Quote Of The Day

 

From an exchange with a reporter (5:36 mark) determined to rain on President Biden's victory lap on the January jobs report of a staggering 517,000 jobs created, showing how to knock down Republican-wired Beltway media types:

"Do you take any blame," a reporter asked. "For inflation, Mr. President?"

"No," the President responded.

"Why not," the reporter asked.

"Because it was already there when I got here, man," the President responded. "Remember what the economy was like when I got here? Jobs were hemorraging. Inflation was rising. We weren't manufacturing a damn thing here. We were in real economic difficulty. That's why I don't." (our emphasis)

As Biden notes, inflation has been declining overall for several months, even though the cost of some items remains high. But don't tell that to those "whataboutism" reporters determined to keep pushing Republican themes and lies.

 

Sunday Reflection: Redemption

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the fatal automobile accident that took the life of President Biden's first wife Neilia and their 13-month old daughter Naomi. Their two sons, Hunter and Beau were in the crash but survived. In a Yale Law School commencement speech on May 17, 2005, Biden described the devastating effect of him on that enormous tragedy, just days before he was sworn in a a freshman Senator:

"Six weeks after my election, my whole world was altered forever.  While I was in Washington hiring staff, I got a phone call.  My wife and three children were Christmas shopping, a tractor trailer broadsided them and killed my wife and killed my daughter.  And they weren’t sure that my sons would live.

Many people have gone through things like that.  But because I had the incredible good fortune of an extended family, grounded in love and loyalty, imbued with a sense of obligation imparted to each of us, I not only got help.  But by focusing on my sons, I found my redemption.

I can remember my mother -- a sweet lady -- looking at me, after we left the hospital, and saying, Joey, out of everything terrible that happens to you, something good will come if you look hard enough for it.  She was right. 

The incredible bond I have with my children is the gift I’m not sure I would have had, had I not been through what I went through.  Who knows whether I would have been able to appreciate at that moment in my life, the heady moment in my life, what my first obligation was."

One of his surviving sons is about to be the target of a vicious and dishonest inquisition by far-right House Republicans who want to damage Biden in the cynical way they used the 2015 Benghazi hearings to, as ambitious nitwit Rep. Kevin "Qevin" McCarthy told propagandist Sean Hannity, bring Hillary Clinton's poll numbers down. 

(photo: Jessica Hill / AP)

 

Tweets Of The Day -- Humanity

Joe Biden took part in solemn 9/11 ceremonies yesterday at Ground Zero in New York City and in Shanksville, PA. His abundant humanity shone in both places.

Joe Biden, doing that thing that Joe Biden does, but that we haven’t seen much of during the pandemic pic.twitter.com/J9W0rnN2Bq

— Christopher Cadelago (@ccadelago) September 11, 2020

 

“One man said he heard Biden was bringing beer, something he’d apparently promised at one point. The former vice president went back to his SUV and retrieved six packs of Bud Light and Iron City Beer. ‘I keep my promises!’ Biden said,” via @ccadelago pic.twitter.com/e6kdtq0y5e

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) September 11, 2020

(h/t Balloon Juice)

Tweets Of The Day

“Mr. President, it's too much.” pic.twitter.com/WEebjiPKgj

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 2, 2020

New Biden ad uploaded to YouTube last night is very MAN pic.twitter.com/ATsdHsdq6d

— Alex Thompson (@AlxThomp) July 2, 2020

 

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Joe Biden has an op/ ed in the Washington Post this morning about the false choice Trump is trying to portray, and what's really necessary to start to rebuild the economy:

... His goal is as obvious as it is craven: He hopes to split the country into dueling camps, casting Democrats as doomsayers hoping to keep America grounded and Republicans as freedom fighters trying to liberate the economy.

It’s a childish tactic — and a false choice that none of us should fall for.

... The Trump administration could focus on producing and distributing adequate testing and protocols that conform with the guidance of public health experts; doing so would speed up the reopening process considerably and make it a whole lot more effective. The administration is fully aware that this is the right path, too — after all, the president and his staff are now reportedly receiving daily tests. They knew exactly how to make the Oval Office safe and operational, and they put in the work to do it.

They just haven’t put in that same work for the rest of us.

If Trump and his team understand how critical testing is to their safety — and they seem to, given their own behavior — why are they insisting that it’s unnecessary for the American people?

And why does the president insist on trying to turn this into yet another line of division, pitting strained, grieving Americans against one another across manufactured battle lines of “health” and “the economy”? Everybody knows that we can’t revive the latter unless we safeguard the former — and pretending otherwise is the most transparent of political ploys. Instead of once again seeking to divide us, Trump should be working to get Americans the same necessary protections he has gotten for himself.

It’s the right thing to do, and the only path to truly getting the economy back on track.

But, we know why Trump doesn't want the kind of testing that we need, don't we.

The perversion of justice by Trump's porcine consigliere William "Low" Barr in the Michael Flynn case is the subject of an editorial in the New York Times and an op/ ed by former Justice Department official Chuck Rosenberg in the Washington Post.  Here's the Times' take:

... For decades, he has pushed to give presidents — Republican presidents, anyway — maximum authority with minimal oversight. In a 2018 memo criticizing the Russia investigation, he argued that the president “alone is the Executive branch,” in whom “the Constitution vests all Federal law enforcement power, and hence prosecutorial discretion.” For the attorney general, that discretion includes cases involving the president’s own conduct.

If you’re having trouble distinguishing Mr. Barr’s vision of the presidency from the rule of a king, you’re not alone. “George III would have loved it,” said Douglas Kmiec, who led the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

“Bill Barr’s America is not a place that anyone, including Trump voters, should want to go,” wrote Donald Ayer, who served as deputy attorney general under the first President Bush. “It is a banana republic where all are subject to the whims of a dictatorial president and his henchmen.”

Bill Barr’s America is the one we’re now living in. The Justice Department, in the midst of a presidential campaign, has become a political weapon.

Here's Rosenberg on Flynn's lies:

Were his lies material, as required by the statute to which he pleaded guilty? Absolutely. For those of us who spent a professional lifetime as prosecutors and in the Justice Department, this is not a close call.

Had Flynn been asked his favorite ice cream flavor by FBI agents and told them it was vanilla when he preferred chocolate, that would be immaterial. But lying to the FBI about his conversation with a Russian diplomat, given his financial and other ties to Russia, in the wake of massive Russian interference in our 2016 election, and during an FBI counterintelligence investigation concerning Russia? That is material — plain and simple.

Now, in a stunningly dishonest intervention orchestrated by Attorney General William P. Barr, the Justice Department posits that Flynn’s false statements were not material and that the charge to which he pleaded guilty should be dismissed.

The winners will write the history, and Barr will be recorded as the most unlawful, corrupt, dangerous AG ever.

Elizabeth Spiers, a former senior level employee of pencil- necked dilettante Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner, discusses the parallel universe occupied by the Clown Prince and his dolt of a father- in- law:

On some level, Trump and Kushner appear to believe that whether they are really doing their jobs is irrelevant. But they have no reason to believe otherwise; they’ve never faced any consequences for not doing what they’re supposed to do except bad press. (Or, in Trump’s case, an impeachment that quickly led to a pro forma acquittal.) As of today, Kushner’s string of failures have not resulted in any kind of demotion or reprimand, much less dismissal. (Whatever happened to the Office of American Innovation? What has it done? Who’s demanded results?) They act like they think they should get credit for any effort at all, for stooping to bother. (Kushner, in a statement to The Washington Post this week about his task force, bragged about its accomplishments, despite the problems it has run into. “The bottom line is that this program sourced tens of millions of masks and essential PPE in record time and Americans who needed ventilators received ventilators,” he said. “These volunteers are true patriots.”)

Worse, when they fail, the entire executive office apparatus is expected to adapt to their mistakes and bend reality in service of optics. When Kushner stated publicly — and incorrectly — that the national stockpile of medical supplies is “supposed to be our stockpile” and “not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use,” the administration changed the language on federal websites to accommodate his ignorance. This goes beyond the sort of routine movement of goal posts many elected officials engage in when they need to explain their gaffes. This is teleporting the goal posts to an entirely different dimension or denying their existence in the first place. In this alternate universe where Jared Kushner is doing a good job, no identifiable outcomes constitute failure, and everything is, by definition, success.

(One of the regime's "successes" that Dr. Rick Bright blew the whistle on was the failure to get quantities of PPE -- in this case, N95 masks.  Here's a report on how the Trumpers turned down a company willing to make nearly 2 million N95 masks a week at low cost, in favor of big companies who ended up charging much more per unit.  Another "shart of the deal.")

Some good news:  panic in Republican world:

Republicans are increasingly nervous they could lose control of the Senate this fall as a potent combination of a cratering economy, President Trump’s handling of the pandemic and rising enthusiasm among Democratic voters dims their electoral prospects.

In recent weeks, GOP senators have been forced into a difficult political dance as polling shifts in favor of Democrats: touting their own response to the coronavirus outbreak without overtly distancing themselves from a president whose management of the crisis is under intense scrutiny but who still holds significant sway with Republican voters.

Wishing, hoping, dreaming won't get us there.  Organizing, volunteering, contributing and voting will.

As always, we highly recommend a visit to Infidel 753's link round- up of items of interest from around the internet.  Also, please read his essay "The Choice," and save it for future reference/ motivation.

Vids Of The Day

Nurses and health professionals tell narcissistic dolt Donald "I Don't Take Responsibility At All" Trump what to do (spoiler alert:  he's incapable):



Steven Colbert has fun with the narcissist's unprecedented insistence on having his name on the stimulus checks being mailed out:



Joe Biden's latest:

We are building the movement that will beat Donald Trump.

Join us: https://t.co/gnaFCACYrW pic.twitter.com/pHIXCHZ0cm

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 15, 2020

Biden Proposals On Lowering Medicare Age, Forgiving Student Debt

In an article in Medium, presumed Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden outlined what needs to be done in the immediate health crisis and in the recovery that has to follow.  His two main proposals in fostering recovery move him somewhat closer to positions held by both Sen. Sanders and Sen. Warren:

...[A]s the next step in building on the progressive vision for the country that I have laid out across the course of my campaign, today I’m announcing my intention to fight for two new policies that I believe will not only help people right now when they may need the help most, but will also help people find more secure footing in the long term once we have emerged from this crisis.   [snip]

... Recovery will require long term changes to build a more inclusive and more resilient middle class, and a greener and more resilient economy. We have to think big — as big as the challenges we face. As we start to lay the groundwork for recovery, we have to build back better for the future.

So, as the next step in building on the progressive vision for the country that I have laid out across the course of my campaign, today I’m announcing my intention to fight for two new policies that I believe will not only help people right now when they may need the help most, but will also help people find more secure footing in the long term once we have emerged from this crisis. The first is lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60, and the second is forgiving student debt for low-income and middle class people who have attended public colleges and universities. (our emphasis)

On lowering the Medicare eligibility age:

Under this concept, Americans would have access, if they choose, to Medicare when they turn 60, instead of when they turn 65. Medicare benefits would be provided to them as they are to current Medicare recipients. This would make Medicare available to a set of Americans who work hard and retire before they turn 65, or who would prefer to leave their employer plans, the public option, or other plans they access through the Affordable Care Act before they retire. It reflects the reality that, even after the current crisis ends, older Americans are likely to find it difficult to secure jobs.

Of course, those who prefer to remain on their employer plans would be permitted to do so, and employers would have to comply with non-discrimination laws and would be prohibited from excluding older workers from coverage or otherwise try to push them out of their plans. And the Biden Medicare-like public option — as well as other subsidized private plans available to individuals through the Affordable Care Act — would remain available.

"Medicare for All" wasn't happening in this year's political environment.  This, at least, shows some movement leftwards, particularly when you add in the public option availability he's proposing for Obamacare (all of which will require a Democratic Senate).

In addition to his current student debt proposals, Biden adds:

I’ve also directed my team to develop a plan to forgive federal student debt relating to the cost of tuition currently held by low-income and middle-class people for undergraduate public colleges and universities, as well as private Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and private, underfunded Minority-Serving Institution (MSIs).

The concept I’m announcing today will align my student debt relief proposal with my forward-looking college tuition proposal. Under this plan, I propose to forgive all undergraduate tuition-related federal student debt from two- and four-year public colleges and universities for debt-holders earning up to $125,000, with appropriate phase-outs to avoid a cliff. The federal government would pay the monthly payment in lieu of the borrower until the forgivable portion of the loan was paid off. This benefit would also apply to individuals holding federal student loans for tuition from private HBCUs and MSIs.

As he indicates in the article, these proposals will be fleshed out in the near future.  We would also expect further tweaks based on conversations with Sens. Sanders and Warren to get their buy- in, or at least acquiescence.

Unifying the party is proceeding apace.  Now, let's redouble our efforts to not only win the presidency, but increase our margins in the House and get the Senate out of the death grip of Moscow Mitch McConnell and his crackpot caucus.

Would An Intervention Even Work?

To the Democratic front- runner:  be better.

This morning's WaPo describes someone who might be impervious to wise counsel:

As seemingly random as it was for Biden to reference Sen. James O. Eastland, a long-ago deceased segregationist senator from his own party, some in Biden’s campaign had heard him discuss this relationship before — and warned him against mentioning it in public. Eastland, who represented Mississippi in the Senate from the early 1940s to 1978, often said that African Americans were “an inferior race.”

Aides said they had urged Biden to find a less toxic example.

“It might move him to pick a different senator,” said one adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “But he’s not someone you can go to and just say, ‘You’ve been doing this x number of years and you can’t do this anymore.’ ”

Elizabeth Bruenig on Biden's quest for the bipartisan unicorn:

... Biden’s campaign is premised on a promise he can’t keep: that the problems plaguing Washington are mainly aesthetic and can be reversed with the good attitude, deep experience and folksy charm of a man such as him.

But political polarization is a real, ongoing historical phenomenon in the United States, and it exists outside of Washington. [snip]

Such deep disparities can’t feasibly be solved by better relations between particular politicians. They exist among voters themselves and are thus reflected in the antagonistic tactics of legislators and, lately, the president.

Infidel 753 on the second gaffe in a month:

But his comments this week take that tone-deafness to a whole new level.  Eastland and Talmadge were relics of a monstrous past, active supporters of enforced segregation (not just "opponents of desegregation" as they're being characterized).  They advocated continuing denial of civil and political rights to one-eighth of the American people on the basis of skin color.  Biden's point was that it is necessary and possible to maintain civility and work with people one disagrees with, and he's not even wrong about that -- it's the choice of Eastland and Talmadge as examples that constitutes a gaffe of epic proportions.  Because the stance on race they represent is no longer seen as a mere matter of disagreement, certainly within the modern Democratic party.  It represents something fundamentally evil.

As a politician with a long history of self- sabotage, this is not something we need at a time when we're in a fight for the survival of our country.  If he can't discipline himself, or be disciplined, we're in for some trouble.

Tweets Of The Day -- Just Stop

OMFG.  Again?

Biden at a fundraiser tonight, on his desire to work with the Republican Party post Trump.

“With Trump gone you’re going to begin to see things change. Because these folks know better. They know this isn’t what they’re supposed to be doing."

— Sam Stein (@samstein) June 11, 2019

Merrick “fucking” Garland says hi

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) June 11, 2019

I fear that treating those Republicans like flying monkeys just waiting for their witch to melt isn’t really banking on a realistic outcome.

— Schooley (@Rschooley) June 11, 2019

Acting as if defeating Trump will magically turn around the years spent turning state legislatures into bad policy incubators is not only much more naive than what I think Biden really believes, it’s a danger to down ballot Democrats fighting these regressive micreants.

— Schooley (@Rschooley) June 11, 2019

To be fair to Biden, he's right: once a Democrat is President, Republicans will suddenly become extremely interested in oversight, accountability, and impeachment, just like they were from 2008-2016 and 1992-2000.

Why Biden thinks that shows Republican virtue is anyone's guess.

— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) June 11, 2019

Hey, Joe -- Just stick to hammering Trump, please.  Every time this fantasy rolls out, it deflates Dems who've been awake for the last 10 years -- and who "know better."

BONUS:  Betty Cracker at Balloon Juice has a good write-up on this "Trump is an aberration" strategy.

QOTD -- Your Democratic Sampler

"Whatever issue brings you here today, I guarantee you it’s touched by corruption. So here’s how I think about this. We have got to make changes. Not nibbling change. Not one statute over here and one over there and a little piece of regulation over there. We need big systemic change in this country."-- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), at a town hall meeting Saturday in Cincinnati.

“It was given to him, just like he’s inherited everything else in his life. And just like everything else he’s been given in his life, he’s in the process of squandering that as well.”--  former VP Joe Biden on Trump inheriting the "Obama-Biden" economy, in his Philadelphia campaign kickoff rally Saturday.

“It is the nature of grotesque things that you can’t look away.”-- Mayor Pete Buttigieg, asked by Fux "News'" Chris Wallace about the attraction of Trump's tweets to some, including the media, at an event in New Hampshire.

“When you lift up the economic status of women, you lift up their families, their neighborhoods, and all of society.”-- Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), in Los Angeles Sunday, in outlining her plan for equal pay for equal work for women in corporate America.

Europeans Clap Back Hard At Trump

It appears the Munich Security Conference presented an opportunity for European nations to do more than just ignore the sycophantic remarks of Vice President Mike "Dense" Pence.  They (specifically, leader of the Free World Angela Merkel) provided a powerful pushback to Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump's actions to destroy 70 years of trans-Atlantic cooperation:

An annual security conference where Western allies have long forged united fronts erupted Saturday into a full-scale assault on the Trump administration’s foreign policy. European leaders, would-be Democratic challengers and even the president’s Republican backers took the floor to rebuke the president’s go-it-alone approach. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel — habitually cautious about provoking Trump — led the charge, unleashing a stinging, point-by-point takedown of the administration’s tendency to treat its allies as adversaries.  

The speech appeared to provide much-needed catharsis. Trump’s antagonistic behavior has bred two years of accumulated grievance in much of Europe but has been met with few substantive answers on how to effectively challenge it. 

Merkel accused the United States of strengthening Iran and Russia with its plans for a speedy military pullout from Syria. She expressed shock that the Trump administration would deem BMWs made in South Carolina a threat to national security. 

And she lamented that the U.S.-led global order “has collapsed into many tiny parts.”
The crowd gave the German chancellor an extended standing ovation — a rare display at the normally button-down Munich Security Conference. The customarily reserved Merkel beamed as she took her seat. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a top adviser, looked on from the crowd, stone-faced.  (our emphasis)

There at the conference, continuing the "Reassurance Tour" led by the late Sen. John McCain at the 2017 conference, was Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a number of Congressional Democrats, as well as former VP Joe Biden.  They were they to reassure the Europeans that Trumpism did not represent America's beliefs about the relationship and would not last.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA):

“I think that we can go a long way to satisfying our allies that support for the relationship is not only strong, but it is bipartisan, even if it is not always reflected in the Oval Office,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI):

“The real reason I’m going there is to make sure that we send a strong signal, a bipartisan signal from both sides of the aisle, from both houses of Congress, that our allies are important to us, that they fight alongside of us, they die alongside of us,” she said of Munich. “So that they know that the next generation that’s coming up also deeply believes in reassuring allies.” 

Joe Biden:

Biden himself offered the crowd a warmly received assurance that Trumpism won’t last and that a more familiar strand of American leadership will return: “As my mother would say: This too shall pass. We will be back. We will be back. Don’t have any doubt about that.” 

Our allies in Europe and elsewhere are tired of pretending that Rump is a leader in any sense of the word and are increasingly standing up to the ignoramus.  They see the clock ticking on his aberrant (and abhorrent) regime, and they're standing up for the values our American government used to promote when it was at its best. 

Tweet Of The Day -- "... When No One Is Watching"

Joe Biden took his granddaughter to the movies in Georgetown last night. On his way out, he stopped to speak with a homeless man. A bystander took this candid shot. Character is about what you do when no one is watching.#JoeBiden #Biden2020 pic.twitter.com/aINSOhgvP8

— Jon Cooper 🇺🇸 #BoycottNRA 🚫 (@joncoopertweets) March 10, 2018

The Daily Mail online reports:

'I'm not exactly sure what he gave the homeless man, but he appeared to write something down on a piece of paper inside the movie theater, which he then proceeded to give the homeless man outside,' Caleb Baca, the man who took the picture, told the news station [local Fox 5 !]. 

More On The Biden Boomlet: The Narrative That Won't Die, Until It Does

One of our go-to blind squirrels, Dana Milbank, discusses the narrative that won't die, until it does:

Finally, it can be reported: Joe Biden is running for president, unless he isn’t. He will announce his decision this weekend, unless he doesn’t.

Furthermore, Biden is approaching important deadlines for declaring his candidacy, unless those deadlines don’t matter. His advisers really want him to run, except those who don’t, and he has been sounding out potential staffers, or perhaps not. He finds the opportunity irresistible, except when he lacks the passion for it.

Who, besides self-serving, anonymous "advisers" and "friends" want Joe Biden to run for President?

Why, the media, of course. Like Politic-ho, as Milbank notes.  Like the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle.  Like CNN.  Like MoDumb.  And all the other outlets Milbank points to.  Because it's all about the horse race (ratings horse race, that is). 

And ... Republicans who like nothing better than ratf*cking Democrats whenever they can (and whenever we let them get away with it).

But Democrats?  No.  Not so much.

Maybe the media should give it a rest for a few days at least.  See if you can find something else to write about, like "issues important to the American people" -- hahahaha, just kidding!

BONUS:  Ed Kilgore has some additional updates worth reading, and a suggestion for Joe Biden.

BONUS II:  Charles P. Pierce has the last word, until it's not the last word:

The whole Biden shadow play is getting very, very old. The inclusion of him in current polling models is one very small step short of ratfcking Hillary Clinton's numbers, and it does a real disservice to the other candidates as well. (Why not put Mitt Romney or Michael Bloomberg in the Republican field?)  What we seem to have is a bunch of generally nervous Democrats, and some Biden loyalists who like to talk to reporters, and who still dream of that West Wing office that was denied them the other two times Joe Biden ran for president and got crushed. Oh, and there are some political reporters who find this whole thing a lot easier than working for a living.  (our emphasis)

The Peril of Valuing Style Over Substance

Charles P. Pierce on how a low-information, "undecided voter's" view of the VP debate might turn on the wrong "style points", and the consequences of that writ large:

"If you believe that Thursday night's vice-presidential debate was a 'draw' because Joe Biden was 'rude' and 'disrespectful' while Paul Ryan was obviously being disingenuous and uninformed, or that you've decided to go with 'disingenuous' and 'uninformed' because its manners made it more 'likable' then you deserve the inadequate health-care voucher that's coming your way in 2014, as well as the letter from the Social Security Administration that your benefits will be down to 85 cents a month because International Embezzlement LLC went belly-up and took your retirement with it. Tough luck, kids. Them's the risks of an Opportunity Society."

In this, the New Confederate/Rethuglican party has an accomplice, as Pierce and Matt Taibbi (below) point out -- the superficial, "both-sides-do-it" media that focuses on the atmospherics to keep people reading and tuning in and for fear of offending the crackpot Rethug base's well-incubated pathologies and paranoia.

VP Debate Cartoon and Comment

(click to enlarge)

Here's Matt Taibbi on Biden's performance and some of the media quacking going on:

"I’ve never thought much of Joe Biden. But man, did he get it right in last night’s debate, and not just because he walloped sniveling little Paul Ryan on the facts. What he got absolutely right, despite what you might read this morning (many outlets are criticizing Biden’s dramatic excesses), was his tone. Biden did absolutely roll his eyes, snort, laugh derisively and throw his hands up in the air whenever Ryan trotted out his little beady-eyed BS-isms.

"But he should have! He was absolutely right to be doing it. We all should be doing it. That includes all of us in the media, and not just paid obnoxious-opinion-merchants like me, but so-called 'objective' news reporters as well. We should all be rolling our eyes, and scoffing and saying, 'Come back when you’re serious.'”

(Cartoon: Stuart Carlson, via gocomics.com)

It's Joe Time

The Onion has the report:


Biden Criticized For Appearing In Hennessy Ads

Wait a minute. Oh my God, is that Michelle Malkin with the Joe Man???

The Good, The Bad, And The Joe

One of the key players in convincing Sen. Specter to switch to the Democratic Party (in addition to right wing Pennsylvania Rethugs) was Vice President Joe Biden, a long time friend and fellow Amtrak rider. Specter credited long conversations with Biden over time as helping him to decide to switch to the Dems. Good for Joe.

Then, the Vice President showed up on the Today Show on NBC this morning, and proceeded to mangle the message that the President delivered last night on the swine flu situation. Instead of reiterating that sick Americans needed to stay home and out of school, off of airplanes and subways, Biden said that he'd suggest everyone avoid "confined spaces" altogether, even if they're not sick: airplanes, elevators, trains, subways, buses, etc. Joe, that would probably bring the country to a standstill; not a good plan. The White House had to rush out a press release to "clarify" his statements. Bad for Joe.

Biden Running (His Yap)!

To no one's great surprise, Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Egoland) is announcing yet another unsolicited run for the White House. Biden, known for a lack of neurological connection between his cerebrum and his mouth, began his latest presidential quest inauspiciously, but totally in character, with a blundering interview published in the New York Observer. In that interview, Biden provided this example of his finesse as a thinker and communicator when asked about Sen. Barack Obama: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy...I mean, that's a storybook, man." Yeah, man!! Prediction: Biden will not be running for long -- it's too hard to run when you've permanently got two feet in your mouth.