There is plenty to criticize in Joe Biden’s interview with the New York Observer. But it looks like Markos and Atrios are going apeshit over this comment about Obama:
“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.”
What was Biden trying to say? He was trying to acknowledge that Obama is an attractive candidate with a compelling life-story as a set up to saying that he is too inexperienced to be President. You know…he was doing the build up before the smackdown. Was he trying to say that no black candidates have ever run for president before? No. Was it his intention to suggest that Jesse Jackson and Carol Mosely-Braun are stupid, dirty, unattractive and inarticulate? No. Biden was just running his mouth like he always does. Was it an insensitive remark? Not to me. It was phrased in an unfortunate way. It shows a certain amount of arrogance for Biden to insinuate that Jesse Jackson wasn’t a mainstream candidate. But, did anyone, and I mean anyone ever think Jackson had a chance in hell of winning the 1988 nomination for President? I think Biden was suggesting that Obama has a real shot and that he is the first African-American to have a real shot.
So, I think people are going overboard in their criticism of Biden over this comment. But it points out a very good reason not to support Joe Biden for the nomination. When we elect a nominee, we are putting our hopes and aspirations and issues in their hands. We have to trust them to be good stewards of our agenda. And Joe Biden has a terminal case of foot-in-mouthitis. He always has had that problem and he always will.
He can be a very articulate debater. But you can trust him to make a major gaffe every few months. Maybe it is because he talks incessantly, but he says stupid, politically incorrect shit on a regular basis. So don’t support him because he will only sink himself and takes your hopes down with him.
