Since tomorrow is probably going to be wall-to-wall blogging about Glenn Beck’s Rubestock Festival in DC, I decided to skip Joe Biden’s convention speech and fast-forward to that fleeting Golden Hour of Wediditude that divided the Waning Light of the Bush Era from the Suffocating Nightfall of Palinism…if only for half a news-cycle.
Two years ago tonight, I wasn’t on Rumproast, so I can only conclude I was shaving the cats, out stealing yard signs or teaching my weekly ACORN class in Physical Intimidation & Document Forgery. But had I known Hillary Clinton was about to deliver the most impassioned endorsement of Barack Obama by any respected public figure, ever, I’d have popped a tape in the VCR and set the Signal Decoder to “Orange.”
Nothing sends wingnuts into an ear-splitting snit faster than a perceived slight to Ronald Reagan, whom they place at the right hand of Baby Jeebus for being somewhat less embarrassing in retrospect than either Bush. Jay Nordlinger over at NRO is reduced to insensate babbling by a remark from Vice President Biden:
It’s not often you hear Ronald Reagan bad-mouthed these days, even by people who hated him when he was alive and working. According to the pool reporter, Biden “pledged that if politicians will do what’s in the country’s best interest, America’s best days are ahead.” Biden then said, “That’s not Ronald Reagan sunshine in America. That’s literally, literally true.”
Sunshine in America, morning in America — whatever. (Maybe Biden was thinking of the “shining city on a hill,” too?) Nice to see that the Gipper can still get under their skin a little bit.
It’s pretty clear to me Biden meant “sunshine” in the “don’t pump sunshine up my skirt” sense, or, to employ another idiom, “don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.” But unlike Nordlinger, I don’t labor under an L. Ron Hubbard-sized portrait of Reagan and pine for a fresh round of Gipper golden showers. I guess that makes it easier to grasp the point of the remark.
Nordlinger goes on:
A final thing: Speaking to this insider group, Biden referred to the president as “Barack”: “Barack and I sat in on” this meeting. A tad bit condescending, I think. I wonder what he calls Obama one on one. Cheney, I believe, called George W. Bush “sir.”
I’m going to take a wild guess here and surmise that Biden calls the president “Barack.” And if Cheney did indeed call The Shrub “sir,” the patronization that dripped from the honorific would have been thick and sticky enough to seal a thousand gushing oil wellheads.
Nordlinger’s prissy parsing is another welcome sign that they got nuthin’. Nice to see that Joe can still get under their skin a little bit.
If you’d just care more about us I wouldn’t have to compare you to Nixon!
Srsly, how does this woman rate a syndicated column and a spot at the N.Y. Times? She devotes a full column to whining about how Joe Biden is so nice to the press (and after they were so mean to him in the past) and he even gave them a party (not that that counts for anything because they’re all too professional to tire swing be influenced by that or anything) but cranky Obama barely gives them the time of day JUST LIKE NIXON (oh, except for the numerous one-on-one interviews with EVERYONE BUT HER) but that’s not the point. He will ruin himself, simply ruin himself, in Washington if he doesn’t start pandering to her the Washington press as it is.
I hope, truly hope, that Barack is reading this AS I WRITE and taking it to heart.
I don’t know what’s wrong with kids today. Remember Joe Biden’s “It’s a big fuckin’ deal, man!” during the health care bill signing ceremony? I found it kinda endearing.
But some prissy little bastard in Kentucky (who describes himself as “A Concerned Christian Youth of Today’s America”) took offense and wrote an “open letter” to the veep. Here are a few excerpts:
Today is a sad day for my fellow Americans and me when such a powerful figure, such as yourself, could so loosely use the “F” word on national television. I know you have to understand the powerful influence you hold on children’s lives across the nation. As a junior in a public school in eastern Kentucky, it is hard enough to try to escape or get through the school day without hearing such perverse words from my own peers. However, to hear such a prominent man who helps hold our country in his hands blatantly use such a word makes me worry about my country’s morals and values.
[snip]
Many may say, I am so young what do I know? I know that I have grown up in a wonderful country that has tremendously changed throughout the years. Although I love the changes America has gone through with freedom, it frightens me to think of how weak Her morals and values are beginning to become. Vice-President Biden, you owe your fellow Americans, or at least its youth, an apology for the use of such an inappropriate word. I, for one, refuse to think that this is what has become of the English Language, especially when there are more powerful words and ways to get one’s point across.
Genuine good guy that he is, Biden actually sent a letter of apology to the squeamish little shit, saying, “I should have expressed my excitement in a more appropriate manner.”
The memorial service was very moving, and Obama’s appearance and eulogy were very well received in WV. I thought I heard someone yell “We love you, Obama” shortly after he finished. Yep [link updated with video/audio].
UPDATE: Photo of Obama walking out of the service with Linda Davis, the grandmother of deceased miner Cory Davis…
Scroll to 1:30 and tell me just exactly what the Brown-Haired Guy Who Isn’t Steve Doocy is doing in this clip. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I’m pretty damn sure it’s illegal.
Crank ‘em up. It’s mushy, but Biden either says “This is a big fucking deal” or “You broke my heart, Fredo” or “Today Marx stands vindicated by History.”
Yes, John Boehner announced today that Republicans intend to “crash the party” that Obama’s putting on this Thursday.
OK cool. But, um. Soooo. Didn’t President Obama very explicitly invite the Repubs to the Health Care Summit? So, I mean, how do you crash a party you’re invited to? Boehner goes on to say that they haven’t actually accepted any invitation yet.
Boehner explained that leaders are waiting for a response from White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to a letter they sent earlier this month that asked a series of questions on the bipartisan summit.
“It’s our intent to be there on Thursday. We’re waiting on a response and we’re hopeful that we’ll receive one soon,” Boehner explained.
So is not RSVP’ing, then showing up anyway, the new “party crashing”? But there’s no point in trying to decipher what he meant by any of this. It’s just more Republican silliness, joshing and shoving each other and shifting from one foot to the next because, truthfully, they don’t know how to handle this whole summit idea.
Dan Pfeiffer, writing on the White House website, couldn’t resist thumbing his nose a little over the failure of the Repubs to post their comprehensive solutions to the health care crisis. To which they responded “We did! We posted this!” Like, about, last October or something. And it’s the House Republicans *plan*, Senate Repubs not involved. But anyway it’s not as LONG as the stupid Dem/Pelosi Wicked Takeover plan.
Um, what’s that? You say “long” isn’t the issue any more? Oh yeah, that’s right. Now the Democrats plan is too short. Freaking bunch of Goldilocks, I swear.
But the people who brought us this health care plan are complaining that the White House proposal is too short?
* Number one: let families and businesses buy health insurance across state lines.
* Number two: allow individuals, small businesses, and trade associations to pool together and acquire health insurance at lower prices, the same way large corporations and labor unions do.
* Number three: give states the tools to create their own innovative reforms that lower health care costs.
* Number four: end junk lawsuits that contribute to higher health care costs by increasing the number of tests and procedures that physicians sometimes order not because they think it’s good medicine, but because they are afraid of being sued.
That plan’s palm sized, is what it is.
Expect lots more of this before Thursday. Bring popcorn.
Casual observers may believe Obama beat McCain because of things like effective organization, disgust with failed Republican policies, a VP candidate who wasn’t a booger-eating moron, etc. But the GOP poobahs know better: The party that transformed an addled, daddy-dependent, AWOL, prep-school cheerleader into Commander Codpiece understands the power of image.
Before McCain had even delivered his concession speech in 2008, the people who really run the GOP (hint: the money people, not the tea party yahoos, dittoheads, Paultards, etc.) identified the cause of the loss and were busily engaged in developing a new strategy.
Admit it: We were all worried when Obama chose the gaffe-prone Biden for the VP slot:
VANCOUVER - Former U.S. Olympians Peggy Fleming and Vonetta Flowers were slightly injured Sunday in a collision involving the van they were riding in as part of Vice President Joe Biden’s motorcade, Biden’s office said.
Luckily, Fleming and Flowers survived the latest Biden gaffe and were seen enjoying the games while seated near the Vice President and Second Lady after the incident.
I sure hope the rumors aren’t true about Hillary Clinton retiring and Biden taking over the State Department in a second Obama administration. Secretary of State Clinton, your country needs you: That next Biden gaffe could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.
A true creature of the Senate—back when “comity” was a trademark of that legislative body—Biden is famously loathe to “impugn a man’s motives” as Gregory points out. He comes close when he says he can understand Cheney’s impulse to “rewrite history.”
I’ll spell it out: Displaying a unique combination of cowardice and greed, Bush and Cheney panicked after 9/11 and then seized on the country’s understandable shock, grief and fear to lie us into a ruinous war with a nation that had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks, subvert the Constitution and breach the long-standing international agreements that formed the framework of our moral authority in the world.
The Bush administration ruled through fear-mongering for seven straight years, shamelessly upping the terror alert level to swing elections and playing the terror card at every opportunity. Cheney is afraid that if the citizens of this country ever come out from under their beds long enough to assess the damage he and Bush wrought, they will denounce them as the war criminals and inept, corrupt servants of the rich that they are.
That is Cheney’s motive. Obama can personally hog-tie Osama bin Laden and completely stamp out al Qaeda, and Cheney will continue to call him an effete weakling. It is the only card Cheney has ever had and the only one he will ever play. The only question is how long will he get away with it. Sadly, the answer seems to be forever.
Palin had a reflexive tendency to refer to Biden as “O’Biden,” [McCain campaign strategist Steve] Schmidt revealed. He says other people on the campaign staff came up with a solution. “It was multiple people—and I wasn’t one of them—who all said at the same time, ‘Just say, ‘Can I call you Joe?’’ which she did.”
p.s. How much do you think it’s killing Palin not to lash out at Schmidt on Facebook yet? I’m sure it’s driving her batshit insane to wait until after the 60 Minutes broadcast on Sunday to go for his throat, which she most certainly will.
