Sarah mused about that whole incident in the bath tub while making plans to find out about Andy Good and his “The Turk” computer – and possibly kill him.
Speaking of which, that episode opened with a dream sequence in which Sarah assassinated the inventors of the atom bomb – only to have them return to life as Terminators.
Somebody should have terminated Israel before it started its nuclear weapons project.
August 24th, 2008 at 7:57 am
Re Richard Steven Hack
Mr. Hack is as misinformed about Werner Heisenbergs’ ethnic background as he is about most everything else. The late Prof. Heisenberg was 100% Aryan. If he had had so much as a Jewish grandparent, he would have been forced to emigrate from Germany, just as Einstein, Meitner and Pauli, among others, were.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Re SLC’s comment “Mr. Hack is as misinformed about Werner Heisenbergs’ ethnic background as he is about most everything else. The late Prof. Heisenberg was 100% Aryan. If he had had so much as a Jewish grandparent, he would have been forced to emigrate from Germany, just as Einstein, Meitner and Pauli, among others, were.”
————–
SLC, you might Google “Heisenberg Affair”. Heisenberg’s life was threatened, his academic post was suspended –and he was investigated by the SS — after he was denounced as a “White Jew” for teaching Einstein’s physics vice the sanctioned “Deutsche Physik”.
“White Jew” would loosely translate as “Nigger Lover” in the USA’s deep South. It’s interesting how Nazi racism and Southern racism shared some intricate similaries — including an intense dislight for anyone who has more than two brain cells to rub together.
And it has long been claimed that Heisenberg sabotaged the Nazi atomic bomb project — although this is not clear. One joke is that you can determine Heisenberg’s moral values or his competence –but not both at the same time.
August 24th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Re Don Williams
1. I am well aware of the animosity of much of the Nazi establishment towards Heisenberg for having the temerity to believe in relativity. However, Heisenberg was no more a Jew, as we understand the term, then Mr. Williams is an Eskimo.
2. It is well known that Heisenberg greatly overestimated the amount of U235 that would be required to generate a chain reaction (he estimated 100 kilograms when the actual number is about 1 kilogram; it would have taken 30 years, given the technology available at the time, to produce 100 kilograms of U235). Odly enough, a couple of Jewish refugees in England, Otto Frisch (Lise Meitners’ nephew) and Leo Szilard computed the correct value. It is my understanding that most historians have not bought into the notion that Heisenberg did this deliberately, based on his evident surprise when informed, during his internment by the British, that the US had dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima.
August 24th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
RE SLC’s comment “However, Heisenberg was no more a Jew, as we understand the term,”
—————
“As we understand the term”… Hmmmm. Interesting point–who decides who is a Jew?
The State of Israel uses something called “the Nuremburg Law” in deciding on applications of citizenship. Anyone know who wrote the Nuremburg Law? We could ask the authors of that Law what Heisenberg’s status would be.
Can you help me out here, SLC?
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