Oh, Like A Vice President Who Knows Stuff
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That was my thought seeing Joe Biden answering tough detailed policy questions on Meet The Press this morning. Joe Biden can zing with the best of them. But he can actually answer questions. He doesn’t fear Brokaw. Unlike some others.
26 Responses to “Oh, Like A Vice President Who Knows Stuff”
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© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
Dick Cheney knows stuff. Other than the exact burning point of human flesh, even.
Joe was impressive. Gone was the old blabberer, replaced by vp candidate in complete command of the issues. Bring on “Sarahcuda”
“I know about preventing teen pregnancy! I know about stopping earmarks! I know about not cheating on my husband!”-Secessionist Sarah
It was refreshing to hear someone speek so easily, using real words and no hyperbole.
jones, mane, none of these folks aint really saying nothing about the issues, Obma is a little tiny bit, but it seems like Palin and McCain just mantra stealing when they need to talk about N. Korea rebuilding nukes like North Korea has fallen off the map
Here’s the problem: as we learned in the 2000 and 2004 elections, actually knowing stuff is proof that you are an out-of-touch elitist who looks down on small town Americans.
For all its surface differences, this campaign is a repeat of 2000 and 2004. The Democrats are talking about the American we are becoming and what we will need to become America version next. The Republicans are insisting that any real change is dangerous and heretical. They insist that we continue to pretend that we can be the America of myth and nostalgia. The real owners of the Republican Party, the corporate ruling class, know that this is bullshit, but they also know that most Americans will buy it.
Two weeks from now, Sarah Palin will know stuff… She will know “why we’re fighting in Afghanistan.” She will know “why we’re fighting in Iraq.” She will know “why we are all Georgians now.” More importantly, she will know what to say when she doesn’t know something, which will be any time she’s asked something on which she doesn’t have a clue, a very high percent of the time I would guess.
But the fact remains, her knowledge of the Constitution will be shoddy. Her knowledge of economics will be shoddy. Her knowledge of foreign affairs will be shoddy. She will offer no useful advice to her president and will offer no useful perspective if she were to become president. Yet somehow this is completely acceptable to 40% of the USA. And you question my patriotism?
I’ll have to watch Brokaw’s interview with McCain, next week I think he said. Wanna bet Brokaw pitches softballs, compared to his tedious questions about Biden’s Catholic views on abortion, alleged conflicts of interest, etc? I so dearly want to be wrong about this… Will ANY of the MSM grill McCain the way he should be? Anybody want the prize for being first?
James, you hit it right on the head. Voting for mediocrities like Palin is middle America’s FU to the people on the coasts. In lots of circles, being “regular people” is the best thing you can say about a person. I agree that being down to earth is a valuable characteristic, but at the same time I want my leaders to be able to grasp and articulate nuance. Also understand that “regular people” NEVER means “black” or “educated”.
Obama was much criticized for his so called “guns and god” speech, but he was 100% right. Lots of areas of this country have no upward mobility and the life they used to live is gone. As they lose the way of life that their parents and grandparents lived, they “rebel” against the “liberal elites” that they blame for that change.
Biden…heh…
PRINCETON, NJ — The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update shows John McCain moving ahead of Barack Obama, 48% to 45%, when registered voters are asked for whom they would vote if the presidential election were held today.
EL, I thought it was the conservatives’ turf to talk about how much greater things were in the old days, of how wonderful things used to be back in the days of our parents and grandparents.
It’s seldom acknowledged, but Americans are better off today than they ever have been in history.
Socially, our parents and grandparents grew up with segregation and open racism and sexism as facts of life. Today, we are guaranteed either a black president or a woman vice-president — and the vast majority of people are either cool with that, or wildly psyched.
Economically, just look at consumer goods, and the proliferation thereof. How many families have several big TVs, broadband internet, multiple computers and DVD players?
The people Obama talked about don’t think of themselves as downtrodden and “clinging to their guns and religion.” They hold their faith dearly, because it works for them, gives them a link to their past and a hope for the future. It’s their key to their spiritual well-being.
They hold on to their guns because it is how they see their best guarantee their physical well-being. It is also about their independence, their unwillingness to place the lives of themselves and their loved ones in the hands of government officials who have all too often been too late when endangered — and specifically has ruled that the police have no legal obligation to protect any individual.
And they don’t like it when they’re denigrated and mocked for what they hold most dear — their spiritual beliefs and their desire to protect themselves and their families. Or, in the case of people like the Palins, to provide for their families.
Mock them all you want — then watch them turn out to vote specifically against you and your candidate of choice.
J.
Socially, our parents and grandparents grew up with segregation and open racism and sexism as facts of life. Today, we are guaranteed either a black president or a woman vice-president — and the vast majority of people are either cool with that, or wildly psyched.
Economically, just look at consumer goods, and the proliferation thereof. How many families have several big TVs, broadband internet, multiple computers and DVD players?
You know what else is seldom acknowledged? The significant part that liberals play in bringing about new modes of thinking and new tech such as those you mention above.
“And they don’t like it when they’re denigrated and mocked for what they hold most dear — their spiritual beliefs and their desire to protect themselves and their families. Or, in the case of people like the Palins, to provide for their families.”
So what you just said was that these people vote against people not based on what policies the candidates hold, but based on what they think the candidates think about them. Which is exactly what I said.
Economically, just look at consumer goods, and the proliferation thereof.
I’m not sure if cheap crap from China is the best indicator of a healthy economy, sir. In fact the real wage has fallen more or less steadily since a spike in the early seventies.
I’d guess that the country would be able to absorb the likelihood of a President Palin administration, just like it absorbed a Bush/Cheney administration, a Carter administration, a Reagan administration, a Nixon administration, a Johnson administration, a Bush/Quayle administration, et al. I leave Clinton off the list, for he’s the only one who left the country in better shape than what he inherited. I say that as one who didn’t vote for nor support Bill Clinton. I find him extremely untrustworthy and not very likable from my personal POV. However, credit where credit is due.
But there are some very troubling things brewing out there that make the next administration’s competency something of prime importance and intense consideration. Regardless of track record and personal conduct, I don’t see *yet* how a President Palin administration would put the country in a better place than what she’ll inherit. In fact, given the currents, I don’t see how a President Obama administration will achieve this either, but my gut tells me he’ll fair better than her (and pahlease, her gender is a non-issue … I do my thinking with my mind and pocketbook, not my genitalia). As to why I’m projecting a McCain victory as her administration, go consult an actuarial table or talk to your friendly neighborhood life insurance salesperson and quit kidding yourself.
While y’all snipe and pick at your festering wounds, the world is breezing by merrily on its way to no particular place, with the U.S. lagging further and further behind. Ask the Freddie/Fannie management.
Game changer? Talk about one of the most myopic turn of phrases I’ve seen in an ever long time. I fail to see how Palin exudes qualities to change the game on the global or domestic stage. If your view is strictly domestic campaign politics due to the election frenzy, you’ve drank the Koolaid about American exceptionalism in asymptotic quantities. The world, like life, is moves. The world, like life, remains in a constant state of need.
Furthermore, it’s McCain and Palin’s responsibility to alleviate this myopia. It’s incumbent upon them to explain to me, John Q. Walking Around Dude (great Clinton phrase), how they’ll face challenges domestic and global. Until Palin comes out for some serious Q&A, some serious fire, and show ability to articulate what her views are through the McCain campaigns frame (other than stick a straw in the earth and suck out some black goo), then I don’t understand how anyone can form an opinion upon her qualities other than to draw the conclusion she’s not up for the task. As to her past? Past behavior is no indicator future behavior, but it can give on a sense of the shapes and contours of ones thinking and code of conduct. Using my own criteria, asking no one else to buy into it: she falls short. And it’s McCain and Palin’s problem, not mine to convince otherwise. The same thing applies to Obama.
Because Nope, it’s not up to me to bang around the internet and research the candidate or sift through the fictional/non-fictional aspect of her e-bay sales or take the media’s opinion or some poll conclusion or a rely on bunch of opinion engineering bloggers and pundits. She needs to get out in front of friendly, hostile, and quasi-objective crews and give us some insights into her ability. Because Nope, convention speeches don’t provide indicators for leadership. That goes for Obama as well. I can’t recall any of Bill Clinton’s convention speeches, I remember the country being better off by most useful criteria. I can’t recall Carter’s convention speeches (yes, I was around and sentient), but I remember the venerated Misery Index crawling up every one’s arse along with the Iran hostage situation and various flubs.
The myopia ain’t my problem, it’s up to the McCain/Palin crew to exude some grasp of competency beyond tossing out red meat to their base. And if their base has them pinned down, they need to ride that pony or toss it. It’s not my problem, it’s theirs.
The people Obama talked about don’t think of themselves as downtrodden and “clinging to their guns and religion.”
And that’s one hell of a hard statement to prove. I’m sure some feel downtrodden, some don’t.
And Sen. Obama wasn’t mocking or denigrating anybody. He was saying that the system sold them out, so they exagerate the relevance of wedge issues. Disagree with that if you want, but don’t fib and say he was mocking middle America.
I certainly didn’t agree then, nor do I now, that he was describing a majority of middle-America small-town types. But mocking? Not a bit.
True, Parthenon, but I’m not talking about the economy, I’m talking about the general standard of living and quality of life. The poor today are better off than at any other time in our history, and that is not disputable.
Spider, I’ll be the first to acknowledge the role liberals have played in such developments — about equal with that of conservatives, who have put restraints on wild flights of fantasy, of hair-brained schemes, who’ve fought to preserve some things that liberals often wanted to discard as “old-fashioned,” who’ve placed far more faith in the individual than the collective, who’ve argued — and shown — that increasing the power of the government at the expense of the individual is never a good thing, and so on, and so on.
I’m a huge believer in balance, in the give and take between the two sides, in an almost Darwinian political process where the best ideas are tested in the crucible of public debate.
As to why I tend to side with the Republicans more than the Democrats… I see the left has moved farther from the middle than the right has, meaning that while I stood still, the “middle” moved away from me. Live next door to Massachusetts for forty years, and you’d be hard-pressed to not come to the same conclusion.
J.
Not one commenter on one liberal blog anywhere cared two shits for Joe Biden before now.
Up until about three weeks ago, he was about as well-liked among liberals as his two very good friends, Joe Lieberman and John McCain.
Obama didn’t MOCK people for being bitter. Or for clinging to their guns and religion.
These are the same people that Gramm called “a nation of whiners”.
So I ask you, do you think these people would rather be called “bitter” or “whiners”?
Not one commenter on one liberal blog anywhere cared two shits for Joe Biden before now.
Now he is part of a team, and the alternative is McCain/Palin.
Our side has two pretty smart guys, including one whose intelligence is off the chart.
The other side has a dumb elitist rich guy who cheated on his first wife and whose mistress-cum-wife owns him, who supports the unpopular war, and who was part of a corrupt banking scandal, and a woman whose intelligence has never been tested, whose husband got to sit in on her gubernatorial meetings, and whose family would have been on the poster for “disfunctional” in right-wing eyes if she hadn’t been a Republic. Once she got nominated, unwed teenage pregnancy suddenly became a good thing, after all these years as part of the description of “trailer trash.”
It’s a pretty easy choice.
One of the definitions of a conservative is “defender of the status quo”. If it was up to conservatives, slavery, or at least segregation, would still exist. Women would be denied suffrage, forget about equal rights. If it was up to the isolationist conservatives of yesteryear, the US would not have joined the fight against Fascism in the 1940s. Conservatives opposed Social Security, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Equal Rights Amendment,the ADA, the minimum wage, and the FMLA. Conservatives today oppose universal health care as the right of the citizens of the greatest country in the world. The conservative movement ALWAYS looks backward, by definition, never forward. They are on the wrong side of history, even if they manage to win this election, God forbid.
Shorter Jay: “HAI GUYZ WE DON’T LIV IN CAVES ANY MORE SO VOTE REPUBLICAN LIKE A NON-PARTIZAN LIKE ME AMIRITE?”
Lots of people have lost their houses and life savings under Bush. In general, the American economy was much healthier under the sane, non-faith based policies of Clinton and a Democratic administration.
Me? I moved abroad since I couldn’t find a decent job in America under the Bush II regime. I could be an exception to the general rule, but no, I’m pretty sure people — real, actual working people — are hurting right now in their wallets. To try and argue that it doesn’t matter who’s president since we have a cure for smallpox or whatever now is disingenous bullshit.
Republicans want to put an undue tax burden on you if you make less that 50K per year, and they want to distribute that wealth to the top five percent of American earners (many of whom “earn” through dividencs and don’t actually work) in the form of permanent tax-breaks for the ultra-wealthy, who are their primary constituency. Democrats want sane government that works well and, god forbid, steps in during a Katrina-level disaster to make sure our fellow citizens are taken care of. They want sane, rational foreign policy decisions, not 3 billion dollars squandered per week on military occupations with no withdrawl strategy.
The choice this November matters more than ever for the future of our country. Please vote accordingly.
Yeesh, sorry about my spelling.
“The poor today are better off than at any other time in our history, and that is not disputable.”
No, I think the poor are worse off than they were 10 years ago. There are more middle class people who don’t have proper health insurance and therefore have to use emergency health care, which is putting a strain on the system. This hurts the poor. Also, there are more people who have part time jobs but want full time jobs. Increased demand for lower wage jobs hurt the poor. The social safety net is being defunded as well.
So why do you think they are better off?
Not to mention the millions (and I’m one of ‘em) who would like to work one job but are forced to work TWO to make ends meet. And to have a little breathing room. It’s not just the poor who suffer under Republican rule. It’s us poor schlubs who are a missed paycheck or a major car repair away from going under, too.
Jay:“The poor today are better off than at any other time in our history, and that is not disputable.”
CSS:No, I think the poor are worse off than they were 10 years ago
Now, now, Jay’s right. “The Poor” are no longer live under a fiefdom or work for the nobility on sharecropper farms. Almost all of them even have real floors and electricity!