Not that I was voting for him, anyway

2008 Presidential Race, Local, National, Politics, Race 1 Minute

Some folks never know when to shut up. Exhibit A: Joe Biden:

“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

As if this wasn’t enough.

From my favorite quotes page:

“It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.” ~ Mark Twain

UPDATE: Randy linked in the comments below to the audio of the interview. It appears that the writer of the original story edited it just a wee bit (surprise), making the comment appear worse than it is. Listen for yourself.

Published

11 thoughts on “Not that I was voting for him, anyway”

  2. Hopefully this racist statement from Sen. Biden will abruptly end any Presidential ambitions he may have. There is absolutely no way to explain this statement. If a republican had said these words the firestorm would already be raging. I hope the people on the left step up and demand that this man step down from his Senatorial position.

  4. Joe Biden is Exhibit A for why mainstream politicians lack candor. When you make off the cuff remarks, things come out that sound really stupid, or evil, or both. Sometimes they’re even intended to be that way.

    Here’s an actual audio clip of Biden’s statement, just linked to from Talking Points Memo, where readers have questioned the punctuation of the quote. It’s pretty plain that the reporter left out a comma after “African-American”, which changes the meaning of that sentence quite a bit, though I won’t say it absolves him completely.

    And for what it’s worth, I was listening to Talk of the Nation on NPR awhile ago and couldn’t help noting that Rich Lowry of National Review called Mitt Romney “bright and well-spoken”. From the comments I’ve been seeing about Biden elsewhere, that’s obviously a put-down.

  5. I think Biden is more of an idiot savant than a racist. I don’t think his presidential campaign will go much further. Now I see why the South Carolina Republicans like him so much. He needs to stick with his Foreign Relations chairmanship.

  6. It’s just charming, how much concern folks like CR and Virginia Voter have for Dems.

    Look, we all know that Biden’s mouth regularly outpaces his brain (which are both an order of magnitude less than his ego). But two points here:

    1) no one believes that any of the right-wing sites braying about Biden’s supposed statement actually give a damn about the substance of it, so please spare us all the concern-troll effort, and

    2) once again, the press’ own need for a story outpaces the facts (see a pattern, here?). As Randy’s link and the audio show, there’s a pretty clear gap between what Biden said, and how it was transcribed. A comma does, indeed, make a difference.

    Very few (anyone?) are defending Biden the candidate, and the willingness of much of the online left to take this story at face value pretty much reflects a consensus judgment of him reached well before this incident. That said, I think that manufactured stories like this should be knocked down quickly and with great force, until the right and the press understand that the era of this Make Shit Up As You Go approach to politics (and governance, but that’s another effort) is over.

  8. This is a bit off topic, but thinking about that comma (or lack thereof), I can’t help recalling this famous quote from the old UPI Stylebook:

    “burro, burrow: A burro is an ass. A burrow is a hole in the ground. As a journalist, you are expected to know the difference.”

  11. I guess all the blacks that came before Obama were not articulate or clean. All the black congressmen and congresswomen, all the black businessmen and businesswomen, I could go on, but I see no need. Biden’s statement is offensive and He should step down. But, because he is a dem, the excuses and explanations will be forthcoming to help this little faux paus go.

Comments are closed.