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標題:The Case Against Joe Biden
Yesterday we argued for why Barack Obama should pick Joe Biden as his vice
presidential running mate. Today we tackle the opposite argument.
Loose Lips Sink Ships
Over the course of his presidential bid, Biden cemented his reputation as --
how to put this nicely? -- less than disciplined on the campaign tr
In the summer of 2006, as he was publicly mulling the race, Biden set off a
controversy over comments he made about Indian Americans.
"I've had a great relationship [with Indian Americans]," Biden said. "In
Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from
India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a
slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."
On the day he formally announced his candidacy, a New York Observer story
that quoted Biden as calling Obama "articulate and bright and clean and a
nice-looking guy" came out, and the resultant uproar effectively undercut any
momentum Biden was hoping to build.
While Biden was on his best verbal behavior for much of the rest of the
campaign, there is no question that his tendency to shoot from the lip
worries some in Obama world. As one Democratic consultant put it: "You know
there will be three days in the campaign where someone in Chicago will get a
call and respond -- 'What did you say he said?.'"
For a campaign that prides itself on its message discipline, choosing Biden
would be introducing a wildcard into the mix. The Obama campaign exudes quiet
confidence that if they do the basic political work between now and Nov. 4
the Illinois senator will be president. Do they really want to risk it with
Biden?
Plagiarizer In Chief
Way back in 1987, Biden was riding high in the presidential race -- widely
regarded as a serious contenders for the Democratic party's nod.
Then Neil Kinnock happened. Biden borrowed passages of a speech given by
Kinnock, a leader in Britain's Labour Party, without attribution -- a mistake
that led to a detailed examination of Biden's public statements that turned
up several more examples of potential plagiarism and resume inflation. The
feeding frenzy eventually chased the Delaware senator from the race.
The incident has become the stuff of political lore -- type "Joe Biden and
Neil Kinnock" into Google and more than 37,000 hits are returned -- even
though those close to Biden insist that the actual facts surrounding the
incidents are largely overblown.
Maybe. But, while any political junkie worth his (or her) name knows all
about the Kinnock incident, it's a mistake to assume the average voter knows
about it. In the words of one Republican strategist: "Old news inside the
Beltway, new news outside."
That reality means that in every story about Biden done in the aftermath of
his selection, Kinnock's name and the allegations of plagiarism would come
up. It would complicate the desired flawless roll-out of the new ticket and
could even raise questions about Obama's commitment to a new kind of politics.
Washington Insider
The central tenet of Obama's campaign message is that if Americans want to
change their government, then they have to change the people they send to
Washington.
Picking Biden, who has served in the Senate for the better part of the last
four decades, seems to run counter to that core message. Biden was elected to
the Senate at age 29 and spent only four years after graduating from Syracuse
Law School in 1968 working in the private sector before entering public life.
Biden has long been a regular on the Sunday talk show circuit and is one of
the pillars of the Democratic party establishment. His accomplishments -- of
which there are many -- all were achieved as a senator operating inside the
deepest heart of political Washington.
Biden allies note that despite his long service in Washington he is, at his
core, an outsider inside the Beltway. While that may well be true, the optics
for Obama aren't great; he can't change the fact that in picking Biden he
would be going with someone who has spent nearly his entire adult life not
only in politics but as a member of the world's greatest deliberative body.
Joe Loves Joe
One of the most overlooked episodes during the 1987 collapse of Biden's
campaign was a snippet of footage captured by C-Span in which the Delaware
senator, in response to a question about where he went to law school and what
sort of grades he received, delivered this classic line: "I think I have a
much higher IQ than you do."
While any human being -- especially a candidate for president who is
constantly being poked and prodded -- can be forgiven a momentary flash of
temper, Biden's detractors point to that incident as evidence that the
senator thinks he is the bee's knees and doesn't care who knows it.
Biden, by his own admission, has the capacity to fall in love with his own
voice and wander off on tangents about his life that have nothing to do with
the topic at hand.
During the 2006 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito,
the Post's Dana Milbank wrote this of Biden's performance:
"Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., in his first 12 minutes of questioning the
nominee, managed to get off only one question. Instead, during his 30-minute
round of questioning, Biden spoke about his own Irish American roots, his
"Grandfather Finnegan," his son's application to Princeton (he attended the
University of Pennsylvania instead, Biden said), a speech the senator gave on
the Princeton campus, the fact that Biden is "not a Princeton fan," and his
views on the eyeglasses of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)."
Ouch.
There is evidence from the Democratic primaries that Biden is not only aware
of his tendency to go on (and on) about himself but is also able to curb that
natural tendency, however. In one of the best moments in an unending series
of Democratic debates, Biden was asked by moderator Brian Williams whether he
possessed the "discipline" to be the leader of the free world. Biden's simple
response -- "yes" -- brought the house down and put the Delaware senator in
The Fix's "winners" column for the night.
Agree? Disagree? What did we miss in making the case against Biden? Feel free
to offer your thoughts in the comments section.
By Chris Cillizza | August 14, 2008; 12:47 PM ET
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/08/the_case_against_joe_biden.html
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