Crazy Uncle Joe
October 21, 2009
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Posted by Michael S. Langston
Is it just me or does Vice President Joe Biden actually appear to be a non-member of the White House staff?
I could be seeing patterns where they don’t exist, but it seems that each time Mr. Biden opens his mouth, the WH either ignores it completely or attempts to restate it.
Remember the swine flu thing? (at NPR):
“I would tell members of my family — and I have — that I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now,” Vice President Joe Biden said today as he made the rounds of the morning TV news shows. “It’s not just going into Mexico. If you’re any place in a confined aircraft and one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft.”…
Followed shortly thereafter by WH clarification (LA Times):
…”I think the vice president misrepresented what the vice president wanted to say,” said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs….
Later in the day, Gibbs was pressed about the discrepancy between Biden’s original words and the White House’s.
“I understand what he said. I’m telling you what he meant to say,” Gibbs said…
After proving his immense knowledge of swine flu, he went on to call Russia a crumbling system (@ Washington Times):
…Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was forced Sunday to correct publicly Mr. Biden’s characterization of Russia as a crumbling country, a description that infuriated Russian officials and contradicted President Obama’s efforts to “reset” relations with the world power….
Just like that one crazy uncle, he’s the comedic gift that keeps on giving. This week, as the White House has pushed hard to show how the stimulus has worked, Mr. Biden started using words like “depression” (@ ABC News):
In recent weeks, Vice President Joe Biden has said that the U.S. economy has been in what he calls “a great recession” and has stressed that it is not a depression, echoing the general consensus of the nation’s economists.
But today the vice president took some liberty with the economic terms to illustrate the continuing struggles of the unemployed in the United States.
For the millions of Americans without a job, “it’s a depression,” Biden said….
In fact, not only does Biden seem to misrepresent the curent administration’s positions, he isn’t even internally consistent (ABC News):
…Just two weeks ago, Biden said that he calls the current state of the economy “the great recession” because it’s “the single worst economic circumstance” the United States has been in, “short of a depression.”
On Oct. 2, Biden said that “fears of a depression have been replaced by forecasts of recovery” and on Sept. 3 Biden said that “instead of talking about the beginning of a depression, we’re talking about the end of a recession eight months after taking office.”…
Now it’s true that some statements made by VPs are seemingly stupid only because the VP is being pushed to say things the President can ‘t. This is especially true during campaigns, but also during any actual administration.
Either way – I’m truly torn. On the one hand, I honestly hope Mr. Biden starts getting invited to WH briefings in order to reduce his perceived idiocy on the world stage. On the other hand – almost every time he talks, I get a good laugh.
Categories: Culture, People/Blogs, Politics, Quotations
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Tags: Biden, Culture, Depression, Economics, Foreign Policy, gaffes, inconsistencies, International, Joe Biden, Obama, Obama Administration, People/Blogs, Politics, President, Quotations, Recession, Russia, swin flu
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