Joe Biden is bitter:
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was visibly frustrated with how the long race had played out. The Times’ Peter Wallsten asked the veteran senator why he and other candidates, such as Connecticut’s Sen. Chris Dodd, with long records of government experience somehow could never find their way out of the bottom rungs of the Democratic race.
“This,” said Biden, “is about celebrity. You’ve never given any of us a chance. You know in your heart I’m more qualified than any of these guys up top. I know you can’t say yes or no, but I know you know.”
He charged that The Times and other newspapers rarely mentioned him in political stories, ensuring his lackluster performance and obscurity. When a reporter suggested that Biden had a chance to make his case to Iowa voters, he shot back that it was a dishonest assertion.
“Don’t be a phony, OK?” he said.
It seems to have never occurred to Joey that the people of Iowa took a look at his record and concluded that he’s two grapes short of a fruit cup.
His plan to have the U.S. military oversee the ethnic cleansing of Iraq into Arab Shi’ite, Arab Sunni, and Kurdish regions was kind of a bummer…no? Maybe he should be stripped of his chairmanship of the Foreign Relations committee over that recommendation, rather than promoted to commander in chief. Maybe Iowans didn’t mistake advocacy of American complicity in war crimes as gravitas?
Just sayin’.
what he said about the media is absolutely true. They have always insisted on a two-horse race. What it did to Biden was wrong but not tragic. What it did to Chris Dodd was a tragedy for the nation.
Maybe Iowans took a look at his record and realized that Joe Biden and his Bee-yoo-tiful Bankruptcy Reform of 2005 put them in the poor house.
Yours is a more probable explanation than anything about Iraq. It’s a bit disingenuous of him to complain. He knows how the cookie can crumble, he’s been around for a long, long time.
is the reason I have no interest in Joe Biden. The guy is a fully owned subsidiery of MNBA.
The odious bankruptcy bill? The repeated votes in favor of funding the war?
Biden must think we’re stupid.
All true as it pertains to him as a candidate, but his charge against the media is absolutely true as it does go a long way in controlling who and what messages are heard, and even more true concerning celebrity appeal. Everything is media driven and encapsulated in this country.
Hey, he’s not the worst senator in the world; I agree that he’s quite good on certain issues. And I think he’ll be a fierce campaigner for whomever the Democratic nominee is. He can be excellent on the stump.
I just don’t think he’s presidential material, primarily for his selling-out of the middle class.
I’ll never forgive him on the bankruptcy bill.
His record on Iraq and bankruptcy put him in the “no way” box for me, but he’s entirely right about the incredible media manipulation of US elections. I think he’s also right that the media’s casual dismissal had more to do with his failure than his issue positions — nobody knew where he stood.
Several candidates, especially Dodd, have been shortchanged by the media’s narrative of Clinton inevitability and Obama glamour (with occasional mentions of Edwards).
But Biden? No matter how much the Washington press corps loves him as a go-to-guy for a Democratic commentary, outside the beltway, he’s getting different treatment by the media. And this progressive has enough memory of his record not to grieve for him: Neil Kinnockish ads, Clarence Thomas hearings, MBNA, etc.
Shucks I wanted to get beat up some more over him. Ahhh but the political gods are kind to ol Salunga. 😉
Well, I’ve never been a big Biden fan, but the point he makes is certainly not one which can really be argued.
And while it is certainly not unprecedented for the Village Idiots to decide who is valid based on their own particular made up narratives, he can’t really act surprised that this is how it worked out. Certainly, that is the system which has evolved, for better or worse. It might be changing slowly with the advent of the blogosphere, but the change will seem almost glacial in its pace.
I can’t really agree with the statement that, in the end, the Iowa voters rejected Biden, or Dodd for that matter, based on anything substantive. I can venture to say it probably wouldn’t take a long time talking to Iowa voters to realize that they probably don’t have the faintest clue about what Biden’s views were on much of anything. And that goes for anyone that the Village decided long ago is not “serious” contender.
Figuratively, for most intents and purposes, the lead up to this election can often be viewed as a puppet show with the corporate media strategically pulling on strings to make the puppets appear to dance in a certain way. And then they all sit around and give the public their interpretation of what the dance means. And that interpretation is often all that the public actually hears.
I feel for you Joe. I wouldn’t support your candidacy, but I think it sucks too.
you are right that his point is accurate, but his logic is terribly flawed.
rather like saying, “hey, i dropped the bottle of milk because the dog was barking.”
it’s true that the multi-millionaire media is shallow and one-deimensional and they emphasize the horse-race.
but that is not the reason that he did poorly.
he had a chance, as the one reporter pointed out, to take his case to the public, and the public turned him down.
not the public’s fault, and not the media’s fault. probably biden’s support for the credit card companies and for the iraq war’s fault.
he sounds like bill clinton blaming the media for hillary’s third place showing.
Biden and Dodd were indistinguishable. They cancelled each other out. Their positions were the same, experience, etc etc etc. Neither would recognize that both in = nothing for either.
It was the same with Huckabee and Brownback. Until Brownback withdrew, neither candidate could be distinguished. After Brownback was out, Huckabee did well.
he’s not two grapes short of a fruit cup, he’s missing a whole pineapple!