Joe Biden Keeps on Talking

Famous for his unstoppable mouth, Biden lives up to his reputation

There are many things about Joe Biden on which everyone agrees. He's a dedicated family, an experienced foreign policy expert and a world-class bloviator. So when he criticized an Obama campaign ad yesterday on the Today show yesterday, no one should have been too surprised.

Katie Couric asked Biden about the tone of the campaign, citing an Obama ad mocking McCain for being technologically handicapped. "I thought that was terrible by the way,' Biden said. "I didn't know we did it and if I had anything to do with it, we would have never done it

In the same interview Biden bemoaned the lack of leadership from the White House during the current financial crisis.

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed," Biden told Couric. "He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

As Jesse Walker of Reason magazine notes, "If you owned an experimental TV set in 1929, you would have seen him. And you would have said to yourself, 'Who is that guy? What happened to President Hoover?'"

Just this past month Biden's twice has cut against the Obama Machine's message, asked a paraplegic to stand up and fibbed about coming under attack from the Taliban.

On Sept. 10, while making a campaign stop in Chicago, Biden attacked McCain by way of a story about a trip he had made to Afghanistan in February.

"The superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan where my helicopter was forced down...John McCain wants to know where Bin Laden and the gates of Hell are? I can tell him where. That's where Al Quaeda is. That's where Bin Laden is. It's not in the country of Iraq."

Biden's helicopter came under enemy fire and had to land? Not exactly. It quickly became clear that Biden was having his own "Hillary on the Tarmac" moment.

"The weather closed in on us," Sen. John Kerry told the Associated Press. "It went pretty blind, pretty fast and we were around some pretty dangerous ridges. So the pilot exercised his judgment that we were better off putting down there, and we all agreed."

"We were going to send Biden out to fight the Taliban with snowballs, but we didn't have to do it." he said. "Other than getting a little cold, it was fine."

Last week, Biden declared that, "The federal government should not bailout AIG," during an interview with Meredith Vieira of the "Today" show.

Later that day, Obama came out with his own statement on the bailout, saying "the Fed must ensure that the plan protects the families that count on insurance."

When Vieira's' colleague Matt Lauer called out Obama on the cognitive dissonance with his running mate, the junior senator said, "I think Joe should have waited" before weighing in.

"Chuck, Stand Up"
 

But Biden's most wince-inducing moment by far was his introduction of State Senator Chuck Graham at a rally in Columbia, Mo.

"Chuck, stand up, let the people see you," Biden called out, painfully ignorant of Graham's being confined to a wheel chair since he was 16.

"Oh, God love you. What am I talking about? I'll tell you what, you're making everybody else stand up, old pal. I'll tell you what, everybody else stand up for Chuck. Stand up for Chuck!" Biden said.

And just today Biden told a crowd in Maumee, Ohio, "We're not supporting clean coal."

As soon as the Republicans heard about this bold stance, they pointed to Obama's speech from the Democratic National Convention, when the candidate vowed, "As president I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology and find ways to safely harness nuclear power."

Whoops.

Biden's debate with Sarah Palin should be a rockin' good time.

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