In my previous post on the Democratic side of 2008, a commenter complained:
What about Biden? Of all the Democratic contenders, he is one of the few who can actually explain his beliefs without a scripting coach and stick with it.
Well, today's news story validates my leaving him off the Democratic short list. It looks like Joe Biden's announcement of his candidacy has helped Barack Obama more than it did his own candidacy. As Christine Bork observered:
[Biden's] plain spokeness and unguarded honesty are no longer acceptable in our teflon mickey mouse platitude mumbling culture.
Maybe it was a botched joke.
Know this about Obama: he's lucky, not good. His opponent in the Democrat primary, as well as his first Republican opponent, both went down to scandal before election day. And then the Republicans brought in Alan Keyes to oppose him.
So he's really untested, electorally speaking.
So now his first Democrat Presidential primary opponent goes down in flames. What if Hillary has some skeletons come out?
Like I said, lucky, not good.
Posted by: The Engineer | February 01, 2007 at 01:53 PM
Wait for the WSJ type 'Conservatives' to call Biden a racist.
Posted by: The Superfluous Man | February 01, 2007 at 02:19 PM
[Biden's] plain spokeness and unguarded honesty are no longer acceptable in our teflon mickey mouse platitude mumbling culture.
That's an interesting spin. The problem was that he was too honest. *eyeroll* It's okay to be honest, you just have to not be crazy at the same time. If you're crazy on the inside, yes, you can't be both honest and a mainstream politician.
As a Dem, I want to give Biden the benefit of the doubt, and I even believe he was trying to simply be complimentary to Obama. However, the way he phrased his remark even taking the most charitable view of "clean" leaves him saying someone is an African-American who is "articulate and bright." You'd have to be completely tone-deaf to American society to not realize the ugly connotations that phrase has.
Even still, an innocent gaffe, perhaps. So he's a little out of touch.
But then this is the guy who said, "You cannot go to a 7-11 or Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian Accent." Biden gets no more benefit of the doubt.
It'll be interesting to see whether some of your and Sailer's commenters will be torn between Biden and the Republicans now.
Posted by: JewishAtheist | February 01, 2007 at 02:50 PM
Oh, and The Engineer:
Know this about Obama: he's lucky, not good.
Your example show that he is lucky, but not that he is not good. He may be both. Indeed he has some skills sorely lacking in many presidential candidates, most notably his ability to connect with audiences and offer a message of hope and optimism.
Posted by: JewishAtheist | February 01, 2007 at 02:52 PM
>>He may be both. Indeed he has some skills sorely lacking in many presidential candidates, most notably his ability to connect with audiences and offer a message of hope and optimism.
No, I give you that he seems to be a good politician, as far as we can tell. He is good looking, he speaks well, and he's personable.
Clean? I bet Biden meant "fresh", not clean.
I just think that Obama is untested in a real political race.
As far as giving people hope, if that's so, it's just because people are projecting their own hopes upon the blank canvas that is Barack Obama. He's exactly like H. Ross Perot before he got out of the presidential race. Maybe there is potential there, but it's not anything active that he's doing to give people hope.
As a contrast, look at the hope that Ronald Reagan projected. It was more than freshness, it was more than attitude. Reagan told you what was wrong, and more importantly, told you EXACTLY what he was going to do to fix things.
And, more or less, he did exactly what he said that he was going to do, and then some. Tax cuts got the economy rolling, and the millitary was brought back to life, which won the cold war.
I don't see anything like that coming from Obama. Although, he did finally say that we need a timetable for getting out of Iraq. That was rather bold. That probably gives some people hope.
Posted by: The Engineer | February 01, 2007 at 03:09 PM
He's exactly like H. Ross Perot before he got out of the presidential race.
He's a lot like Clinton in '92 also, right?
Posted by: JewishAtheist | February 01, 2007 at 03:18 PM