Biden 2008: End Malarky in Our Time!

David Weigel | January 31, 2007

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden is finally, finally in the presidential race.

Today, when the Delaware Democrat announces his second run for the Oval Office, the process will be, well, different.

No rally.

The candidate will barely even be in his home state.

But in true cyberage style, today should provide Biden with plenty of national exposure, including the debut of his campaign Web site and an appearance on, of all networks, Comedy Central.

This isn't as much of a departure as you think: 2004/2008(/2012?) candidate John Edwards announced his campaign on Comedy Central, too.

I stand by my judgment that Biden is the essential Democrat, and the most serious/credible/loveable candidate the party can put up against the Giuliani/Brownback ticket.

Comments

|1.31.07 @ 10:22AM|#

Wow, it was only July 14 when David was writing that Democrats who want to the end the Iraq War won't be politically viable in the 2008 election. They come across as too wimpy, you see.

Things changed very fast last summer and fall.

|1.31.07 @ 10:22AM|#

I'd agree, except it is reported that he just called Jackson, Sharpton, Braun, and Keyes inarticulate, stupid, dirty, and mean looking.

from Drudge:

SEN. BIDEN SHOCK INTERVIEW

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

|1.31.07 @ 10:29AM|#

joe, I guess the line you're referring to is they can't argue for a speedy withdrawal without sounding like they'd take a dive whenever Islamofascists rear their heads and shout "jihad."

I'd argue that David's description is still mostly correct. Most Democrats (not Kucinich)are still tripping all over themselves to explain how they want a withdrawal, but not a precipitous withdrawal, while keeping what the difference between the two might be extremely vague. And that's for a primary audience; in the gen elect they would be even more circumspect.

Of course, by the time we get to the general election things will probably have gotten so bad over there that nobody will care about anything but getting our boys out.

David Weigel|1.31.07 @ 10:33AM|#

Brian's right, and that's the reason I was so tongue-in-cheek about the terrorist threat ("Islamofascists rear their heads"). The Democrats are still hilariously yellow-bellied on the issue.

SIV|1.31.07 @ 10:34AM|#

Joe Biden has a %100 rating from the animal rights PACs.

Kiss your foie gras goodbye!

|1.31.07 @ 10:36AM|#

I guess you didn't see Obama's bill. Or Feingold's. Or Kennedy's.

|1.31.07 @ 10:37AM|#

What Cab does not understand is that Biden is a Democrat, meaning that while a GOP-er's career would already be over, Biden has a fighting chance that the MSM will a) not cover extensively, or b) explain away, his comments.

|1.31.07 @ 10:40AM|#

I see his shirt has a nice wide cuff to keep his notes on.

|1.31.07 @ 10:44AM|#

Aresen,

That style of cuffs used to be called French cuffs, but they're now called Freedom cuffs in most political circles.

|1.31.07 @ 10:45AM|#

Bubba, don't forget Biden's infamous "you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent."

|1.31.07 @ 10:46AM|#

Biden's new nickname: Senator N. F. Chance

VM|1.31.07 @ 10:50AM|#

Yeah - but check out Biden's platform:

It's pretty cool.

Flat tax
Roll back legislation to allow market forces to act in environmental issues
Explore the legalization of m.j.
Strong support of the 2nd Amendment







(in case you realized that I wasn't using Joe's words, that's not a problem. He once had a history of not using his words, either.)

Will be here all week. Try the waitress. Tip the fish. ba dum boom.

|1.31.07 @ 10:51AM|#

Bubba,

I don't know about the corporate-owned media, but Biden's quote is all over the liberal blogs.

Sen. Biden (D-Toast)

|1.31.07 @ 10:51AM|#

Supports my point, Cab: Biden suffered little or no scrutiny from the MSM on this.

Compare what happens to Biden to the immediate firestorm from Trent Lott's stupid utterance.

|1.31.07 @ 10:54AM|#

Good point Joe, but the liberal/conservative blogosphere alone generally does not have the juice to move a story by itself.

Texas Air National Guard memos notwithstanding.

|1.31.07 @ 11:00AM|#

Is Neil Kinnock still ghostwriting his speeches?

And am I the only one who still remembers when that guy on "Teen Jeopardy" called him 'Joe "XEROX" Biden' for his Final Jeopardy question?

Warren|1.31.07 @ 11:02AM|#

Biden? Hmmm, Biden... Biden... Oh right Joe Biden. Is he still around?

Meh, I'd say he'd be less destructive than the alternatives, but I said that about GWB in 2000.

Don't blame me, I vote Libertarian.

|1.31.07 @ 11:14AM|#

Bubba,

Your memory fails you. There was no "immediate firestorm" about Lott's comments. Big Media ignored them. Then some bloggers - Sullivan, National Review, and Atrios if memory serves - made noise about them for a few days, and THEN the broadcast media jumped on the story.

I'm not saying this will definitely happen to Biden - his comments weren't nearly as bad as Lott's - but they'll certainly become known to the Democratic base.

Joshua Foust|1.31.07 @ 11:23AM|#

I think alongside Biden, in terms of credible Democratic candidates, would have to be Bill Richardson. He isn't nearly as well-known, but he has an appropriate range of experience.

|1.31.07 @ 11:56AM|#

why why why?
Why does this guy think he can run?

Biden wrote off his '08 chances with his, um, impaired yet loquacious performance at John Roberts confirmation hearings.

lunchstealer|1.31.07 @ 11:56AM|#

Meh, I'd say he'd be less destructive than the alternatives, but I said that about GWB in 2000.

Yeah, I pretty much stopped saying anything like that about anybody by, oh say, March 2002.

|1.31.07 @ 12:08PM|#

"But could any of them have dressed it up with such a blend of centripetal vacuity and Naked and the Dead machismo?"

The machismo bit is an attempt to overcome the anti-gun image Democrats have. Biden is so full of himself that any diet he went on would have to include coverng up the mirrors.

|1.31.07 @ 12:17PM|#

Your Delaware chauvinism is showing, Weigel.

My God, if there's one thing I can't stand about Delawareans, it's their insufferably smug self-superiority. In the history of the universe, has there ever once been a race of men who love themselves with the unremitting ardor of Delawareans?

To ask the question is to answer it.

|1.31.07 @ 12:23PM|#

monkeylicious

To be fair to the Democrats, it's hard not to feel superior to the likes of Reagan, Nixon, Ford, and Bush. If the Republican party weren't such a coven of morons and wingnuts, Democrats wouldn't feel or look so hot.

|1.31.07 @ 12:25PM|#

monkeylicious

Sorry I read "Democrats" instead of "Delawareans." It's too early in the morning.

|1.31.07 @ 12:30PM|#

Oh, we all know that all of those Wilmington money men are poised to put Biden in the WH.

|1.31.07 @ 12:44PM|#

ChrisO,

You seem to think that's a joke. Ever check the mailing addresses on your credit card bills?

The money men from Wilmington would love to see the Senator from MBNA in the White House.

|1.31.07 @ 12:59PM|#

He once had a history of not using his words, either.

My co-worker showed me the Drudge thing about Biden referring to Obama, and my reaction was to ask why the heck do we still hear anything about this guy? I think I was 14 or 15 years old when he was busted for plagiarism in his speeches. Naive little boy that I was, I thought his political career was over then.

|1.31.07 @ 1:27PM|#

"You seem to think that's a joke. Ever check the mailing addresses on your credit card bills?"

I was only half-joking, joe. I'm well aware of the banking industry's #1 home address. Just making a bit of a play on the "New York money men" thing that's been going around lately.

You ever been to Wilmington? You'd think that all of those rich bankers would want to live in a nicer-looking town.

David Weigel|1.31.07 @ 1:46PM|#

You ever been to Wilmington? You'd think that all of those rich bankers would want to live in a nicer-looking town.

This is treason. Wilmington is the finest city of 60,000 to 80,000 people in the United States of America, with a historic downtown mashing seamlessly into the beautiful, rebounding waterfront. It is a good place to live, to learn, to grow - to die.

|1.31.07 @ 1:52PM|#

Ah-ha! The real truth comes out - Weigel is actually a shill for Wilmington, DE.

|1.31.07 @ 2:00PM|#

Ah, a DEmocrat.

|1.31.07 @ 3:16PM|#

Newark, on the other hand, had a curse put on it by Edgar Allen Poe because he hurt himself tripping over the steps of the Deer Park....

|1.31.07 @ 3:29PM|#

"Ah-ha! The real truth comes out - Weigel is actually a shill for Wilmington, DE."

Actually, I think he's referring to Wilmington, NC.

|1.31.07 @ 4:30PM|#

Hmmm. I guess Joe was just Biden his time.

|1.31.07 @ 5:36PM|#

"Cyberage." Is that pronounced like "overage"?