Joe Biden Knows Exactly How to Talk to Southern Voters ... Pt 2
With "off-color" remarks about Barack Obama.
Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) kicked off his presidential campaign today with an interview in the weekly New York Observer. Biden has excellent foreign policy credentials but no natural constituency and a history of questionable malapropisms. His latest includes off-color remarks on Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). Here's the key section:
“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.”
In other words, Biden suggests that Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Shirley Chisholm, and, more recently, Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, were inarticulate.
In all fairness, "Democrat" Biden harshly slammed all of the top tier candidates—he's more or less B-list guy himself—and had harsh words for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), particularly over their Iraqi exit strategies. (Clinton here, Edwards here.) However, Biden's comments on Obama will haunt him throughout his hopefully brief campaign for president because recently he has made numerous racist remarks, possibly to appeal to Southern voters. Remember his jokes about Delaware being a “slave state that fought beside the North"?
Let's not forget his comments in re 7-Eleven franchises: "You CANNOT go into a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin Donuts without an Indian accent."
Not to suggest that Biden is a necessarily a racist. (He's probably just the opposite and worse, a patronizing 1970s-era liberal.) But it's become patently obvious that his tact and diplomacy, especially on social and race issues, leaves much to be desired. If he continues with the George Allen, macaca-style campaigning, his road to the White House will be mercifully briefer than voters had hoped.
There's been some discussion regarding the interview transcript, suggesting that writer did not include a key comma and his punctuation conveyed the wrong message. Listen to the audio of the interview. The writer interrupts once and there are two pauses. Possibly there should have been periods in that exchange. However, taken as a whole, it's still a curious passage.
As usual, Obama has waved off this latest hateration but Biden also insulted Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. You can be sure he will have some 'splaining to do...
Biden Lays Into Clinton, Obama, Edwards (NYO)
The Biden Tapes (NYO)
Biden Enters Presidential Race (Balto Sun)
Some Background ...
All of these other candidates are running scared, especially Hillary Clinton. The "funny-named" senator from Illinois has come out of nowhere to become America's sweetheart. Everyone should stay tuned on February 10th when Obama officially enters the race and interjects some needed charisma and integrity into this election season.
Posted by: Douglas | 31 January 2007 at 19:04
i don't think biden is a closet bigot or anything, just an uncouth, loud lout, who needs to think before he inserts that wingtip into his mouth.
yet, still totally unimpressed with any of the democrats who are in the running, or "thinking" abut running.
Posted by: jared | 31 January 2007 at 20:48
"SM", can you please be a little more articulate? So many typos and run-on sentences...
Posted by: patrick s | 31 January 2007 at 21:39
**SIGH**
Yes, Delaware was. The Biden joke, fully quoted in his link, was that Delaware wanted to fight alongside the South but didn't know how.
But that doesn't really matter... Biden had nothing to do with that, he wasn't alive then. The post said that Biden pribably wasn't a racist, just racially insensitive, with a long history of questionable statements. It's distracting from whatever his message is supposed to be.
By the way, what is his message? We don't know because as usual, he stuck his foot in his mouth.
Posted by: greg g | 31 January 2007 at 21:45
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have our (first) Macaca Moment of the '08 Campaign... from a Democrat.
Posted by: Andy in Seattle | 31 January 2007 at 22:19
Joe Biden is in love with the sound of his own voice and always has been. I find him to be arrogant, hypocritical, and a tiring blow hard. A well meaning, muddy headed lefty who just simply DOES NOT know when to SHUT UP. In his last opening remarks in the Foreign Relations Committee he used the word "I" 88 times in 12 minutes. The freakin Gettysburg address only took 5 minutes. Joe Biden operates from the idea that EVERYONE is entitled to his opinion.
Posted by: Bill | 31 January 2007 at 22:21
You miss the key words there guys -- the "good looking". I think what Joe Biden was implying that Al Sharpton was not nearly as good looking as Obama...
Joe, you should come out of your closet :-) (just getting silly here)
Posted by: BlueJay | 31 January 2007 at 22:32
Andy and Bill, my sentiments exactly.
Posted by: Rod McCullom | 31 January 2007 at 22:40
I'll stick to my comment over at Ezra Klein's web site. Biden will be the Harold Stassen of Republican politics.
BTW, at least Biden could have acknowledged Edward Brooke. Remember him? The first black man to be elected to the US Senate in a free election since Reconstruction. Sadly, nobody seems to remember him, a black senator elected from my home state of Massachusetts.
Biden is an embarrassment to Democrats, and he should just go crawl under a rock.
Posted by: raj | 01 February 2007 at 01:29
Are we sure Biden didn't plagiarize those comments?
Posted by: johnny | 01 February 2007 at 12:46
Isn't Biden a member of the DLC too?
Posted by: Douglas | 01 February 2007 at 18:52
Biden is never mentioned on the DLC's website or its history page. Hard to imagine he would be involved with them and never rise to leadership or even merit a mention.
Douglas, just give it up already, you do the same thing every time Rod mentions Lieberman. We all know he is a Clinton centrist. Some of us would prefer otherwise. That doesn't mean that Rod agrees with everything coming out of that wing of the party. Still, having ads from Obama, Edwards and Hillary Clinton--you have to admit, apparently people are starting to take black gay men seriously.
Posted by: Henry TW | 01 February 2007 at 20:54
Henry TW,
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?
kaid=126&subid=189&
contentid=25324 (remove the spaces)(or do a google search for biden and dlc, look for harry truman award)
The aforementioned website is a link to the dlc website where Biden is not only mentioned but received and accepted accolades from the dlc. I suspect there are probably other places on the website where he is mentioned as well. As far as "do(ing) the same thing every time Rod mentions Lieberman," I have commented on one article Rod wrote about Lieberman. The pattern you attempt to imply is nonexistant. Either way, my question is a fair question. This section is the comment section where Rod has provided a place we can exchange ideas and questions. I don't understand your attempts to quash questions and ideas when they don't suit you. I certainly don't stop reading Rod's blog he is less than impartial. I accept he has an agenda and his right to convey his ideas. In the future, Henry please more diligent in your investigation and more tolerant towards the questions and opinions of others.
Posted by: Douglas | 01 February 2007 at 22:41
Douglas, this is a blog, it's not the Times or CNN, and, I'm no longer writing for the networks, so, yes, my opinions do sometimes come through. But, more often, stories are presented w/o slant.
It's extremely misleading to characterize this site as "less than impartial" and ridiculous to accuse me of having "an agenda." There is no agenda here.
Posted by: Rod McCullom | 01 February 2007 at 23:02
Rod, baby boy, please don't give in to that negative energy. We love you and everything that you are and do.
This is a fabulous site. In one day, we can take a trip around the world, learn about gay black men in other countries, foreign magazines, fashion, politics ... there is nothing to defend. If anything, too many people come here and are confused and because it's not the typical whiny, ranting gay black blog and they aren't used to that. Just say no to the haters.
Posted by: greg g | 01 February 2007 at 23:46
This is hilarious. People are visiting a "blog" and not expecting the blogger to have an opinion.
Jasmyne Cannick, Keith Boykin, Andrew Sullivan, Pam Spaulding ... no one ever criticizes them for having an opinion or bias. For some reason, Rod and Andy Towle are always held to a different standard and why? Because their sites mix news with opinion? NEWSFLASH: It's a blog, boys, a blog. There are plenty of links to "impartial" news sources like the NYT, WaPo, CNN and ABC. You're more than free to read the same stories--or something different--and reach different conclusions.
Even more hilarious, the critics show their own bias. From the right, we have "SM" who constantly attacks Rod for being a "liberal." From the left, there is new critic "Douglas", who attacks Rod for being "centrist" for his obvious support of the Clintons.
One man's "liberal" is another man's "centrist." It's all about perspective, guys. And there is no requirement that this site should be bias-free. I'm happy to see that there is a black gay voice who doesn't fit the traditional activist model. This blog is just one man's opinion, he is not a spokesperson for anyone or anything.
Posted by: Henry TW | 02 February 2007 at 09:26
lol. what a joke.
i have posted maybe 20 comments in a 2 year period. Never used a derogatory term, called anybody a name.
but i called Rod biased and a liberal!
and he blocked me from posting.
yep, thats your guy.
I have said much worse on boykin's and sullivan's websites. they are not as sensitive.
Thats fine, now that I know all you guys want is an echo chamber, then i know I would be wasting my time by commenting.
"pride comes before a fall"
Posted by: shm | 02 February 2007 at 21:22
if you were "blocked" from posting, why and how are you posting now?
Posted by: greg g | 03 February 2007 at 00:00
sm | 01 February 2007 at 21:50
what does Brookes have to do with this? hello! brookes was not a national mainstream candidate.
Well, of course he wasn't. He was a black man in a political environment in which blacks would not be elected to national office. Unless, of course, the national office was the US Senate, and the electorate was the state of Massachusetts. And unless the elections were held in the 1960s and 1970s.
I'm sorry, but Biden's comment was idiotic, and it was demeaning not only to Barack Obama, but to the many other black politicians who came before him. I merely gave one example.
Posted by: raj | 03 February 2007 at 17:44
Rod McCullom | 01 February 2007 at 23:02
Douglas, this is a blog, it's not the Times or CNN, and, I'm no longer writing for the networks, so, yes, my opinions do sometimes come through.
Let's understand something. One reason for blogs is to allow the blogs' proprietors to express their opinions. The opinions of the reporters and editors of the NYTimes and CNN also come through, but it is oftentimes difficult to figure out what they are. Just recall the long-time editor of the NYTimes Abe Rosenthal, who was a virulent homophobe, and his effect on the reporting of gay issues in the NYTimes. It would have taken years for anyone to figure that out, just by reading the NYunTimely.
Thank goodness for the Internet; I don't have to restrict myself to reading the bloviations of the American media.
Posted by: raj | 03 February 2007 at 17:47