Sep 20th, 2008 at 10:47 am
The Forgotten Man
New York Times article reminds us that Joe Biden is not only alive, he’s running for Vice President! It’s just that nobody notices. One reason, I think, is that the candidates stopped debating national security issues right around the time Biden was picked even though adding a confident national security voice to the ticket was part of the rationale for going with Biden.
38 Responses to “The Forgotten Man”
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September 20th, 2008 at 10:59 am
What–no “World’s Forgotten Boy” post title, Mr. Hip Lyrical Allusion?
September 20th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Actually I think is doing yeoman’s work in the battleground states. It’s less important that he gets ink in the NYT or WP than in the Grand Rapids Press or the Altoona Mirror.
September 20th, 2008 at 11:15 am
mert7878:
Bingo!! Also, the media loves chasing the shiny new ball. And right now that is still Sarah Palin.
September 20th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Come on…Drudge is the media.
September 20th, 2008 at 11:22 am
… even though adding a confident national security voice to the ticket was part of the rationale for going with Biden.
Nah. Scranton Blue Collar Catholic Old White Guy Pennsylvania. Everything can be explained by ultra-simplistic, overused demographic buzzwords.
September 20th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Did anyone see bush on the tv this am 8:30 central time here. He was talking about some free trade agreement with Columbia and I think he actually took some questions about the bailout. It appears the republicans have reduced the leader of the free world to a sound bite.
September 20th, 2008 at 11:33 am
the candidates stopped debating national security issues
Given the recent bombing attack on our embassy in Yemen as well as today’s attack in Pakistan, foreign policy issues are not going away.
Hopefully, Matthew, you will continue to blog on such topics; since somebody has to keep his eye on that ball despite all the financial turmoil.
September 20th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Thought Biden came out from that article pretty well.
September 20th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
I’ve never figured out why people think Biden is some kind of national security guru. He voted for the Iraq War. Sure, he says he regrets it. Fine. Public officials have to make decisions in real time. Hindsight doesn’t help.
Maybe it’s another case where if the media sock puppets keep repeating something over and over again it just gets accepted by the sheeple.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
kafka: As far as I can tell, the awarding by the punditocracy and major media of who is and is not an ‘expert’ on foreign policy has mainly to do with who has ever played major roles with the hawkish mainstream of the U.S. foreign policy establishment, and Biden’s certainly been there and has been very prominent. I don’t think it’s any more than that.
You could be on the relatively saner end of our insane foreign policy establishment, such as Biden, or be on the outright crazy end, such as John Bolton, and either qualifies you to be a ‘guru’ and insider and all that.
On the other hand, if you’re continually correct about everything but you’re considered a weirdo dirty f***ing fringe liberal extremist hippie, well, then, you don’t count.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I don’t really buy this argument. Go onto Obama’s YouTube page and listen to Biden speak about the economy or about women’s issues. He’s a really passionate and persuasive guy on more than just national security.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I think Biden is doing fine by VP candidate standards. Of course he hasn’t attracted as much attention as Obama and McCain, but that is natural. He also hasn’t attracted as much attention as Palin, but at this point that is looking like a net advantage for Obama.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
“I’ve never figured out why people think Biden is some kind of national security guru.”
Probably because he’s the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Just a thought. I can’t think of too many more people in the country more qualified.
On a side note, who would have ever thought the day Biden was picked that he’d be the safe, no-drama running mate?
September 20th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I thought the NYT article bordered on the tautological: no one (i.e., the media) is paying attention to Biden because no one (the media) is paying any attention to him.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Biden’s really quite good on the basic lunchpail-job stuff, even considering Delaware’s main industry.
His stump bits on the dignity of work really seem to hit home in the Rust Belt. It’s easy to reduce that to ‘populism’, but it’s ironically straight out of the democratic left playbook of the British Labour Party pre-Blair. Losing your job takes away your dignity. Telling someone who’s worked 30 years at a skilled blue-collar job to re-train for that Wal-Mart greeter job is emasculating. (And yes, it’s a gendered issue.)
And yes, it’s tautologous: if the media wanted to cover Biden as much as Mooselini, they could.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I think you might be missing Biden’s contribution.
He isn’t on the ticket to keep national security on the front pages. He’s there to stop McCain from pivoting to national security whenever the national conversation turns to a topic he doesn’t like.
Biden is part of the reason McCain is flailing around trying to talk about the financial market instead of changing the subject to Russia. The longer people in general and McCain in particular have to talk about the economy, the better it will be for Obama.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
“Probably because he’s the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Just a thought. I can’t think of too many more people in the country more qualified.”
Classic case of judging people by their position, not by the positions they’ve taken. By that standard, Condi Rice is a national security guru as well.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Also, Biden’s able to campaign on his own. Palin’s usually not allowed to campaign on her own because she’d draw bigger crowds than McCain and she’s much more likely than Biden to make a major gaffe.
September 20th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I’m seeing Biden get some nice local coverage. He’s looking like a strong VP pick and it’s just not a sexy story. The national media feels they already know him and so are focusing on Palin.
Biden’s big stage is going to be the debate. The stories VP debate week will all be about Palen too but for the public it will be about who’s ready and who’s not. Unless he makes a major gaffe (and you know the opposition will be looking for mole hills to build into mountains), he’ll be fine and a net positive for folks in Ohio, PA and MI.
September 20th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
The NYT piece was a travesty. Not only tautological as mentioned above by Jan, but also snarky. Whether or not you agree with him (and I did not on Iraq back in 2002-2003), there’s no denying that Joe knows his stuff, that he works hard and that he’s deeply and personally invested in the issues. While his 2007 memoir was obviously intended to position his run for the Democratic presidential nomination, what nevertheless comes out of that book is Biden’s decency and his heart.
I don’t quite understand his friendship with McCain, but of the two of them, Joe is the only one talking straight talk nowadays.
Back to the NYT: they would rather snark about his alleged gaffs and his emotional, touchy feely sometimes goofy style than talk about what he says and knows. They are lazy, preferring to resurrect the old narrative than watch what is actually happening. Thank God for YouTube or no one would have known how eloquent and passionate he as been in the past week for Obama.
The media has decided that Palin is the story and then somehow labels Joe, the “other candidate’. But if they actually covered him instead of repeating what they think they know the story is then we would have a different campaign.
September 20th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I suspect that most of the conservative run media in this country don’t want to cover Biden either because he typically is just hammering the shit out of them in plain speaking terms every day.
When the owners tell the editors that its a one-sided fight that will end too soon then it doesn’t get coverage.
September 20th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
This is unfair to Joe Biden.
You will find in the meda he is doing the “grunt” work that is going largely unreported.
Plus, this week he launched some good attacks on McCain’s economics.
He has been steady and “no drama” – which seems to be the hallmark of this ticket.
Also, the expectations on Palin in the upcoming debate are so large as to take the pressure off him.
September 20th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait.
Hold on.
The Paper of Record, which hasn’t run a story about Biden in 2 weeks, in an article complaining that the media isn’t covering Biden, makes the story about the media rather than about Biden.
I fucking hate this country right now.
September 20th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
adding a confident national security voice to the ticket was part of the rationale for going with Biden.
Yes, so it would take the emphasis off what the corporate media portrays as McCain’s strength in that area, and shift the focus to his obvious weaknesses on domestic issues.
Mission Accomplished. We don’t want the focus to be on McCain, Biden, and foreign policy. We want it on Obama, Palin, and domestic policy.
September 20th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Each election, we go through a ritual in which the GOP dominates the terms of the debate, and comments in liberal blogs blame the Dems. Couldn’t they just campaign better? It’s good to be reminded for once that the media and the American people really are that stupid.
September 20th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Maybe one reason they stopped debating national security (aside from the financial implosion, and McCain’s preference for cheap shots and lies) is that Biden helped neutralize an Obama weakness on foreign affairs.
September 20th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
The day after the VP debate, Joe will be the story again. And I second the notion that Joe is making major headway where it counts. People are no fool, THEY SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU VOTE WITH YOUR HEART rather than your HEAD.
They will not make the same mistake again, watch and wait.
k1
September 21st, 2008 at 12:00 am
But of course, Biden wasn’t put on the ticket because Obama actually wanted to talk about national security. Biden will help his cred when those issues come up, but if the campaigns spend 90% of their time focusing on the economy between now and the election, Obama will win in a walk.
September 21st, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Biden was the ideal selection — for politics and for governing.
In the political realm:
- he connects with the ‘hillary’ blue-collar workers in the midwest
- he extends the candidates reach by flying solo (as opposed to Palin who simplify amplifies — drowns out?? — her running mate)
- most importantly, he keeps McCain honest on foreign policy
Lastly, he is happy to be number 2.
All of these reasons made him the best choice for Obama and demonstrate his superior judegment.
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