Joe Biden Said That?

An alert reader wrote in with a a video that breaks a long drought. The VP has been keeping a low profile recently, sadly... but he emerged recently and was interviewed on ABC. The question of Oscar nominees came up, and Biden's response was typically concise:

Q: Any favorites among the Oscar nominees? A: Yeah, as a matter of fact, we do, um, and uh, um, and I think that the, uh, one of the odds-on favorites (Jill didn't go with me), but, is, um, is uh, this uh, this new program that I looked at it and I wished I were seeing it in 3D, and you sit there and you watch this science fiction thing unfold in front of you, Avatar...

It's hard to capture the bumbling nuances in text. If you have a spare 45 seconds, you won't regret watching the video. It took some effort to pry that movie name out of him, but, there ya go.

An alert reader pointed me to this boston.com article discussing the upcoming elections. Happily for us a Biden quote from a recent Allegheny County Democratic Committee dinner made its way into the article. Apparently Biden first rejected Obama's overtures to be VP, but later changed his mind. Here's the narrative from Biden:

“A couple months later,’’ Biden said, Obama repeated the offer in a hotel room in Minneapolis. The senator looked at Obama and said, “Are you really committed to changing the course of this country?’’ “He reached out, shook my hand and said, ‘I am.’ ’’

You see? It's all about Joe Biden! This Obama fellow is just along for the ride! I'm glad we've got that straightened out.

Another item hot off the presses! Speaking at a October 2009 fundraiser in Alexandria, VA, Biden sounded optimistic. Or at least vaguely hopeful; here's the quote:

I hope to god you understand this race is winnable

Not to worry, though, he quickly recovered with:

I was told another good friend of mine running for governor in another state. They declared him dead two weeks ago. He is now ahead. We are going to win that race.

That's only fair - dead people have voted Democratic, so why can't a dead person receive Democratic votes?

Source: National Review's Mark Hemingway

This just in - hot off the presses from the LA Times! Biden was introducing several Democratic House candidates at a fundraiser in McLean, Virginia, and had a few words to say about them:

These guys are smart. Some of the guys Chuck (Robb) and I have campaigned for are turkeys. Not all Democrats are created equal, while most Republicans are.

It's been a long time since Biden has said something we can agree with. But yes, it's true, many of the Democrats for which he has compaigned are indeed turkeys.

An alert reader wrote in with the latest Bidenism. While speaking at the Brookings Institute (transcript) on Sep 3 2009, Biden was asked about stimulus spending and how to ensure it was spent wisely. He rambled on for quite a while and then said:

And I have not bent the law, but I have let imagination take hold in some places where I think it's consistent with the spirit of the law.

Maybe it'd be better just to obey the law, sir? He then followed up with this:

Is that the best way of saying that? Yes.

I think he meant "No". I hope!

Phil Walter pointed me to another Bidenism from the 2008 VP debate. Here's the quote from the transcript:

Look, we have spent more money -- we spend more money in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we spent on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan building that country.

The problem with this (thanks to Real Clear Politics for the numbers-gathering), is that it's way, way off. Specifically, we spend about $10B a month in Iraq, and (when he said this) the U.S. had spent a total of around $172B on Afghanistan. So he was off by an order of magnitude. Close enough for government work?

In August of 2009 (this month! hot off the presses!) Biden was in Chicago plugging the wonders of government-provided (i.e., rationed) health care. He had some words to say regarding the current percentages of Americans who are already experiencing the joys of centrally-planned medicine:

We provide about 50 percent of the health care already [...]

This is incorrect, of course. The government provides about a quarter of healthcare coverage via Medicare and Medicaid; two-thirds of Americans are covered by private insurers. Thanks to the News Virginian for the legwork on the numbers.

And thanks to VP Biden for making a speech! We here at joebidensaidthat.com were wondering when we'd get some fresher material. Not that there's not plenty of existing fodder from past speeches... all of which we'll continue to research, summarize, and provide here for your viewing pleasure.

Source: Abdon Pallasch at the Chicago Sun-Times

And now a classic that I've saved for a while. In early 2007 Biden was getting ready to announce his run for president, and what better way to do that than to comment on the other candidates? He had some kind words for then-Senator Barack Obama:

I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man.

And here's a video commentary on that quote with Biden's audio:

Gaffe-tastic! Everything was smoothed over quickly, although former black presidential candidates like Alan Keyes and Jessie Jackson were probably a bit annoyed. But this one ranks highly on the long list of Bidenisms.

Thanks to Jim Bass from Attack Machine for this one. During the VP debate from 2008, Biden was asked about the "Israeli-Palestinian conflict". He rambled for a bit (here's the transcript) and then let this loose:

When we kicked -- along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, "Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't know -- if you don't, Hezbollah will control it." Now what's happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel.

Here's the video; skip to around 1:08 for the good stuff:

Andy McCarthy at National Review asks the obvious question "Exactly when did this kicking occur? Has anyone alerted Sheikh Nasrallah?" McCarthy notes that not only did this never happen, and also that if Obama or Biden had proposed that NATO make such a move it would have driven their Leftist supporters bonkers.

It's a shame that Sarah Palin didn't call Biden on this one on the spot; that would have been devastating. Maybe next time!

Thanks to Michael Kriskey for this collection of Bidenisms. In May of 2009 Biden was giving a commencement address at Wake Forest University and let flow a variety of gems. Thanks to Michael for picking these out from the full transcript:

I believe so strongly, as you may recall when I was here in October, not in you particularly but your generation…

Hey, thanks much!

Folks, we’re either going to fundamentally change the course of history, or fail the generations that come after us, because change will occur. Non-action is action, unlike most generations.

Would that also make action non-action? Or maybe it's not symmetric?

There’s not a single issue on this President’s plate that will not yield a change — just merely by ignoring it, it will change.

Let's not bother electing anyone then!

When I graduated, all had not changed utterly yet. Today, it has. And in the last 12 to 15 years, a terrible beauty has been born. It’s a different world out there than it has been any time in the last millennia. But we have an opportunity to make it beautiful, because it is in motion.

Well hey, I'm inspired. Or at least confused. Joe Biden, ladies and gentlemen!