Joe Biden Announces He’s In And Blasts Hillary Clinton’s Plan (SECOND UPDATE)
This has been moved up out of order due to the second update.
Senator Joe Biden has announced that he’s running for President and wasted no time entering the battle for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination — by taking a swipe at the perceived front-runner:
New presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden says rival Sen. Hillary Clinton’s plan for Iraq would be a “disaster,” as he filed papers to form an exploratory committee today for a run for the White House in 2008.“I think it would be a disaster if it is her plan” to cut off funding for local Iraqi forces, Biden told “Good Morning America” anchor Diane Sawyer. “I think it’s counterproductive.”
Biden has sponsored a nonbinding resolution to oppose the president’s call to send more troops to Iraq. When it comes to Iraq, Biden believes the only solution is a political one.
“We should insist on a political settlement between the Sunnis and the Shias,” he said. “We ought to be bringing all the parties together. … There is no military solution to Iraq.”
Biden also said he believed that Iran, which President Bush believes has been aiding insurgents in Iraq, had an advantage because of the way the United States had handled the war.
Biden also made it clear that he had a lot of good things to say about Hillary Clinton being qualified to be President.
And lest you think there is ANY seriousness in him pondering whether to run or not when he creates an exploratory committee, Biden basically told the AP exploratory-exploraschmory I’m in:
Democratic Sen. Joe Biden has been saying for months he’s running for president. He made it official on Wednesday. The Delaware senator will file the paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and release a videotaped campaign message to voters on his Web site, www.joebiden.com. He also is planning another trip to New Hampshire early next week.“After nine months of doing this, there is no exploratory committee – I’m running,” Biden told The Associated Press.
Biden has staked-out an interesting corner in American politics.
He has proven to be one of the most blunt-spoken Senators on talking-head TV shows. He also has shot himself in the foot several times for long-winded comments, but seemed to rebound in later appearances. He has been blasted by the Democratic left for not totally favoring the stance some on the left advocate in Iraq. In terms of relations with news media (something that matters since it’s how a candidate can get free exposure), Biden seems to be a newsmaker who’s considered a good quote-machine (a compliment, if you’re in the news biz) and someone who can add a vital “on the other hand” perspective to otherwise polarized (rage on the left, rage on the right) news stories.
But he may now be on the verge of coming under attack himself because in an interview he referred to Barack Obama as being someone who’s “clean” — a clear reference to Obama someone who is not enmeshed in scandals or tainted by bad publicity. To most people.
You can see already about how this is already surfacing as something where some may suggest that he used the word in racial terms. This mini-flap (if it grows into one — and talk radio loves this kind of thing, as does the blogosphere) would probably end with Obama noting that he has worked with Biden and that those suggesting Biden was suggesting what they’re suggesting he was perhaps suggesting are mistaken (but at least some of those pushing that line will know that already).
SECOND UPDATE 1:09 PST: It has unfolded exactly as we predicted above. Biden says he didn’t mean what people (on the right and left) are suggesting he said. And Obama says he believes Biden — which we predict won’t be enough for at least some of those who don’t like Biden (on the right and left). After all, why would Obama’s opinion matter? (U.S. foreign policy under George Bush is often done via policy by positive affirmation; partisan stances are often taken by partisan or ideological affirmation.)
Hotline On Call:
Joe Biden called Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) to clarify his “clean” comment to the New York Observer, Biden told reporters in a conference call this afternoon. Biden said Obama told him: “You don’t have to explain anything to me. I know exactly what you meant.” Asked to clarify his comments, where he said Obama was “articulate and bright and clean,” Biden said he “really” regretted the word “clean” was taken out of context. Biden: “My mother has an expression clean as a whistle sharp as a tack, that was the context.” As to the effect it might have on the African-American vote, Biden: “I have no doubt that Jesse Jackson and other black leaders … knew exactly what I meant. We have a very, very long relationship. … There will be no misunderstanding.”Biden said of the Observer piece: “I believe I was quoted accurately but they weren’t meant to take shots.” As for his Democratic competition, Biden: “I think they’re all great. I think I’m better.”
FOOTNOTE: Biden’s likelihood of becoming the nominee is bleak and not because of the plagiarism flap that took him out during his last major run, since he has rebounded from that by becoming a solid Congressional voice. He’ll likely to add a balance to the 2008 Democratic presidential race debate. It would not be surprising to see him wind up in some future Democratic White House administration in a cabinet post.
UPDATE: Or is Biden’s use of the word “clean” innocent and not indicative of a bigger problem? Americablog’s John Aravosis writes:
Okay, what Biden was trying to say, I think, was that Obama is quite possibly the first serious black presidential candidate who doesn’t scare white people (or at least a good segment of white people). And I think that’s true. Jesse Jackson? Scary (yeah, a lot of you like him, a lot of us don’t). Alan Keyes? Insane. Al Sharpton? I find him funny, but he’s still fighting the Tawana Brawley image. What other serious black candidates have we had? So, yes, in that context, Obama is the first candidate that doesn’t routinely scare white people – and that’s part of the reason Republicans are trying to smear him as a scary madrassa-attending radical Muslim.But that’s not what Biden said. He said we haven’t had any black candidates who have been articulate, bright and clean. Jackson, Keyes, and Sharpton are all articulate, bright and clean. So what exactly was Biden’s point?
And he says there have been problems before and links to one other questionable choice of words.
Daily Kos: “It’s clear his career has dragged on one election cycle too many.”
Hugh Hewitt (who will influence the “take” on this by many bloggers on the right): “Imagine if Rush [Limbaugh] had called Obama the “first…clean African American.” Really, do you want Joe Biden overseeing the Iraq war? Especially when you realize that Biden is ten times smarter than Leahy and a hundred times brighter than Boxer?”
Josh Marshall offers one reader’s explanation of how punctuation may have made people misunderstand, then Marshall writes:
Even with the comma it’s really condescending bordering on racist. And it would still probably mean that Biden’s mouth presents a clear and present danger to Democratic electoral prospects no matter what he meant. Ending his candidacy wouldn’t be preemption, just legitimate self-defense.
–Kos responds to that but it must be read in full.
Crooks & Liars calls their post “Bye Bye Biden.”
46 Responses to “Joe Biden Announces He’s In And Blasts Hillary Clinton’s Plan (SECOND UPDATE)”
Those nominations… One of the stupid, yes stupid, aspects of them is that they weaken whomever wins.
Kos is also down on Biden for saying this.
I agree that by “clean” he probably meant “untainted”. So I don’t think he has to do too much digging to get out of this one. And I doubt Obama will mind a news cycle that reminds everyone that he’s clean, so he probably won’t be offended. Obama could even take this opportunity to be concilliatory–a uniter, not a divider.
I also agree that Biden doesn’t have much chance. So he ought to feel free to make his points. But I do hope he turns down the windbag function.
I have known Joe Biden for many years and find him immensely likeable. Beyond that, he doesn’t known when to shut up and stands no chance of being the nominee. On the other hand, he might make a decent secretary of state.
I don’t get that “clean” thing. What the hell does “clean” has to do with race, especially considering the context?
The only ones who might read something into it, imo, are looking for a controversy.
And with quite a passion too for that matter.
Ludacris.
One of the typical racist comments for years in the United States is that if someone talked about someone who was an African-American they were “honest and clean…” I’ve heard that a zillion times over the years. As I said in my post, taken against the context of what’s going on politically my interpretation (which some think is too charitable) is that he was talking about being untainted. I won’t be able to post much today during the day but you can already see how this is gathering steam.
Candidates have to be careful about their choice of words. It’s really getting a bit to where our candidates can’t mis use a word, can’t have a rotten voice if they sing the Star Spangled Banner or look bad (You Tube), can’t bungle a truly stupid and dreadful joke that even if delivered by Jon Stewart would be a bit lame.
And then Americans demand candidates who act like you and me and are candid. More then ever, they have to be very careful with what they say. Or what they do that can be captured on You Tube. God save the candidate caught picking his or her nose on You Tube.
If this gathers steam it could get out of control and — as silly as it sounds — squelch the very slim chances Biden would have. As Shaun said, Biden is considered a solid, decent member of Congress. You can tell when you read news stories about how journalists view a news source, more often than not, due to how often they appear and on what kinds of stories.
It’s sad that our politics centers on this but it increasingly does. I’m only putting in a few representative links on this update. This could become a full story, if people turn it into one (Drudge already has A SCREAMING HEADLINE!!!!!!! about it. It’s even sadder if this ends his candidacy before it begins.
On the other hand, Republicans will point to Trent Lott (Trent Lott may point to Trent Lott) and note what happened to him.
So there is a racial connocation to use of the word…but I truly don’t think that’s what he meant. All it takes is a few people suggesting he does, then the mainstream media picking it up and…there you have it! A controversy!
Ya think? LOL
This is what David S calls erring on the side of a Type I error in regard to racism (finding an innocent person guilty of racism.) He’s argued that we should err on the side of calling something racist because if we err too far on the other side we’d miss actual cases of racism. I disagree (I think ideally while we accept that there will be some error on either side, we should balance it between falsely accusing people of racism and ignoring possible cases of actual racism by having a reasonable standard before an accusation is made), and I wonder if even David might think this goes too far.
O, I agree, they should be careful. On the other hand, the PC police (which is mostly an aspect of the left dare I say) may find something in everything (if the right starts screaming, they’re just playing a game).
Next thing we know, it’s considered racist to simply note that Obama is black.
C.S.: how about, here it comes…
common sense
Hah, well, I don’t know about European politics but here in America that seems to have gone out of vogue shortly after Thomas Paine’s time.
Heh.
Joe Biden Announces He’s In And Blasts Hillary Clinton Plan…
…
Unbelievable. Look at those reactions.
Let me ask: does Biden have a clear history of racism?
I like Joe Biden- but he is like Kerry in that —he is a bit long-winded, and is not the most skilled of politicians. He’s perfect for the Senate or in someone’s cabinet- not really presidential material.
I do think he’s trying to rise above the pack by being a little controversial.
Michael, there’s a long history in this country of some white people separating black people into two categories: the “good” ones, and the “bad” ones. In this racist history, the “good” ones were the ones who “knew their place” and acted “white”. The black comedian Chris Rock makes a number of jokes based on this history, and the on-going practice even within the black community of distinguishing between “blacks” and “n—-s”. Using words like “clean” call this past to mind, and push a lot of buttons in peoples’ minds. Our country’s past abuses, I think, justify our being very alert to the use of words and phrases which, on the surface, harken back to the really bad old days.
Personally, I know several young, educated black people who are really irritated when someone refers to them as “articulate” (another of the words Sen. Biden used). Why? Because people rarely use that word to describe a white person. Did we say Ronald Reagan was “articulate”? No, we called him the great communicator. Bill Clinton? Rarely, and mostly in referring to a particular interview or writing, not as a general description. Use of the word comes across to my friends as saying: “he’s not one of those ‘bad’ blacks who can’t speak ‘right’ and only talk in ‘Ebonics’ and gangsta lingo.”
There’s a YouTube video I saw recently which makes fun (and poignant observations) about this type of thing, a short film about an all-white committee of college students planning a “diversity” rally of some sort. They unanimously decide to make their one black, female member a key speaker at the rally, even though she doesn’t really want to do it and they never listen to what she has to say. I’ll post a link if I can find it.
Pat,
I see the point that you (and Joe) are making about historical context, but I still say that the hypersensitivity makes normal discussions impossible. It’s a bit like comment filtering software: every little word is caught up, without really knowing whether the speaker/writer meant the word in the way that is offensive.
Historical context matters to a degree, but so does the immediate context (as MvdG asks: is there any reason to actually think that Biden is a racist? And I’d add: would he be stupid enough to make a racial insinuation?)
Pat: I do see your point, thanks for the expl.
But I agree completely with C.S.
As I see it, and I apologize to those who feel – somehow – insulted but… I cannot see how this was racist.
This seems to be a feeding frenzy to me and it makes me noxious.
I agree with Michael. As SOON as I saw this I knew what was going to happen and I posted the first thing I saw on it. You can see how it snowballed. Now Obama says he believes him. Do you want to take bets now on whether this will be the last we’ll hear about it? It is a feeding frenzy. It’s like in American politics people look for the one opening they can get. Attack mode is a lot more fun than discussion of issues mode, isn’t it?
Joe, I agree completely and this truly is making me noxious. I’m thinking about whether to write something on this tomorrow, or just ignore it from now on since it truly makes me sick.
This is… it is incredible. Like you’re watching a bunch of sharks attacking an animal / fish that’s wounded and bleeding.
I agree with C. S. as well. I don’t think that Biden is a “racist” as that term is most commonly used, despite comments like this and his Indians working at 7-11s in Delaware comment a few months ago. As a professional politician, however, he should be more responsible for learning to communicate more effectively with Americans of all stripes, and that includes learning and understanding why some things push people’s buttons and offend them.
That doesn’t mean we should never offend people, or that we should submit to the P.C. police. Sometimes, that segment of our politics does go over-board (witness the “niggardly” fracas a few years ago), but sometimes they’re right. Biden isn’t just you or me, engaged in casual conversation. He’s a leader of the Democratic Party, and he by now ought to be more aware of such things and be more careful in his speaking. And, for the reasons I explained, it’s not just his choice of words which are somewhat offensive, but the idea which those words convey. I think he did indeed mean “he’s articulate” in the same way a lot of white people use that phrase to describe a well-educated black person, the way which indicates an attitude which the friends I describe find offensive.
That doesn’t mean he should be branded a “racist”, of course. No, it just means that he has just a little bit of this coming. A quick flurry of commentary, a reminder to all that he has terminal foot-in-mouth syndrome, and then move on to more substantive matters.
Pat: I agree completely that he should choose his words more carefully. Obviously, he made a major mistake. A person like that has to realize the impact of badly chosen words.
However, the feeding frenzy is truly making me sick.
Biden meant that Sen. Obama is the first serious black candidate for President who is “white enough” to have a chance at election, to appeal to moderate white voters. This is the same reason that many of the more traditional black leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton don’t really care for him, because his politics and his rhetoric are not theirs. Of course Biden wasn’t “taking shots”; he was making a perfectly accurate political observation. But, being a politician and times being what they are (as C Stanley and others have pointed out so clearly), he couldn’t say it that bluntly. And when he tried to say the same thing differently, he unintentionally wound up saying things which would be offensive if taken literally. He’s being perfectly honest when he says that Jesse Jackson and other black leaders knew exactly what he meant… because they know how to translate the code that he used.
Mind you, if a Republican had said that, then the same black leaders would still know what was really meant, but they would find it politically expedient to publicly condemn such language.
I just had a very twisted thought. Obama is popular as a black candidate because he is able to be one without using racial division as a centerpiece of his persona. What better way to destroy this than to create dozens of “mini-incidents”. Every time someone says something about Obama look for the racial slant (you can find a slant in almost anything if you look hard enough) then make an issue out of it. The person accused of racism will never have that stick (short of a macaca moment) but people will slowly start associating Obama with racial divisiveness and his campaign will die.
I’m just short of tin-hat status to think this might be a purposeful strategy instead of a side-effect, at least for now, but I’m going to pay more attention to the matter just in case.
Well at least I agree with MvdG and CS here =)
I can see how given the historical context his comment might warrent a second look, but that second look easily shows that there is no racism intended, and so the matter should be dropped. Too bad it probably won’t be.
Lynx has an interesting if fiendish idea there.
We often treat racism in this country as if it’s some kind of binary switch, either off or on. That just ain’t the way it works.
Wiley E. Biden…
Depending on how old you are, you might remember the Roadrunner cartoons. I don’t think I’ve seen one in more than a decade, which is a shame for the up and coming generation. My guess is that liberal Democrat censors declared the show “too violent…
First day of his candidacy and he is already issuing apologies and clarifications.
Gotta love presidential politics. I also totally agree with the first posters comments. The winner LOSES.
To me it is more telling about presidential campaigns and the media, than about Joe Biden. Anyone considering a run for the office now has to declare their candidacy 2 years before the election, and expect to have every syllable that comes out of their mouth dissected and analyzed ad nauseum. We wonder why the candidates who end up doing well in the primaries have no spontaniety, but when they do act like, well themselves, everyone pounces on them, until they retreat behind their consultants again.
This is sickening! It’s also the kind of media frenzy that turns many people completely off politics and even voting.
I’m surprised no one has questioned Biden’s religious beliefs yet!
The next politician who sneezes will be accused of trying to kill his opponents by infectious virus.
kritter, out of curiosity, did you react the same way to George Allen’s ‘macaca’ moment?
I hope he’s in the race when this blows over. I remember when Biden told reporters that had a bunch of blacks been hold up in the Oklahoma countryside with guns and participating in a radical anti government movement that the police would have cleaned that up long before the Oklahoma bombing.
People were outraged but he told the truth…
Pat-Actually, no. But that was because there was some context to the charge of racial insensitivity. Allen used to have a noose and Confederate flag hanging in his law office, had multiple accusations of using the N-word in his past and reacted angrily to a reporter when asked about his Jewish mother.
If someone like John Warner had a moment like that, I would have not given it a second thought. That’s the way it is with Biden. Biden is like Kerry- he puts his foot in his mouth when he speaks. The media works itself up into a frenzy over it until the next misstatement from a candidate. Those who claim that the media has a decidely liberal bias and loves to bash conservatives, can now see that they give equal time to liberals whose tongues work faster than their brains.
I don’t think for a moment Biden is racist or even insensitive. But: is it legit or not to rule a POTUS candidate out of one’s consideration because he makes you cringe too often via the foot in mouth thing. Or — if we think he is well-qualified to assume the role, should we just look beyond that unfortunate trait.
A good friend is very pro-Biden, and thinks I should be too (of course). Maybe I should tell my friend “I can’t back him, he’s an oral time bomb”. Or should I tell myself, “get over it”; i.e., assume that whatever damage President Biden would do by babbling can be managed or worked around?
Biden, the candidate the voters haven’t really been waiting for:
“Rudy, McCain Crack Biden
A new Rasmussen poll shows that a general election race between former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Delaware Senator Joe Biden, if held today, would end in a laugher, as Rudy whups Biden 54-35.
Arizona Senator John McCain also beats Biden but by a smaller margin, 48-36. Biden’s biggest problem, and a likely reason why he has announced so early, is name recognition.
According to the poll, Biden is viewed favorably by 35% of Americans and unfavorably by 38%. Twenty-seven percent (27%) don’t know enough to have an opinion on the subject. Giuliani, on the other hand, has a favorable rating of 69%.”
[...] Our previous post on it is HERE. Posted on February 1, 2007 | Permalink | Categories Uncategorized | | View blog reactions [...]
[...] Our previous post on it is HERE. Posted on February 1, 2007 | Permalink | Categories Politics, 2008 Elections, Centrists, Race | | View blog reactions [...]
Whatever Biden’s political skills, he is extremely knowledgable about foreign policy, and came up with a key plan for Iraq, that many still consider a viable option. He might make a better Sec State or Sec Def than POTUS. I think he is just too honest to be a great politician, and would suffer under the increased scrutiny of the presidency.
Not sure if anyone here saw Biden on The Daily Show the other night, but he did say that instead of the word “clean” that “fresh” would’ve been more appropriate (as in fresh face, fresh new ideas, etc.). It’s sad that on the one hand we want a politician to tell it like it is but then blast them when they do so.
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