Joe Biden and the press: A case study in the absurd
Authenticity and access, that's what the campaign press corps craves.
Election scribes claim they long for candidates who venture off-script and are confident enough to reveal themselves on the campaign trail, to say what they really think instead of hiding behind consultant-approved sound bites. (The press, we're told, hates phonies.)
And, of course, the press prizes access to candidates in hopes of uncovering that authenticity, in hopes of tapping the candidate's true personality. The two -- authenticity and access -- are the cornerstones of the press' campaign pursuit.
So when Sen. Joe Biden was tapped as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, it should have been a press dream, right? Biden immediately swung open his doors to the press. And as he's done for years, he showed no hesitation in flashing signs of a caution-be-damned approach on the campaign trail. Forever comfortable in his own skin and representing something of a throwback to the era of garrulous Irish-Catholic pols who loved the art of conversation, Biden seemed to revel in his off-the-cuffs moments with voters and reporters.
And yes, sometimes that meant Biden became tongue-tied and made gaffes and had to walk back comments. But for reporters, Biden's approach sure seemed better than covering the type of play-it-safe candidates they regularly complain about. (I'm picturing Mitt Romney ... )
If anything, grateful reporters should have rewarded Biden's wide-open style (not to mention his generous access), right?
Wrong. Throughout the fall campaign, the press relentlessly painted Biden as a buffoon and a goof. Rather than reward Biden for being open and honest with voters, the press punished him for weeks on end.
The irony was thick. The media loved pushing the Biden-says-nutty-things narrative. Yet the press whines incessantly about how scripted candidates are and that their interaction with voters out on the trail is phony and contrived. They complain about how the candidates aren't entertaining enough, as if that's their job.
Obama "can be sort of a bore" was a typical, he's-not-amusing-us complaint from a Los Angeles Times reporter. "He's [campaigned] with dogged professionalism, but with little show of spontaneity."
But when Biden came along and communicated spontaneously -- authentically -- on the campaign trail and routinely ventured off-script (and yes, said some unexpected and unintentionally humorous things), what did the press do?
The press mocked the candidate for not being scripted enough.
The press wrote story after story after story after story critiquing Biden for being off-message and not being scripted enough. For being too authentic and spontaneous. In short, for being a goof. It was an extraordinarily absurd and shallow press phenomenon to watch unfold.
It's true that years from now, nobody's going to care, or likely even remember, what type of press coverage Biden garnered during the 2008 campaign. And in real time, it doesn't appear to have tilted the needle of the larger White House contest. (Meaning voters couldn't have cared less about Biden's so-called gaffes, especially not after he acquitted himself so well in his prime-time debate performance.)
But as the marathon campaign season winds down, it's worth noting how the treatment of Biden simply accentuated the Beltway press' glaring Achilles heel: its insatiable appetite for trivia and insistence on putting personality and style ahead of substance. For that, Biden became a case study in the absurd.
Keep in mind that in comparison with the other candidates, Biden received very little coverage. (The amount was positively minuscule compared with the media circus that surrounded GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin.) Yet what little coverage Biden generated seemed at times to be devoted exclusively to the trivial pursuit of his so-called gaffes.
In other words, the gaffe coverage didn't represent some of the Biden coverage. It was the Biden coverage.
As for what Biden was actually saying out on the campaign trail about the country's future and the Democratic agenda, journalists didn't show much interest in that. They wanted to tell only one Joe Biden story: He's a gaffe machine!!
Indeed, the Biden coverage often had nothing to do with substance and almost everything to do with style. Doesn't that perfectly capture the determined unseriousness of today's feed-the-beast campaign journalism?
Meanwhile, you haven't heard much whining from the left, but if you wanted to select the candidate who was unfairly used as the media's punching bag during the general election season, it was clearly Joe Biden.
According to a media survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, "Biden's coverage was among the most negative of any candidate studied, more so than Palin's and close to [Sen. John] McCain's. Excluding the week of the vice presidential debate, 48% of Biden stories carried a clear negative tone. Another 35% were neutral or mixed. Just 17% were positive."
That is amazing. McCain's negative coverage was largely tied to the fact that he was at the top of a ticket that went from dead even in the polls six weeks ago to trailing by double digits on the eve of the election. It makes sense that the coverage surrounding McCain's campaign tended to be negative.
But Biden? His side sprinted into an autumn lead. The only thing that explained the nasty tone of his coverage was that reporters and pundits chose to make it overwhelmingly negative; they chose to push the trivial "gaffe machine" line.
I admit I'm cherry-picking below, but I still think it's instructive to look at some of the phrases I came across while scanning the larger Biden profiles recently produced in outlets such as the Politico, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Slate.com, Time.com, and Newsweek. Snide doesn't begin to explain the tone the press used on punching-bag Biden:
"odd duck"
"a human verbal wrecking crew"
"legendary Biden verbal hiccups"
Did Biden make mistakes on the campaign trail and say things he shouldn't have, or wishes he hadn't? He sure did. For instance, claiming that FDR, when he was president, appeared on television after the stock market crashed in order to soothe fears was not a prudent thing for Biden to say because FDR wasn't president in 1929, and television hadn't been invented at the time.
It probably wasn't politically astute, in terms of ticket unity, for Biden to label as "terrible" an Obama campaign ad that attacked McCain.
And the most serious misstep likely came when Biden stressed privately to donors that an Obama team would be tested by an international crisis in the first months of his administration.
But if you tallied up all the so-called gaffes, did they stand out as somehow historic in nature compared with previous campaigns? Hardly. And did Biden unfurl so many outrageous utterances that he hurt his ticket's chances for victory? Not even close.
Indeed, most of the Biden miscues that the press spent so much time cataloging were comically inconsequential, especially considering the countless hours that modern candidates spend campaigning in front of a press corps that records every utterance.
Nonetheless, the predictable Biden-gaffe stories became almost indistinguishable amongst the avalanche. So let's focus on one in particular to help get a sense of the type of leaky journalism that went into producing the assembly line of prefabricated Biden-gaffe articles.
A Boston Globe article last month was headlined "Biden gaffes leave Democrats with mixed emotions." The "mixed emotions" in the headline were emphasized up high in the article when the Globe reported that "as Biden prepares to debate Sarah Palin tomorrow, some Democrats are worried."
The Globe was pretty clear: Because of his propensity for gaffes, Democrats were "worried" about Biden and had "mixed emotions" about his candidacy. Except the Globe never quoted anybody in the article who expressed any mixed emotions about Biden or professed to be worried about his campaign performance.
Instead, every Democratic voter quoted in the Globe article expressed faith in Biden and admiration for him. When asked about his gaffe reputation (courtesy of the press), they responded this way:
- "He's authentic. ... I'm sick of people being perfectly polished so you're not even seeing the real person. If he says things that aren't exactly a perfect fit with what the campaign wants him to say, that's OK."
- "You know what? ... I don't want Obama and Biden to completely think alike -- if they both think alike, they're going to miss something."
- "He's warm. ... When he's talking, he throws a warm feeling out to you. He wants you to listen to what he's saying because he really, really believes it."
So tell me again, who was concerned about Biden's gaffes? Because it sure seemed like reporters emphasized that narrative because they liked it (i.e. it's trivial and easy to report), not because it reflected even the faintest concern among voters.
Meanwhile, there was another notable passage from that Globe article. It was used to highlight how Biden, aside from making gaffes, sometimes became emotional on the campaign trail:
In a school gym in Greensburg, Penn., about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, the crowd had to wait for Biden to steady his voice as he told the crowd about how Steelers founder Art Rooney, whose son Dan introduced Biden at the event, had surprised Biden's sons when they were little boys in the hospital recovering from the accident that killed their mother and sister.
Biden said he returned to his sons' room after a brief outing to find them a Christmas tree and discovered them in their beds, clutching footballs and looking "lighted up like a Christmas tree."
"They said, 'Daddy, Rocky Bleier gave it to us,' " Biden said, his voice petering out. For a very long moment, he wiped away tears. The crowd cheered, as if to comfort him, as he began to explain Art Rooney had done it without fanfare, and his voice broke again.
"I really apologize, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have tried to do this," he said. "But anyway, it's a helluva family, it's a helluva family."
Biden tried to publicly acknowledge a distant gesture of kindness from the darkest period of his life, he stumbled emotionally ("I shouldn't have tried to do this"), and then was cheered on by the empathetic crowd as he regained his composure.
It may have been one of the most human, moving snapshots from the entire campaign. Yet it was published in an article that painted Biden as a gaffe-prone goof.
Honestly, I'm glad this campaign season is over.
"But as the marathon campaign season winds down, it's worth noting how the treatment of Biden simply accentuated the Beltway press' glaring Achilles heel: its insatiable appetite for trivia and insistence on putting personality and style ahead of substance. For that, Biden became a case study in the absurd."
A great summary of the corporate press...we so need better reporting. Thanks to Media Matters, Air America, NovaM, Rachel Maddow and Keith Obermann, Kaily Kos, BradBlog, etc etc etc and of course Amy Goodman.
"Yes We Can". Okay, that was a non sequiter but I just wanted to say it. :-0)
I tuned into AAR last night for my coverage as well as the continually updated PBS US map (on the internet) that showed what states were going to whom when they were called. No network TV until the speeches. Thom Hartman even made an appearance on AAR for a bit so that was nice.
Just wanted to add Truthout.org to your list. They aggregate the best news stories from different sources and do original reporting as well.
You're so right, Julia, I didn't begin to list the great web sites/bloggers out there in the tubes...
We're so excited...our neighbor came over last night to share a glass of wine. A new beginning indeed.
Just think - with an Obama administration at the helm, you'll soon probably be able to afford for each of you to have your very OWN glass of wine!
♪♫ Happy (hour) days are here again
The skies above are clear again... ♫♪
heh heh
I have a ton of extra wine glasses. Let me know if you'd like me to send you some. That way, when you have company, each guest can have their own glass of wine! :)
We're good with wine glasses and already have some champaign ready for Inauguration Day....thanks for all the concern ;-) Happy Hours and Happy Days
Okay, there may be some valid criticism of the press here, but I have to give them credit for doing their job on Simple Sarah and Joe the Phony Plumber.
While some members of the Press fell for the "Aw Shucks" nonsense, enough of them looked at her with a skeptical eye, and exposed her for the phony she really is.
As for Joe the F***ing Plumber, the Righties are whining about the way he was treated, but they're the ones who trotted him out as something that he's not.
It's a small step toward making up for the way they rolled over for President Numbnuts on the big WMD Lie.
Joe the f*ing Socialist ( who wanted to be patriotic and shift some more of his meager wages towards the elite GOP party rulers, but was thwarted by the rest of Fake-America who were paying attention) is a grown man.
I know he was only standing in his driveway minding his own fantasy business when Obama came crashing up forcing him to ask dimwitted questions and not understand the answers, but he's not a child. Never mind the GOP trying to exploit him to push their BS, he may be a little slow, but Joe the f*ing Socialist is a grown man.
If he can't take the humiliation of being exposed as a phony, I'd suggest he either stay in his house when the cameras are around, or educate himself a little so he doesn't get recorded being an ignoramus and/or a liar.
IMHO, what happened here with the press and Biden was the negative effects we see of the powerful right-wing echo chamber reaching out the MSM. Because Fox, Drudge and Limbaugh were so upset of Palin being closely scrutinized, the pressure was put on the MSM to show the same amount criticism of what they saw as Biden's "gaffes" as opposed to authenticity. I think now that Palin is out of the picture, we can hopefully see a more leveled appreciation for a politician who does not live on script 100% of the time.
Well said. I, for one, look forward to having a vice president who's interesting to listen to. Don't get me wrong, I supported both Walter Mondale and Al Gore with my vote when they ran for the top job, but both were... how shall I put it? Unexciting at times.
Besides, you could take all of Vice President-elect Biden's gaffes on one hand, and all of GWB's most thoughtful and intelligent statements on the other, and the former still comes out ahead.
PLRR, I completely agree with you, especially the second part. The commentators, as well as posters here,will be repeating 2 or 3 gaffes from Biden for a while now, while never getting to a fraction of W's long career of boneheadiness.
I was enjoying the media hanging on to Bidens screw up re: the depression era television appearance by the wrong president.During the week or so this was being played, I saw Sarah Palin say at least 10 things that were equally, stupid, many of them from a teleprompter.
I agree Col. I saw several of her boneheaded statements right from my house!
You live in Russia?
I am not falling for anymore info from Media Matters. They were a shill for Hillary and should no longer be in existence. What purpose do they serve? ;>)
The same could be said for Rushbo and Sean by changing a few words and names. No sarcasm for those guys.
First off.....
BARACK OBAMA IS OUR NEXT PRESIDENT!!!!!!
Ok.... got that out of the way...
The corporate owned media is going to lose so many viewers over the next few years if they continue playing this game with Obama/Biden and the Democrats in general....
The youth of this country are the biggest reason why Obama/Biden won! Any wonder why Colbert and Stewart and Olbermann are gaining more and more viewship by the day?
Losers like BillO, Sean, Glen Beck, and Rush are slowly going to go away, while they louder and meaner... and one begins to wonder if a Fairness Doctrine or a repealing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is even necessary?
Time will tell if a new progressive/liberal era truly is upon us... but I for one am proud of this countries citizens... this IS a good start!
ps - No matter what the media tries to claim... there was well over 350,000 people at Grant Park in Chicago last night!
"while they louder and meaner"
should have been
"while they get louder and meaner"
A new progressive/liberal era sounds good. The Hate Radio jocks will do everything they can to prevent that, but I think it all depends on how well the Democrats govern over the next four years.
Of course, no matter what Obama does, certain elements on the Right will lie about it, so we can be thankful that the Progressive media have evolved greatly since 2004. Maybe the Troglodytes won't get away with their lies this time.
There's nothing that kids under 30 nowadays hate more -especially girls-- than old cranks. They're cringeworthy-- even the liberal ones. So the secret is to be cool-- which, fortunately, is impossible for these flabby guys.
Oh my God! Stop making excuses for Joe Biden. Joe either doesn't have control over his mouth or he doesn't realize that you don't always say what is running through your head.
I didn't see any "excuses" for Biden. Feel free to point them out. What I saw was the shallow attempts by the media to make an issue out of them.
One of us missed the point of this post, no doubt about it.
If you're looking for excuses read some of the posts added to this site in this thread. Dumbass!
GG . . . are you a fool without a mind
Or have you merely been to blind to realize?
Oh GG . . . Why do you grovel in the mire
Instead of warmth, become a liar?
Oh, what miracle
Has made you the way you are?
Biden doesn't need excuses becuase he didn't do anything wrong. Obvsiously, his occaisional misstatements didn't cause Obama the presidency. No harm, no foul.
Like I said, feel free to point them out. I'm willing to wait.
p.s. Being labeled a "dumbass" by someone of your obvious intellectual caliber is so very hurtful...
I've never made excuses for Joe. He's a talker and some times things don't come out the way we'd like, but usually we get more from him than from most other politicians. Give me the gaffes like when he said that FRD went on TV to allay the fears of the citizens during the depression.
I knew that the media and the right would jump on him for it. I also knew that his point was that during the depths of the depression, while FDR was president, he communicated to the people that we shouldn't be afraid.
He is a knowledgeable man with more than three decades of experience in government. He has always been someone that the right doesn't have. A true man of the people.
I'll grant you, the right now has the manufactured "Man of the People" Sam (Joe) the laborer (plumber), but I doubt he'll be around much longer.
The right also has the moose killer from Alaska. If you want to compare gaffes, start with hers. She does share something with Joe, an inability to stop talking at times.
The difference being that after listening to Biden, you get the sense that you're dealing with an intellect. With Palin, who also talks a lot, but she's not saying anything (apologies to David Byrne), you get someone who just keeps spouting platitudes about this wonderful country, these patriotic people, these great Americans.
And usually when she's pontificating about such nonsense, she's implying that those adjectives only apply to those who are behind her run for the VP job.
And let's not forget Reagan made gaffes on every subject, yet conservatives want to put him on Mount Rushmore. Either it's important or it isn't.
I'd rather have a transparent VP who makes gaffes in public, then a secretive VP that conspires against the Constitution in private.
Joe was pretty much below my radar till the debate. He impressed me there. I hope he uses his position to do some good things. Maybe sell off the Chenny Bunker on ebay.
Hear that beeping noise? That's a truck backing up to take Darth Cheney's man-sized safe to his new office in Dubai. I wonder.... did they ever find that 9 billion dollars that disappeared in Iraq?
Think there were a couple billion of Iraqi money lost as well. The AG has more important things to do. Those tens to twenty deadly voter frauds. Priorities, priorities d*mm*t and fry it!
I'm SO glad that somebody wrote this article! I volunteered for Joe Biden in Iowa and knew a far different man than the one the press was defining him to be! There were some good articles, but by far, to read the majority of them would make you think that Joe couldn't open his mouth without something bad just flying out, in spite of the fact that whatever "gaffes" he made were just a fraction of 1% of all of the speaking he did. All they seemed to care about was that tiny bit, which they thought newsworthy! Perhaps the right-wing thought it was their best chance to marginalize Joe, except it seemd as if ALL of the press was in cahoots!
Even the remark he made about Barack being tested was cherry-picked and only the ominous parts used, usually omitting the conclusion that Barack would be found to have steel in his spine! But it was always obvious to me that Joe was saying that he would be tested, and that it would take a lot of courage and resolve to alter the course of the Ship of State so that we are indeed headed in a new direction. During this time the American People were going to have to stand with him and believe in him, because we can't change things if we stay in the same old mind set so that we keep doing things the same way and expecting a different result.
Yeah, I noticed that the "steel in his spine" phrase was conveniently absent from all the clips played on Cable TV.
Come to think of it, Joe and Jill Biden will be moving into the house now occupied by the Cheney's. I wonder if they will have a priest come and go through it first to exorcize the evil spirits! ;o)
My thought exactly. They're going to need a tank of holy water and a silo full of incense (I recommend frankincense)
Is it true that Cheney had his house deleted from GoogleEarth?
He has an estate on Maryland's Eastern Shore in addition to the VP residence in DC. At one time i think both were hidden but I think you can see them now. I just clicked on a link that purported to be the google maps view of his Eastern Shore Estate and I saw a pict....
Wait a minute. i hear sirens and my dogs are barking which means someone's surrounding my house....
Not sure why he would do that.... the terrorists can't find their way over here unless they follow our troops home. As long as our troops stay in Iraq, Cheney is safe.
I recommend frankincense
I'm still optimistic enough to hope it's Al Franken sense.
Very nice :)
It will still reek of sulphur...
Biden was almost certainly recalling FDR's critical first radio fireside chat where he quelled the banking crisis that had caused every state in the country to declare a bank holiday and shut the banks. The next day, after FDR's speech, the banks were opened again and long lines of depositors were putting their money back in the banks. Thus the banking system of the U.S. was saved. So it wasn't the stock market, it was the banking system, and it wasn't TV, it was radio. Biden's larger point, that FDR displayed the sort of direct-to-the-people leadership that could calm an economic crisis, was correct.
Giving tearful praise to the Rooney family and Rocky Bleier is definitely not a gaffe in Western Pa. Had he said it in Cleveland this may have been a different story.
One of the bad things about the meager coverage of Biden was the attempt to equate his small blunders to Palin's major gaffes. Biden may have misspoken at times but he never said anything that suggested he had never read the constitution or had no idea what a VP does.
Biden's intentions were usually easy to follow. His gaffe about FDR on TV was a reference to FDR's fireside chats.
But what the hell was the prom queen thinking when she made all of those statements about what the VP does? Or her claiming that the press was violating her first amendment rights for reporting about her. Or her ridiculing scientists taking government money to study fruit flies instead of putting the money towards genetic research.
Most of Palin's statements were attempts to spread her vast "pseudo-intellect" about history, government and science into the sea of ignorance that showed up wherever she appeared during the campaign.
Giving tearful praise to the Rooney family and Rocky Bleier is definitely not a gaffe in Western Pa. Had he said it in Cleveland this may have been a different story.
One of the bad things about the meager coverage of Biden was the attempt to equate his small blunders to Palin's major gaffes. Biden may have misspoken at times but he never said anything that suggested he had never read the constitution or had no idea what a VP does.
-- Indeed, the Biden coverage often had nothing to do with substance and almost everything to do with style. Doesn't that perfectly capture the determined unseriousness of today's feed-the-beast campaign journalism? -- EB
I couldn't agree more. It's one of the reasons why newspapers are losing circulation and the MSM is losing audience share...alternative news sources have exposed a decades long practice of imbeciles posing as reporters and slanting the news.
Astute work by Boehlert...but...he stumbles a bit and loses some contact with reality when he fails to shed his own partisan blinders:
-- if you wanted to select the candidate who was unfairly used as the media's punching bag during the general election season, it was clearly Joe Biden...It makes sense that the coverage surrounding McCain's campaign tended to be negative. --
Sure Biden got beat up by the press. But, in the survey cited by Boehlert, Biden and Palin received the same amount of posive reporting...while Palin received over 3 times the negative press than Biden.
The same survey showed McCain receiving twice the amount of negative coverage versus the coverage of Obama...and Obama received twice the amount of McCain in positive stories.
Here's the tally on positive stories...Obama 36%...Biden 34%...Palin 32%...McCain 14%.
Here's the tally on negative stores...McCain 57%...Palin 45%...Obama 29%...Biden 15%.
It's plain to see who the press was rooting for...but irregardless of that fact...Boehlert is still right on the money when he calls out the idiotic MSM for their lack of journalistic skills and ethics.
A study on "true or false" would be so much more useful than a study on "positive or negative", but such an enterprise smacks of effort and we won't see the media anywhere near it.
Dwindle and fade, MSM. We can't ask you to help democracy, so hopefully soon you'll be too impotent to hurt it.
Palin received negative coverage because she's a bufoon, not just someone who mispeaks.
McCain received negative coverage because he ran a lousy campaign using lousy, divisive tactics.
After all... truth has a liberal bias.
Here's the tally on positive stories...Obama 36%...Biden 34%...Palin 32%...McCain 14%.
Here's the tally on negative stores...McCain 57%...Palin 45%...Obama 29%...Biden 15%.
It's plain to see who the press was rooting for...
Call me skeptical, Wesley, but I'm not convinced that these numbers indicate who the press was "rooting for." When an article mentions that Obama spoke to a cheering crowd of 100,000 people, that's a positive, but it's also factual (not necessarily indicating a bias); conversely, when an article mentions that people in the crowds at Palin's speeches were yelling threats to Obama, that's a negative, but also true and again not indicating a bias.
Positive and Negative tallies don't tell the story.
what i like about biden is that he seems incapable of being crafty. he thinks it, he says it. and add to that the fact that he is smart and capable. i don't think it's a stretch to say the choices of the vice presidential candidates were the ultimate factor in this election. not just for who was picked, but going to the judgement of the person doing the picking. palin was a disaster, self inflicted. the republican party would be foolish to invest any more time in listening to this woman. if they want votes of people somewhat in the middle, they need to get rid of these losers like palin and put up someone with half a brain.
They dropped Palin's numerous outright lies and exagerations soon after each comment was made and changing the narrative to her massive drop in approval , to " lack of experience " or " not ready " , when it should have been , if they treated her the same as Biden , " inability to tell the truth " Exagerated details ' "prone to exagerations " " not exactly a straight shooter " THAT was her main reason for her down fall, the American people seeing LIE after LIE , from the bridge to no where, to the plane never sold on ebay .
It's fun to watch the McCain/Palin camps sniping at each other. One side claims that Palin had a budget for clothes much lower than $150,000 but she went on a shopping spree and blew it. Her side claims that a Bush staffer did the shopping.
There is also some controversy over how that prank phone call from the Canadian Radio Station got through.
Hot damn!
Carl Cameron on Fox was almost droolling on himself yesterday in his excitement to reveal all the dirt on Palin he had been given by McCain staffers.
I just hope the gossip mill whittles her down to a nub so that, when she does crawl back out of her hole, nobody will take her seriously. Of course, the Evangelical nutbags will love her no matter what.... and that's why she scares the hell out of me.
A McCain staffer has been quoted as referring to the Palin family as "Wasilla hillbillies".
I hope these people don't disappear before Simple Sarah runs for President in 2012.
Red State is already compiling an "internal" enemies list. Operation Leper I think its called.
Just North of Pittsburgh, a black family was "informed" that since you voted and got what you wanted..now be wary of your house. Inside the Pgh. area, a car was sprayed with the named Obama before it was torched.
These jerks are making John Murtha a genius for saying what is true. I feel that these things are happening all over the country by the TrailerTrash Republican racists who are just plain stupid.
The Tennessee State Legislature has fallen to the Troglodytes. They are bragging about how they were able to replace "disloyal" Republicans, and are instituting procedural rules that will force Republicans to vote along party lines on "certain issues".
They are already chomping at the bit to introduce Troglodyte wet dreams, like the teaching of Intelligent Design in public schools, and various anti-choice matters.
I'm ready to move to New England. "Real" America is starting to scare me.
Eric, your columns are so salient (perhaps because I tend to agree), but this one is tops with me. I've always liked Joe Biden because he says things! He's not guarded. It's refreshing to see someone like him in the political arena, which is usually all about image. This campaign season, I had to calm my fellow Obama supporters because they bought into the whole "goof" thing. But that's nothing more than a repub talking point, and a way for the media to look "objective." Joe will bring a seasoned, sophisticated political view to the Obama White House, and I hope they recognize that.
Thank you for pointing out this idiocy about Biden.
I'm not a fervent Biden supporter. I don't agree with him on everything, and I do know that sometimes the barrier between his mouth and brain can be pretty low. While the differences on issues can make him a little maddening, I have to admit that I like that low (or non-existent) brain-mouth barrier. It's actually one of his most endearing traits. Sometimes, it makes you cringe. But most of the time you just stand there stunned at first then laughing your butt off because he's just said what you wish you'd said.
He'd fit right in with my family! ;)
Maybe it doesn't really matter. In the end, despite a few all-too-human flaws, he's a smart, decent and good man, and maybe that's what the media really can't stand. He's boring to the media Heathers because they just don't have anything they can latch onto besides the "gaffes." And the Heathers must have something to snipe over.
I love Joe Biden, for his heart, for his authenticity..the gaffes he makes are innocent and harmless. Thank you for this insightful article, you said so well what I have thought. I read what the media says about Biden and dismiss it because it does not reflect what matters to me