Tuesday Night Open Thread
10 hours ago
Showing posts with label Joe Biden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Biden. Show all posts
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Colin Powell Endorses Barack Obama
This is big news. Former Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama for President:
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell announced Sunday that he will break with his party and vote for Sen. Barack Obama. "He has both style and substance. I think he is a transformational figure," Powell said on NBC's Meet the Press.
"I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities -- and you have to take that into account -- as well as his substance -- he has both style and substance," Powell said. "He has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president."
Powell noted that McCain has been a good friend for 25 years, but expressed disappointment in the negative tone of the GOP campaign, as well as in McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the vice presidential nominee.
"Now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president," Powell said. "And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made."
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Biden Condemns Palin for Not Denouncing Hate
Right on, Joe. Speaking on Good Morning America, Joe Biden condemned Sarah Palin for not immediately reacting to the vast upwelling of hatred unleashed in recent days among the Republican party faithful, brought on in large part by McCain and Palin's attempt to paint Obama as some kind of scary, foreign terrorist sympathizer:
Friday, October 3, 2008
Palin Performance Shows What You Can Get Away With
Joe Klein encapsulates a couple of my primary impressions from last night's Palin/Biden debate:
Sarah Palin's high-energy performance in the vice-presidential debate was the most glaring demonstration—since George W. Bush's performances in 2000—of how little you can get away with knowing and still survive one of these things, especially if the rules limit the cross-examination as severely as they did in this debate. Her relentless opacity was impressive. She refused to answer the questions where she hadn't been prepped with answers and when Biden pointed out that an early question had been on deregulation not taxes, she flashed: "I may not answer the questions the way you and the moderator want to hear, but I'm gonna talk straight to the American people."
Talk straight she didn't, with only a few exceptions. She talked talking points. And when the talking points concerned areas where she didn't know diddly, she didn't talk them very convincingly. Indeed, there were times I got the distinct impression that she didn't understand the points she was talking about (on the vice president's constitutional powers, for example).
Also:
The fact that Palin made it through the debate without running off the stage shouting, "I can't do this!" should not obscure the fact that there was only one person tonight whom anyone with any sense—even John McCain, I imagine—would trust as President. Biden's performance was strong and, happily, gimmick free. He used no gotcha soundbites, no consultant-driven silliness—a fact driven home by the lameness of Palin's snark lines like, "Say it ain't so, Joe" and—pace, Gipper—"There you go again, talking about the past"...
What [Palin showed] was some folksy charm and some energy—qualities that might get her selected for Dancing With the Stars, if not Jeopardy. But that's not enough to change the trajectory of this race, especially since nothing that was said in this debate will be remembered, or remarked upon, a week from now.
Sarah Palin Debate Flowchart Leaked!
Now we can understand how Sarah Palin got through last night's debate:
Morning Thoughts on the Biden/Palin VP Debate
Here are a few more thoughts about last night's VP debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, as initially relayed via an instant message exchange with a friend:
[friend]: how can some people think she won?i dont get itme: she has apotheosized the idea that you can just say and do whatever the fuck you want. don't hold press conferences... don't answer the questions posed to you... don't be bright or interested in world affairs.i expected a decent block of people to say she won. ultimately, 20% of the fucking country still thinks bush is the best thing since sliced bread! that's tens of millions of ignorant people!i also suspect that the viewership was disproportionately republican, as I suspect that a lot of nervous republicans were tuning in to see if palin would throw them some craven red meat. she partially delivered on that account. although, in the final analysis, its the storied 'undecided voter' who matters and i think that they were turned off, for the most part, by the end of the debate
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Polls Show Biden Won Debate By Large Margin
The numbers speak for themselves:
A CNN poll of Americans who watched the vice presidential debate shows that most felt Sen. Joe Biden beat Gov. Sarah Palin, 51% to 36%.
A CBS News/Knowledge Networks poll of uncommitted voters show Biden winning 46% to 21% with 33% calling it a draw.
Palin/Biden Debate Reactions
I am too emotionally drained to write much of anything myself right now. The long and the short of it is this. Palin didn't implode. She avoided nearly every question the moderator put to her. She read off notecards repeatedly. She repeated platitudes and forced her way into folksiness too many times. She explicitly argued for the expansion of the powers of the Vice Presidency. Seriously. The moderator was terrible and had no fortitude to keep Palin to the issues. I think Joe Biden gave a solid performance and caught himself before he could embellish or exaggerate. Ultimately, she didn't fail as tremendously as most expected (I didn't think she would). In the final analysis, I think she did fine by her base but my educated guess is that she did poorly with average run-off-the-mill undecideds.
Here is a debate reaction roundup from Andrew Sullivan:
Ifill, moderator: Terrible. Yes, she was constrained by the agreed debate rules. But she gave not the slightest sign of chafing against them or looking for ways to follow up the many unanswered questions or self-contradictory answers. This was the big news of the evening. Katie Couric, and for that matter Jim Lehrer, have never looked so good.
Palin is reading off cue-cards that, one assumes, have complete answers written out. Not, of course, the answers to the questions she is being asked but, indubitably, answers nonetheless.
Palin wins on domestic; Biden wins on foreign policy. But Palin’s relative strength here can’t do much, I don’t think, to help McCain’s basic disadvantage on the main domestic issue — the economy.
Any conservative who was white-knuckled going into this is relaxing by now. There were some points where she was a bit more platitudinous than one would ideally want, but overall--she's cleaning up. Biden is sighing more as the night goes on, and I can see why.
Palin: people aren’t looking for more of the same. Does she know which side she’s on? Biden: McCain’s not a real maverick! As they start to wrap up, I will admit that Palin has avoided disaster. Biden has put in a pretty successful performance. My guess is that Biden will come off as the clear winner in the eyes of viewers, but it will not be as lopsided as her critics expected.
Seems that Palin kept talking about General McLellan when she meant General McKiernan. That's the sort of thing that might stick. Meanwhile, Palin says she loved being able to get up here and answer these tough questions without the "filter of the mainstream media." Weird that she used her closing statement so defensively. But whatever: Good for her. She should give up on politics and get a talkshow. Otherwise, she should learn how to answer the press's questions.
I think a visitor from Mars watching this debate would have been struck by the fact that Sarah Palin could barely get a paragraph out without mangling what she was trying to say. Conversely, a veteran of the Katie Couric Interviews would be struck by the fact that Palin’s errors weren’t so egregious that you were left totally baffled as to what she was trying to say. But I don’t actually think this stuff is all about expectations. If Palin had some kind of substantial record on or background in national issues, I don’t think anyone would find this performance especially terrifying. But if you already had some serious doubts about her, I think she scarcely put those doubts away.
My quick take is that Palin passed a pass-fail test, though she flagged as the debate went on. Though she was chosen for her emotion connection, she was the drier of the two candidates. But if the central worry was that she'd be a drag on the ticket, she likely returned herself to the same status as Biden and every other running mate in memory: Not, ultimately, a major factor at the polls.
I think Palin is giving a cosmetically strong performance so far, but on the substance it's a horrorshow.
Meanwhile, note her extremely heavy reliance on notes--up to three or more glances per answer. At moments during her Afghanistan exchange she seemed to be reading directly from them.
I can't tell you who won. I thought, though, as the debate wore on Biden really put on the pressure. They seemed even early, I guess with an edge to Palin. But you can't keep repeating the same talking points.
After running ahead for most of the debate, the Sarah Palin has now fallen narrowly behind on most of the analyst scoring. Suspect last impressions are most important. I sure can't remember what we were talking about an hour ago.
Sarah Palin just field dressed Joe Biden like a moose. She was awesome. She connected with the people. She had fun. She was relaxed. She was awesome.
Averaging expectations, style and points, it was a wash. Partisans have reason to be satisfied; I honestly have no idea how undecided voters will react (although CBS's panel of them gave Biden an edge.) ...To practiced ears, Palin memorized and repeated talking points and Biden responded to the questions and argued. Palin dodged questions and seemed vague; but then again, for those whose only impression of Palin has been the one Tina Fay performed on Saturday Night Live, she cleared the bar. Biden seemed a little unsure how tough to be at the beginning of the debate; by the beginning of the final third, he hit his stride. As the debate wound on, Palin seemed less agile when it came to constructing sentences and answers. Lots of key phrases, weird placement of conjunctions, so the gist of what she was saying was there, but it wasn't terribly clear.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Alaskans Favor Joe Biden Over Sarah Palin for VP
A new poll out shows that Alaskans prefer Joe Biden as a VP choice over Sarah Palin:
Alaskans believe, by 43 to 37 percent, that Joe Biden has the better background and experience to be vice-president, and by 44 to 32 percent, that Biden is better prepared to handle an unexpected international crisis... If this is how Alaskans feel, what about the rest of the country?
Friday, September 19, 2008
Paying Taxes During Wartime Is Patriotic
As I've pointed out before, Bush's tax cuts earlier this decade were the first time in American history that the American government cut taxes in a time of war. Let me repeat, tax cuts during wartime never happened before in our history.
So, when you hear about Joe Biden out there on the stump talking about how it is the patriotic thing to do to reset tax rates for those making over $250,000 to the levels they were before the highly irresponsible Bush tax cuts, bear this in mind:[T]he idea that paying more taxes during war is an act of patriotism has quite a long and distinguished history in this country. During the Civil War, Representative Thaddeus Stevens--then chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee--said that "the annihilation of this government is the alternative" to increased taxation. To finance World War II, FDR actually proposed a tax that would have effectively capped incomes at $25,000 (or about $300,000 in today's dollars).
Check out the patriotism of taxes in this Donald Duck cartoon from WWII:
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Joe Biden on Meet the Press
Watching Joe Biden just now talk in detailed and nuanced terms about the domestic and geopolitical realities of Iraq and its impact on the region just blows my mind when thinking about the potential contrast with what the same interview would look like if the interviewee were Sarah Palin. Will the media ask her the hard questions if she ever deigns to emerge from her fortress of solitude and do an interview? Will they get into the hard details and ask her anything more than "Do you think the surge worked"? I wonder...
Here's the video of part of his interview. See the rest of his interview by clicking here.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Biden En Fuego!
For any of you who still haven't appreciated the awesome attack-dog qualities Joe Biden brings to the ticket, check out this video:
(h/t Purple State)
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Reactions to Clinton, Kerry and Biden Speeches
From The Daily Dish
Crowley on Clinton:
...that was full-throated, sincere-sounding, and sophisticated case for his wife's former mortal rival. He didn't even mount a touchy retroactive defense of his record fom the 1990s, which I had somewhat expected. I predict a wave of, "Oh, Bill, how can we stay mad at you?" commentary in the coming days.
I was feeling sorry for John Kerry having to follow Bill Clinton in the speaking lineup, but he electrified the audience as I have never seen him do before. As Scherer just said to me: Zell Miller without the mean.
Bill Clinton gave two speeches tonight. He closed with the stronger one, namely that the GOP doesn't deserve to be rewarded for the past 8 years. That argument works because it's fundamentally true in many ways. But he began with a speech endorsing Barack Obama, and that was, well, embarrassing...What he showed tonight is that even one of the best salesmen in the Democratic Party can't make the case for President Obama.
Bill Clinton's speech rightfully grabbed attention, but John Kerry's appearance--interrupted by a commercial break on CNN--was the best stab the Democrats have taken towards establishing something they've desperately needed: A master narrative for understanding John McCain.
It was striking that Bill Clinton never uttered the words "John McCain." Four years ago, that steady insistence on retaining the robes of the presidency, levitating an inch or two above the fray, made sense. It was Clinton choosing a particular, and honorable, path that forever defined him as an ex-president rather than an ex-candidate. But after heatedly involving himself in the Democratic primary, after often attacking Barack Obama by name, it seemed peculiar that he would hold that portion of himself in reserve. Four years ago, Clinton wasn't a campaigner. This year, he was.
John Kerry is whining. He isn’t helping Obama. He just used “swift-boating” as a verb. Now he’s droning on about having been criticized as an anti-war protestor. [sic] They should have kept him as far away from a podium as possible.
Bill Clinton gave the strongest, most compelling, and persuasive political speech of this entire season. He has upstaged Biden, but that doesn’t matter...Here is a sign that things don’t look promising: as soon as the speech was over, Sean Hannity of Fox News started whining about why Clinton was not staying for Obama’s Thursday night speech. This is a speech that needs to be refuted, not complained about.
Joe Biden: Heartwarming and Tough - Video
Great speech from Joe Biden tonight. He took a little bit to get warmed up but had a great series of barbs for McCain.
Here is the video:
Here is the transcript.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Biden Chosen as VP
I am on vacation this week so my posts may be intermittent. I just saw that Obama picked Joe Biden for his VP. I think its a good choice although I haven't really been too worked up over the whole VP thing recently. I'm sure he'll do well.
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