http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGRhNzJlMWY5NjdiNzhjMTRkYjMzNjYwOGJmYzNjMTY=
'Just Words' That Joe Biden Would Like To Forget
The curse of a loose mouth and Nexis.
By Jim Geraghty
The fun thing about an Obama-Biden ticket is that the McCain campaign
can point to a new awkward comment by Joe Biden - either on the
im****tance of experience, in praise of McCain, or in sup****t of invading
Iraq - that contradicts the stands and qualities of the Democratic
nominee for every day from now until Election Day.
ON MCCAIN:
Biden, on a post-debate appearance on MSNBC, October 30, 2007: "The only
guy on the other side who's qualified is John McCain."
Biden appearing on The Daily Show, August 2, 2005: "John McCain is a
personal friend, a great friend, and I would be honored to run with or
against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off, be
well off no matter who..."
On Meet the Press, November 27, 2005: "I've been calling for more troops
for over two years, along with John McCain and others subsequent to my
saying that."
ON OBAMA:
Reacting to an Obama speech on counterterrorism, August 1, 2007: "'Look,
the truth is the four major things he called for, well, hell that's what
I called for,' Biden said today on MSNBC's Hardball, echoing comments he
made earlier in the day at an event promoting his book at the National
Press Club. Biden added, 'I'm glad he’s talking about these things.'"
Also that day, the Biden campaign issued a release that began, "The
Biden for President Campaign today congratulated Sen. Barack Obama for
arriving at a number of Sen. Biden's long-held views on combating al
Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan." That release mocked Obama for asking
about the "stunning level of mercury in fish" and asked about a proposal
for the U.S. adopt a ban on mercury sales abroad at a Senate Foreign
Relations Committee hearing.
*****sing Obama's Iraq plan on September 13, 2007: "My impression is
[Obama] thinks that if we leave, somehow the Iraqis are going to have an
epiphany" of peaceful coexistence among warring sects. "I've seen zero
evidence of that."
Speaking to the New York Observer: Biden was equally skeptical - albeit
in a slightly more backhanded way - about Mr. Obama. "I mean, you got
the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and
clean and a nice-looking guy," he said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."
Also from that Observer interview: "But - and the 'but' was clearly
inevitable - he doubts whether American voters are going to elect 'a
one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate,' and added:
'I don't recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.'"
Around that time, Biden in an interview with the Huffington Post, he
*****sed Obama and Hillary Clinton: "The more people learn about them
(Obama and Hillary) and how they handle the pressure, the more their
sup****t will eva****ate."
December 11, 2007: "If Iowans believe campaign funds and celebrity will
fix the debacle in Iraq, put the economy on track, and provide health
care and education for America's children, they should sup****t another
candidate," said Biden for President Campaign Manager Luis Navarro. "But
I'm confident that Iowans know what I know: our problems will require
experience and leader****p from Day One. Empty slogans will be no match
for proven action on caucus night."
Also that night, Biden said in a campaign ad, "When this campaign is
over, political slogans like 'experience' and 'change' will mean
absolutely nothing. The next president has to act."
September 26, 2007: Biden for President Campaign Manager Luis Navarro
said, "Sen. Obama said he would do everything possible to end the war in
Iraq and emphasized the need for a political solution yet he failed to
show up to vote for Sen. Biden's critical amendment to provide a
political solution in Iraq."
December 26, 2006: "Frankly, I think I'm more qualified than other
candidates, and the issues facing the American public are all in my
wheelbarrow."
ON IRAQ:
Biden on Meet the Press in 2002, discussing Saddam Hussein: "He's a long
term threat and a short term threat to our national security...We have
no choice but to eliminate the threat. This is a guy who is an extreme
danger to the world."
Biden on Meet the Press in 2002: "Saddam must be dislodged from his
weapons or dislodged from power."
Biden on Meet the Press in 2007, on Hussein's WMDs: "Well, the point is,
it turned out they didn't, but everyone in the world thought he had
them. The weapons inspectors said he had them. He catalogued - they
catalogued them. This was not some, some Cheney, you know, pipe dream.
This was, in fact, catalogued."
Biden, on Obama's Iraq plan in August 2007: "I don't want [my son] going
[to Iraq]," Delaware Sen. Joe Biden said from the campaign trail
Wednesday, according to a re****t on Radio Iowa. "But I tell you what, I
don't want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years and
so how we leave makes a big difference." Biden criticized Democratic
rivals such as Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama who have
voted against Iraq funding bills to try to pressure President Bush to
end the war. "There's no political point worth my son's life," Biden
said, according to Radio Iowa. "There's no political point worth
anybody's life out there. None."
Biden on Meet the Press, April 29, 2007: "The threat [Saddam Hussein]
presented was that, if Saddam was left unfettered, which I said during
that period, for the next five years with sanctions lifted and billions
of dollars into his coffers, then I believed he had the ability to
acquire a tactical nuclear weapon - not by building it, by purchasing
it. I also believed he was a threat in that he was - every single
solitary U.N. resolution which he agreed to abide by, which was the
equivalent of a peace agreement at the United Nations, after he got out
of - after we kicked him out of Kuwait, he was violating. Now, the rules
of the road either mean something or they don't. The international
community says 'We're going to enforce the sanctions we placed' or not.
And what was the international community doing? The international
community was weakening. They were pulling away."
Biden to the Brookings Institution in 2005: "We can call it quits and
withdraw from Iraq. I think that would be a gigantic mistake. Or we can
set a deadline for pulling out, which I fear will only encourage our
enemies to wait us out - equally a mistake."
Analyzing the surge on Meet the Press, September 9, 2007: "I mean, the
truth of the matter is that, that the - America's - this
administration's policy and the surge are a failure, and that the surge,
which was supposed to stop sectarian violence and - long enough to give
political reconciliation, there's been no political reconciliation...
The reality is that, although there has been some mild progress on the
security front, there is, in fact, no, no real security in Baghdad
and/or in Anbar province, where I was, dealing with the most serious
problem, sectarian violence. Sectarian violence is as strong and as
solid and as serious a problem as it was before the surge started."
Biden in October of 2002: "We must be clear with the American people
that we are committing to Iraq for the long haul; not just the day
after, but the decade after."
On Meet the Press, January 7, 2007, *****sing the proposal of a surge of
troops to Iraq: "If he surges another 20, 30, or whatever number he's
going to, into Baghdad, it'll be a tragic mistake, in my view, but, as a
practical matter, there's no way to say, 'Mr. President, stop.'"
On Meet the Press, November 27, 2005: "Unless we fundamentally change
the rotation dates and fundamentally change how many members of the
National Guard we're calling up, it'll be virtually impossible to
maintain 150,000 folks this year." (The number of troops in Iraq peaked
at 162,000 in August 2007, during the surge.)
Having said all that: "There's something decent at the core of Joe
Biden." - Jim Geraghty, December 13, 2007
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