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Biden Grilled by Fifth-Graders
When Joe Biden ventured to a Syracuse elementary school Sunday, he spoke with characteristic, um, candor about how long he’d thought about being vice president (not long), whether his dog was smarter than Obama’s, and how he’d fare in a game of Oval Office basketball.
Under normal circumstances, a politician being grilled by fifth-graders is hackneyed political theater. But when the politician is Joe Biden, there is a certain affinity between the two parties—both are highly rambunctious and, to hear it from their minders, do not excel at self-censorship.
When the vice president paid a visit Sunday to Bellevue Elementary School in Syracuse, one inquisitive young mind wanted to know something Biden himself might have been wondering. "What do I do for a living? What I do for a living," Biden flashed a grin. "That's a good question. I used to be a lawyer, going to courtrooms lots of times. What I do now is I try to help out the country—with the president—and try to make sure we can end the wars that are going on, and make sure all of you kids get the best education... I do a lot of things. I want the press to know," he chuckled, “what do I do for a living."
“[I]t never crossed my mind, being vice president,” Biden told a group of fifth-graders. “It's a new experience for me. I didn't think about the vice presidency, honey, till almost, about 100 days ago!"
During his commencement address at Syracuse University an hour earlier, Biden had extolled the value of new experiences. "There is a much greater risk in accepting a situation we know we cannot sustain,” he said, reading from a teleprompter, “than in steeling our spine and embracing the challenge of change.”
Before his younger audience, Biden acknowledged he was still adjusting to the vice presidency—a position that had not exactly been his dream job. "I thought I wanted to be a really good athlete. I even thought that when I was in law school," he said. "I tried to be president a couple times. But it never crossed my mind, being vice president. It's a new experience for me." You could almost hear his handlers' sweat dripping. "I didn't think about the vice presidency, honey, till almost, about 100 days ago!"
He acknowledged that the president—whose name the kids proudly shouted when asked—was a "really a cool guy... really a smart guy." At times, though, Biden seemed determined to prove to the kids that he was pretty awesome, too. "The president thinks my house is nicer than his," he said of his digs at the U.S. Naval Observatory. "No, for real he does. It's 75 acres in the middle of Washington."
Next, one student asked if he had ever pet a dog. Biden compared his dog, a German shepherd named Champ, to Bo, the Obamas’ Portuguese water dog, a gift from Ted Kennedy.
"My dog is smarter than his dog,” he boasted. "But," he added, in a true political concession, "Bo's a beautiful dog."
Biden pointed out that he and the president “hang out a lot.” They travel together, and sometimes they get burgers together. No, he said in response to another query from the gallery, the vice president had not yet challenged the president to a game of basketball. "I haven't had a chance to play with President Obama yet. I'm not bad, but he's probably better."
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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Well, it is almost softball season.
He is a nice guy, but no one cares.
Well, you're half right. No one cares.
Well, you're half right. He is a nice guy.
I think Joe Biden is a really decent person, and I am thankful he is our vice president. Since he has good values, maybe he can help the people in our country who are suffering. I grew up in Syracuse, so I appreciate that Joe's history with Syracuse.
"Mister Biden, why do you smell like my dad's liquor cabinet?"
Wow, the fifth graders are more respectful than you... "I'm SlaveRevolt and I'm not smarter than a fifth grader."
I've always been impressed with Biden's life story and he's done an excellent job in his career in public service. Regardless of your feelings about his views, I think it's pretty safe to say that he walks the walk.
"the fifth graders are more respectful than you"
Why should I have respect for a puppet of A.I.P.A.C. and a Council on Foreign Relations stooge?
"Regardless of your feelings about his views, I think it's pretty safe to say that he walks the walk."
If by "walk the walk" you mean toeing the Zionist line then I would agree with you. You apparantly don't know much about Joe Biden. Here's some information:
"I am a Zionist," said Senator Biden. "You don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist."
http://shalomtv.org/pdfs/ShalomTV_BidenonIsrael_PR.pdf
Biden talked with Israeli and Jordanian leaders, saying "no one in the United States Senate has been a better friend to Israel than Joe Biden. I would have never, ever joined this ticket were I not absolutely sure Barack Obama shared my passion."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11/13/biden_talks_with_i sraeli_and_j.html
is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations
http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/roundtable/CFRA-Elist.html#B
and a member of the Alfalfa Club
http://www.nndb.com/org/692/000051539/
Biden backs the asinine fascist "war on drugs" to the hilt
http://www.nndb.com/people/023/000027939/
is chairman of the International Narcotics Control Caucus
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Joseph_Biden#Reparations_for_ Japanese_Latin_Americans
wanted to partition Iraq
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/08/9268_biden_vp_problem_ iraq_partition.html
softened tone on Iraq partition to coincide with Obama
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9622_biden_addresses_p artition.html
wants to reinstate the military draft
http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Joe_Biden_Homeland_Security.htm
voted in favour of immediately implementing "missile defence" programme
http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Joe_Biden_Homeland_Security.htm
voted for the Patriot Act, then argued [or pretended to argue] against reauthorising it, then voted to reauthorise it
http://www.nndb.com/people/023/000027939/
voted to reauthorise it
http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Joe_Biden_Homeland_Security.htm
is a P.N.A.C. signatory on a statement
http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/pnac_chart/pnac.html
And defends the idea of letting the war criminals Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice etc. get away with their crimes against humanity
http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/Story?id=6499340&page=3
So that walk he's walking isn't designed to help the average American worker/working poor/desperately poor but instead to help the elite puppetmasters. He's a phony. And a drunk as anyone watching the Biden-Palin debate could attest. Even the blog Mother Jones had a headline reading "Biden Should Seek Treatment for His (Obvious!) Alcoholism"
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2007/02/3486_biden_should_se.h tml
And Biden ascribes to racist stereotypes:
"In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian-Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1643290_1643292_1643 323,00.html
"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American [Obama] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/31/biden.obama/
Or adheres to racist stereotypes rather.
Slave-dude
you forgot to add one thing to you list
He WON.
Loser.
to MattePgh:
Who cares? You're acting as if you DIDN'T end up with a neo-con as president and vice president. Wake up. Pay attention to things going on around you. It didn't matter if you voted for the McBama-Biden ticket or the O'Cain-Palin ticket. You got a neo-conservative you dumbass. That's the whole point of the elite backing both sides.
Pricklypear:
America lost no matter who you voted for because either "choice" ends up with more of the same. And try actually debating something instead of calling names with nothing to add to the conversation. Are you even old enough to drive?
Apparently you are unaware of a commonly-known fact - Joe Biden does not drink. He is a teetotaler.
Apparantly you didn't watch the Biden-Palin debate where he got progressively less lucid and more visibly drunk as the debate wore on. Or saw that campaign stop in Beaver, Pennsylvania. He's a drunk, face it.
Even the pro-Democrat blog Mother Jones admits it.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
It's not just an insult to Bo. It's an insult to the office of First Dog!
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/biden-insults-presidents- dog/
dude SlaveRevolt -
Chill - you're dissuading by virtue of your excess.
It's hell if you do and damned if you don't Like-Mind. If someone posts a lot of information then people bitch and moan because "waahhh there's too much to reeeeeeead, I'm not thaaaaat interested in finding out how things are actually going on instead of the soundbite b.s. version the people tell me on t.v."
And if someone states an opinion and posts one or two things to back it up then other (or sometimes the same) people bitch and moan saying "Oh, is THAT all you're basing your opinion on? That one fact? Maybe if you had more to go on than just that one thing..."
So you can't win. Some people will never be satisfied because they have already made up their mind to disagree with you regardless of how many or how few facts you give them. If someone has their mind made up that they will believe nothing but that which authority figures tell them to believe then it doesn't matter. Conversely, if someone has anything upstairs to carry the information home in then they will get something out of it. If not then there isn't much that myself or anybody else can do for them at that point.
The best I can do in general is to do what I would have someone else do if the situation was reversed: Put the relevant facts out there. I would not want someone to hold information back from me that they could be telling me.
But on the other hand:
He was a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he voted against confirmation of Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and John Roberts. He wrote the Violence Against Women Act, which federalized domestic violence as a crime.
Oh yeah, that really makes him authentic! Nevermind the fact that he's a warmonger, in favor of reinstating the draft, voted to reauthorize the Patriot Act after saying he wouldn't, backs the tyrannical "War on Drugs", is a drunk, adheres to racist stereotypes, wanted to partition Iraq like some colonial overlord, is a rabid Zionist and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Nevermind all that, he voted the obvious common sense choice on three "Supreme" Court "justices" and on the Violence Against Women Act, taking the extremely popular position of being against wife-beating. Wow, what a great politician.
Dude! Wipe your chin!
Don't you think you might be happier in another country? Maybe Alaska...
Obviously you have thoroughly researched your views and have come to your conclusions based on some kind of logic rather than emotion. You do not, however allow for validation of views you do not share. It's this kind of rancorously disrespectful labelling that drives so many Americans into mental bunkers and prevents mutual understanding. V.P. Biden should be entitled to his views without reprehensible defamation of character that belongs on a reactionary network, just as you do not deserve to be labelled and dismissed, sir or madam.
to FrankleeMiDeer:
Oh don't worry, I'm leaving this awful country as soon as I have the money saved. Not that any country is perfect of course but America is a s**thole and getting worse all the time. And Alaska is a state of the U.S., not a separate country.
to Rapierwits:
I allow for validation of views I don't share if they can be validated. So far I haven't seen any validation, just someone trying to equate making three obvious choices on Supreme Court "justices" and one obvious choice by taking the controversial position of opposing the beating of women, and... what? Someone else (Connie47) who apparantly thinks that I don't like Biden exclusively because he has foot-in-the-mouth syndrome when there is a laundry list of reasons why he sucks; someone telling me to wipe my chin (?); someone else who thinks that "he won" must somehow equal he ISN'T a turd because he won, nevermind that the American people would be no better or worse off had Obama-Biden lost and McShame-Palin won as they are all playing for the same team anyway; and someone whose sum total of their riposte consists of simply saying "loser!" like they're in middle school or something.
Someone could be of the opinion that the earth is flat but they surely can't back it up with anything worthwhile. Their opinion isn't based on anything beyond wishful thinking and crap. So should their opinion be as valid as someone who knows that the earth is demonstrably spherical?
"Biden should be entitled to his views without reprehensible defamation of character that belongs on a reactionary network"
Biden defames his own character by enthusiastically calling himself a Zionist. Biden defames his own character by being a warmonger and militarist and someone who is in favor of a creepy wannabe-omnipresent government peering into its citizens' lives with reckless abandon, and supporting the "missile defense" boondoggle, and arguing in favor of letting Cheney and the other war criminals escape punishment. He has no balls and probably no conscience. What you're saying doesn't make sense; you admit that what I said is a product of researching it as opposed to emotion yet you won't admit that those same facts when presented just show Joe Biden defaming his OWN character. Of COURSE everyone has a right to their opinion but if someone else's opinion is based on a pile of horses**t we also have the right to tell them so. If someone else's opinions show them to be an imperialistic tool of the elite (like Joe Biden) then it isn't character defamation to expose them for what they are.
And "a reactionary network"? Do you even know what that means? Reactionary is the polar opposite of what I am. Saying something is reactionary is saying that it is intended to roll back the wheel of history, not just stop progress but actually go back the other way. It's another way of saying right wing. Fascist. I am not that and am in fact the opposite, as I'm looking at this from the far LEFT point of view. Reactionaries are people like Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck. Not someone who loathes Obama and Biden because I can see them for the sellout stepn'fetchits for the ruling class that they are and knows that in order to make changes that this country sorely needs they would have to turn left and keep going, not continue being toadies to the elite like they are. If I was a reactionary I would be convinced that McCain was in any meaningful way different from Obama and was just what America needs. Instead, I can see that they both are working for the same groups of people.
They very reason many people dislike and ridicule Mr. Biden is one of the reasons I like him. Before he speaks, he does NOT stop to check his statement for political correctness. He just tells the truth and the truth makes a lot of people uncomfortable.
He also jokes around a lot, you know, the way you and I do over the water cooler. But when he says exactly the same things everybody says in a casual conversation, his detractors rip him to shreds. They don't stop to think that they made the same crack a while back.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
I am fond of him for the same reasons. He's very real and un-stuffy - a perfect foil to a suave and highly self-controlled leader of the free world. Biden's job is to keep things light and that is so refreshing.
Connie47--You are 100% correct.
Usually Biden's verbosity and gift of gaffes makes one shake their head and chuckle. However, his recent disclosure of the VP's top secret "bunker" makes me think that he may very well be the dumbest VP ever to hold office. Maybe this was a diversionary tactic to minimize his recent advice that his family shouldn't fly on planes or take the subway with the current flu situation. Way to calm the country down Joe. Especially shaken NY'ers who were just treated to a low flying 757 near Ground Zero courtesy of the White House.
Thank you.
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