Kos reports via the Washington Post’s Fix that Joey Biden is definitely running for President. And I have a confession to make. I have always liked Joey Biden. I like him on a personal level, and that puts me in a distinct minority among liberal bloggers and, I suspect, most of this community.
I know about all Joey’s shortcomings, his voting record, his vanities, his hairplugs, his teeth whitener, his propensity to step on the message, his antipathy for Howard Dean. All of it. And those are all reasons why I will not be able to support him in the primaries. But I still like Joey. Joey is my kind of guy. He’s the kind of guy I grew up around. He’s got the same attitude, the same sharp mind and sharp mouth.
There are some politicians that I disagree with on the issues and still think are good people. Joey’s one of them. He takes a beating on this website and on dKos, and elsewhere. He usually deserves what he gets.
I’m not sure how Biden expects to win the nomination. It will be difficult for Biden to win a battle of centrists that includes Hillary and Mark Warner. And it is too late to move to the left. But I hope Joey can contribute to the debate, and I hope he finds a way to become the centrist pick. And I hope Feingold, or some as yet unknown progressive, takes him out.
don’t know that much about Biden, other than what has been hammered into me (e.g. Biden (D-MBNA)).
The few times I’ve seen him on TV, I’ve thought two things:
Those are just my own analytic observations. I’m not saying that those are good or bad traits (I think the argument can certainly be made either way). I just call it as I see it.
Hey, you could say those two things about me… 🙂
You are definitely smooth :p
it’s the come hither look 🙂
I mistook it for the ‘gone thither’ look…
n/t
i know how you feel though…i feel the same way about mariano in philly….he is an ass and a dope and now he is going to go to jail but i love him the person who will stand up for certain people when no one else will.
If you want to be smarter than average, you just need to hang with the right crowd.
….but I can’t stand the guy. I think he’s a phony and a blowhard who, while not stupid, thinks he’s ten times smarter than he is. He also has the kind of b.s. “bipartisan comity is a tradition of the Senate” attitude that nicely plays into the hands of the rightwing ideologues who have effectively hijacked our country. To me he represents everything that’s wrong with the inside-the-beltway establishment. He is to the Senate what David Broder is to journalism.
Now in the interest of full disclosure I should note that I was a staffer for the Dukakis campaign in the fall of 1987, and though I had nothing to do with the infamous Kinnock video, I suppose this means that I have a sort of special relationship to Biden’s political career.
but have you seen him when he take off his suit?
Oh, now that’s funny!
But really–Biden’s been seriously running for president (or wanting to) since 1988.
I’d have been surprised if he ruled it out when asked. :<)
I’m with you GS, blowhard is the first word that comes to mind whenever I see or hear Biden. Condi’s comfirmation hearing comes to mind, all huff and puff, no action.
As a politician, he appears to have a limited range, from Smilin’ Joe Bullshit to Bluster Joe Bullshit.
Yep – that be the Joey I recognize in action.
It would seem quite difficult to locate a picture of that man with his mouth closed. Damn, he loves the sound of his own voice. Which, in turn, sends me running from the room. (Okay, it sends me walking from the room at a pace somewhat faster than my typically slow gate)
this picture was taken right after biden said “look… I have something wierd stuck in my throat!” iirc.
leaves my teeth sparkling white. And I just love the new tongue cleaner feature.”
Don’t like him either, but if it comes to choose between him and Hillary…
. . . then it comes down to promoting a write-in candidate.
y’know what? I used to like him too. I didn’t even mind that he plagiarized from Neil Kinnock. Neil Kinnock is a righteous dude–eminently plagiarizable.
But recently, bleah! And then his vote on the bankruptcy bill–how much money did the credit card companies pay him? From quoting Kinnock to this? How can you still retain any respect for him?
Enough to run for President.
I wish all republicans were more like Biden.
say what?
He’s what?
PS: but seriously… the world would not be so bad if Biden and Lieberman were Republicans and typical of them.
We could handle that.
And Republican control would not have to be taken as heralding the Armageddon.
Fair enough.
That’s a good turn of phrase. Did anybody hear Biden’s big speech on Iraq policy about two months ago? He writes his own speeches. He is a genuine deep thinker, and he is incredibly quick-witted (although he is also one of the worst narcissistic bloviators of all time). He has an extremely strong legal mind, and I believe he really cares about people. I’ve always thought he was a true patriot, who deeply understands the need to coexist with humans around the world. Yeah, I’d vote for him in a heartbeat. For all his flaws, I do like him a lot more than John Kerry. However, my secret hope would be a sudden miraculous surge of support for Dennis Kucinich.
Except when he doesn’t. I can take Biden or leave him (well, actually, it’s kind of hard to leave him these days when he’s so ubiquitous), but remember the plagiarism incident from ’88. He was caught flat-footed on that, and it led to revelations about earlier plagiarism. Dunno about anybody else, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Well, for certain we need one serious candidate who makes it his (or her) sole job to mock, undermine, ridicule, attack, embarrass and humiliate the Republican politicians.
I don’t know if Biden is that guy. But like them or hate them, few Dems have the courage to boldly proclaim the sky is blue and the sea is wet. Biden can at least speak forcefully.
We need some Dem to make voters think long and hard about voting for the next figurehead of the Lie And Screw America Party (aka Republicans). Its not good enough to leave that to the VP pick (um… yeah, Lieberman and Edwards didn’t do so hot on this, now did they). We need a primary candidate who’ll fight dirty as sin with the Republicans, leaving our eventual winner’s hands clean enough to take the high road.
If Biden can’t win the primaries, maybe he can knock 10% off the Republican candidate’s numbers while he’s in the game.
because he doesn’t know WHAT! the HECK! he’s TALKing about.” (+/-)
I liked that. I liked him for a while when he was running years ago, but not any more.
I’m convinced that the centrists still think the Republicans are a political party. That’s a dealbreaker for me.
Don’t know his positions and that is critical for me. But in demeanor he strikes me as more ‘Presidential’ than any five of the rest put together. Rather have someone who is a little larger than life than someone who is a little smaller than life. And I’m not bothered that he supports a major employer in his state. That’s his damn job.
Now then, where does this fella stand on gay rights?
Unfortunately, he will still be beholden if gets the presidency, and then “his damn job” will screw us all over.
I have a personal beef with EVERYone who voted in the abomination of a bankruptcy “reform” bill, I do love hearing him bloviate, but president? No way.
Only if you put him among Lilliputians.
Presidential?
I’ll tell you what “presidential” is…a tall fellow with lots of nice hair and a good physique who can fill out a suit.
Somebody like Senator “Mr. Electable” Kerry. And we all know how well THAT turned out.
Biden would have lost the Pop Vote by 9-12 million.
I can’t stand the guy. He’s a effete narcissitic blowhard. Watched him and Lieberman compete for a C-SPAN microphone once, both were trying to turn their left profile to the camera. His abilities are cancelled by his major charcter flaws. He’d knife his own if Du Pont or the credit card companies told him to. He already has. I haven’t forgotten the Bankruptcy Bill. Fuck Biden.
I really walked into that keenly applied skewer.
Yeah, that sucks. I’ve been plagiarized myself twice in my professional life (so far as I know, might be more) and it really is an awful feeling.
I guess my main impression is that Biden seems genuinely present as a dynamic, living mind when he’s speaking, not a zombie like Bush. How we’ve all fallen to low expectations.
Unintentional howlers that will have him dropping out of the race before the third primary date at the latest – and I think I’m being very kind there. I lived in Delaware for 6 years, and I cannot stomach Biden. His worst trait is shooting his mouth off about something in an intemperate fashion, then issuing a groveling apology within 48 hours. He cannot dissemble, and cannot shut his mouth when dignified silence is obviously called for.
If you liked George Romney in 1968, you’ll love Biden 40 years later.
Biden combines the politics of another Joe–Liberman–with the charisma of, uh, Lieberman.
How can Biden lose? The nomination is his for the taking, because just like Lieberman, he has “JOEMEMNTUM”!
Or at least part of it.
http://www.issues2000.org/Senate/Joe_Biden.htm
# Voted NO on criminal penalty for harming unborn fetus during other crime. (Mar 2004)
# Voted NO on maintaining ban on Military Base Abortions. (Jun 2000)
# Voted YES on banning partial birth abortions. (Oct 1999)
# Voted NO on disallowing overseas military abortions. (May 1999)
# Rated 36% by NARAL, indicating a mixed voting record on abortion. (Dec 2003)
But what damns Biden in my eyes is what the son of a bitch did with that anti-working class bankruptcy bill that he not only voted for, but helped harden–that’s right, HARDEN–against working folks:
Joe Biden’s Bankrupt Vote
When researching the Democrat Senators that voted for the Bankruptcy bill, I found that the Senators from Delaware were the top recipients of campaign cash from the Finance/Credit Card industries. And I found that neither of them had any press releases explaining their votes for this bill.
Today, Senator Joe Biden finally gave a reason for the vote he took as he responded to the charge that Jonathan Chait had made in his column, When Democrats Join the Dark Side. (via Dkos’ dday) Biden’s letter to the editor castigates Chait for not realizing that this was a well-balanced bipartisan bill.
In his zeal to attack the bankruptcy reform bill, Jonathan Chait’s March 4 commentary, “When Democrats Join the Dark Side,” mischaracterizes the legislation. In 2001, a similar bill passed the Senate 82 to 16. The provisions affecting consumer bankruptcy were identical to those Chait criticizes.
At the outset, I refused to support bankruptcy reform until fundamental changes were made. I fought to establish a “safe harbor” for those below their state’s median income. I also insisted on a provision requiring lenders to post a clear warning about the dangers of making minimum monthly payments, one of the worst debt traps for consumers.
This bill establishes unprecedented protections for child support and alimony, making bankruptcy part of the enforcement system for women and children, who now will be at the head of the line, in front of every other creditor. Is this bill perfect? No. But over several congresses it has earned the kind of bipartisan consensus only balanced legislation can achieve–Senator Biden.
Oh, gee, isn’t that nice? The bill is a peach of a bill with all kinds of protections for consumers who find themselves in trouble. All those little gems stuffed in this bill like the fact that credit card companies can charge rates that would make the mafia loan sharks look like pikers. Some Democrats found that little credit card company giveaway a bit hard to swallow.
According to David Broder writing about this terrible bill, it was the Delaware Senators who balked at any amendments that would have stopped some of the worst abuse companies use when filing bankruptcy.
Even more instructive was what happened when a staunch conservative, Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, tried to put a little balance into the bill.
As attorney general of Texas, Cornyn said the notorious Enron bankruptcy case “opened my eyes to a very real abuse in the current bankruptcy system,” the loophole that allows corporations to go “judge-shopping” for jurisdictions with permissive standards. Enron, which had 7,500 employees in Houston, filed for bankruptcy in New York, where it had 57 workers, because New York, along with Delaware, is known as being lenient on big business.
Congress recently passed a law restricting plaintiffs in class-action suits from judge-shopping in the state courts, and Cornyn argued that it should also require corporate bankruptcy cases to be filed in their principal place of business. Citing cases of Polaroid, K-Mart, WorldCom and Enron, he said the judge-shopping loophole “serves to unfairly enable corporate debtors to evade their financial commitments, (and) it badly disables consumers, creditors, workers, pensioners, shareholders and small businesses from pursuing and receiving reasonable compensation from bankruptcy proceedings.”
No one rose to dispute Cornyn. So what happened? He withdrew the amendment, without a vote, “out of respect to the managers of this bill who say that amendments to this bill would endanger its ultimate passage.”
A Cornyn spokesman told me the bill sponsors said his amendment would cost them the support of the two Democratic senators from Delaware — that favorite haven for big business.
So when Joe Biden comes around asking for your support for his presidential run in 2008, let him know that you’d be happy to support him as much as he’s supported us. In other words, go jump in a lake, Joe.
http://www.pacificviews.org/weblog/archives/000966.html
And that’s precisely why I would never cast a vote for Biden for any office, including dog catcher. When it comes to the interests of ordinary Americans, the guy simply cannot be trusted.
Well, the short version of the story above is that when Biden had to choose between his financial backers in the credit card industry and working class Americans, he chose his corporate masters–and did not only what he was instructed to do, but went “above and beyond” the call of duty.
It matters not–Biden has little chance of capturing the nomination and even less chance of ever being President. It is a tribute to the man’s outsized ego and colossal vanity that he is once again contemplating a run after his last disastrous attempt.
Biden is what passes for a “moderate” nowadays–someone who supports abortion rights (sort of) and other personal liberties (well, usually), but is indistinguishable from a Republican on economic issues.
Actually, such political labels as “conservative”, “moderate”, and “liberal” are increasingly inaccurate. I would prefer to divide politicians by two salient characteristics:
Pro-individual rights or anti-individual rights
Pro-working class economics or anti-working class economics
Biden is a pro-individual rights, anti-working class economics politican.
I much prefer Feingold, who is pro-individual rights and pro-working class economics, over Biden.
we’d better start thinking smart about winning elections or the people that are in power are going to stay in power. one thing is sure: nobody is going to make big changes in washington in one election cycle. nobody.
those of you that are eliminating from consideration any democrat, at this point, are hurting the possibility of the democratic party regaining power. say you don’t like biden, or lieberman, or hillary, or kerry(mister so-last-year). so what? the only time your opinion matters is in a primary. that’s it. and that’s the truth.
the above list of people are all senators and ALL senators are saddled with baggage that any average seventh grader could pick apart. in fact, that statement could be applied to anyone with any political experience. and the more political experience they have the easier it is to find something not to like.
i don’t give a rat’s ass if none of these people gets past a county-wide straw poll. but don’t try to shoot them down with snide remarks in the blogs. that just adds to the fractious reputation that democrats have with the american public, and that helps the repubicans. the average joe then thinks that democrats aren’t serious about winning and either doesn’t vote or goes republican. we lose because we act disorganized and unclear as to what we’re about (sound like the kerry campaign maybe?).
we’re not gonna get ms. perfect or mr. wonderful, nor do they even exist. politics is brutal and it’s full of compromise. you can count on this: the democratic candidate in 2008 will be somebody that a good number of democrats will not be pleased with. if you aren’t will to “hold your nose” and endorse her/him anyway we will lose again.
can you say compromise? the people who voted in 2000 for nader, OR DIDN’T VOTE AT ALL, are the people responsible for these clusterfuck enablers we have in the whitehouse right now! the elections of 2000 and 2004 were lost by us. if you can’t be realistic get out of the back room.
the only time your opinion matters is in a primary. that’s it. and that’s the truth.
Oh REALLY?!? Is that what you’re going to go round the country with your 50 state strategy and shout fromt he rooftops? That’s sure to rally people ’round the “just shut up and hold your nose” idea.
I am not to blame and the more you tell me I am, the less and less likely I am to vote for a dem. Held my nose and voted Kerry last year and look what that got me. Won’t do it again. If someone does not represent my principles, they don’t get my vote. Period.
I am sick of this shit. I can be VERY realisitc: getting ‘dems in power’ who are nothing but corporate sell-outs themselves won’t change a DAMNED THING. That’s realism.
it’s not what you shout from the roof tops. no, but it is something you should keep in mind. it’s something you should not forget. “holding your nose” is not a rallying point. it’s not suppose to be. it is sometimes necessary if you don’t want things to be like they are now. bush or gore? hmmmm. too many people didn’t hold their noses, or didn’t feel motivated. didn’t think it was that important. wonder what they think now. are they willing to admit their complicity? because they are complicit.
sometimes there are no good possibilities on offer. sometimes it’s a matter of chosing the lesser evil. can’t handle it? fine. you help the opposition by not doing anything.
so you voted for kerry and he didn’t win. same here. was it wrong to do it? not. just because something didn’t work out for you in ’04, one election, makes it a bad idea?
say, in ’08, it’s frist or jebbie boy, vs. biden, or hillary, are you going to go for a third party candidate? not vote? vote for frist?
campaign for anybody you want. do it. more power to you! but, at the end of the day, if your person isn’t nominated, face reality. don’t pout, piss in the gene pool.
I’ve had this argument too many times with too many different people on this blog of late.
I am in no kind of mood to go through it again.
More power to you whatever you choose to do, just quit blaming others (me especially, I take exception) and urging me to choose the lesser of two evils.
Is it a bad idea? Yes. That is my short answer. The whole damn system is a bad idea.
o.k., i’ve finished stating my argument. i don’t expect everyone to go with my point of view.