David Harsanyi on Joe Biden's Latest Language Gaffe


While extolling the virtues of his son Beau in a recent speech, our Clouseau-esque vice president launched into one of his folksy populist rants. "When he was over there in Iraq for a year," Vice President Biden explained, "people would come to him and talk about what was happening to them at home in terms of foreclosures, in terms of bad loans that were being—I mean these Shylocks who took advantage of these women and men while overseas."
It's likely Biden didn't know Shylock had anything to do with Jews, writes David Harsanyi. So it's not a big deal—or, it's as big a deal as the dozens of stories we've had to endure about GOP gaffes. But is there any question that the repercussions for these sorts of mistakes are meted out asymmetrically? There is simply no way a Republican could get away with the buffoonery Biden peddles almost daily.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?