Seeking to convince us that “Speaking Freely, Biden Finds Influential Role,” the New York Times, instead, makes clear that the Vice President’s role is anything but influential. Consider: Top aides say it has become customary for Mr. Obama to solicit Mr. Biden’s opinion at the end of meetings. But his views by no means always carry the day. At one January meeting to discuss the | Read More »
In Iraq: Romance is in the air in Baghdad as war-weary Iraqis celebrate Valentine’s Day after a sharp drop in violence, allowing lovers to cautiously hold hands in parks and to buy gifts for their sweethearts. Public courtship and more daring clothing for women are increasing after years of growing intolerance, perhaps signaling the Islamic dogma and conservatism that accompanied Iraq’s slide into sectarian slaughter | Read More »
One can always count on Joe Biden for a doozy of a statement. At a time when Congressional Democrats need reassurance from the White House before they go ahead and vote for a turkey of a stimulus bill that will do nothing to jump-start the economy and is rightfully being panned in the arena of public relations, the Vice President comes out with this: Vice | Read More »
More people are noticing that our Vice President is . . . well . . . unique amongst men: How many vice presidents does it take to shoot from the lip? Ask Vice President Joe Biden, who this week experienced a sweat-inducing “did I really say that?” moment after he lamely tried to turn U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts into a punch line while standing | Read More »
By now, everyone knows about the flubbed Oath of Office. The President initially jumped in and cut off the Chief Justice while the latter was administering the oath, and then the Chief garbled the oath only moments later. This post pretty much captures the clumsy verbal pas de deux. It’s not the world’s biggest deal, the oath was taken, Barack Obama has been President since | Read More »
So says the incoming Second Lady: Joe Biden’s wife said Monday that he had his pick of being Barack Obama’s running mate or the secretary of state nomination that eventually went to Hillary Rodham Clinton, a slip that the vice president-elect immediately tried to shush. Jill Biden’s comment came during an appearance with her husband on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” taped at Washington’s Kennedy Center | Read More »
Mainly, what Paul Mirengoff wrote. But I will add that if one is genuinely confident in one’s ability to make a difference in public affairs and play a consequential role in a position and in the shaping of policy in general, one will likely not need to make the point as loudly, as defensively, as desperately, as egotistically and as petulantly as Joe Biden has. | Read More »
So, it would appear that the Obama transition operation is not as adroit as we might have thought. I can’t imagine why the President-elect would have been taken by surprise by the notion that if you don’t inform the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee of your choice for DCI, she might get a mite upset. I mean, given all of those many years that | Read More »
The nature of the selection process for the next Director of Central Intelligence has careened from the bizarre to the ridiculous: President-elect Barack Obama said yesterday that he has selected a “top-notch intelligence team” that would provide the “unvarnished” information his administration needs, rather than “what they think the president wants to hear.” But current and former intelligence officials expressed sharp resentment over Obama’s choice | Read More »
In his . . . er . . . inimitable way, Joe Biden informs us that he will be heading up a task force on the middle class. “Honchoing,” has apparently become a verb. Imagine if President Bush said something like that, etc. But so long as we are accepting this neologism, let it be noted that Dick Cheney has decided to honcho the education | Read More »
Remember when the Bush Administration was preparing to take office eight years ago, warned us that we were entering a potentially recessionary period and got castigated by Democrats for supposedly “talking down the economy”? Sure you do. Apparently, it was bad to do that kind of thing back in 2000. But it is perfectly all right to do it in 2008. The Newsbusters article makes | Read More »
Politicians do not voluntarily limit their own powers, unless they are named “George Washington.” So when you read this story and its claims that Joe Biden believes the power of the Vice Presidency ought to be scaled back, for the name “Joe Biden” substitute “Barack Obama.” I wonder how Biden feels. He has gone from being his own boss and the Chairman of the Senate | Read More »
Andrew Sullivan quotes from General Barry McCafferty, who has just come back from Iraq and makes the following observation: “The bottom line,” McCaffrey writes, “is a dramatic and growing momentum for economic and security stability which is unlikely to be reversible. I would not characterize the situation as fragile.” Sullivan responds: He was there; I’ve never been. But I wonder if he’s right. I sure | Read More »
If Joe Biden didn’t exist, we would have to invent him: “Hey folks, 37 more hours!” Joe Biden greeted a crowd primed for the home stretch of this long campaign with as much energy as he’s had in the last two months on the trail as well as some typical Bidenese. Telling voters in this swing state that “change is on the way,” the Democratic | Read More »
Barack Obama is for it. See this:
Evidently, he is even harder to get for a press conference these days than is Sarah Palin: It might be surprising to some to learn that Sarah Palin is now talking to her national press corps more often than Joe Biden. While the once silent Palin has taken questions from reporters that travel with her three times in the last week, Biden has not offered | Read More »
Any particular acceptable, defensible reason why Joe Biden isn’t held to the Sarah Palin standard?
Yesterday, Joe Biden warned us that early on in an Obama Administration, there would be a “generated crisis” that would test Obama as President. Not surprisingly, the McCain campaign has jumped all over this latest gaffe: “The next president won’t have time to get used to the office. We face many challenges here at home and many enemies abroad in this dangerous world,” McCain said. | Read More »
If Joe Biden didn’t exist, we would have to invent him: Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., on Sunday guaranteed that if elected, Sen. Barack Obama., D-Ill., will be tested by an international crisis within his first six months in power and he will need supporters to stand by him as he makes tough, and possibly unpopular, decisions. “Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned | Read More »
If Joe Biden didn’t exist, we would have to invent him: With the economy floundering, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., told Ohio voters today that he and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., would focus on one specific issue that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has neglected. “Look, John’s last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, | Read More »
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