Biden, His Time?

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by Eric Martin

I’m with K-Drum, this is good Biden:

Eight years ago, a man ran for President who claimed he was different, not a typical Republican. He called himself a reformer. He admitted that his Party, the Republican Party, had been wrong about things from time to time. He promised to work with Democrats and said he’d been doing that for a long time.

That candidate was George W. Bush. Remember that? Remember the promise to reach across the aisle? To change the tone? To restore honor and dignity to the White House?

….Eight years later, we have another Republican nominee who’s telling us the exact same thing: This time it will be different, it really will. This time he’s going to put country before party, to change the tone, reach across the aisle, change the Republican Party, change the way Washington works.

We’ve seen this movie before, folks. But as everyone knows, the sequel is always worse than the original.

Let’s see if the media covers this, or any other Biden appearance for that matter.  I wouldn’t bet on it.  Likely, the media will continue riding its Palin-crush, leaving concerned Obama supporters to ask, plaintively, "Where’s Biden been?"  In truth, he’s been out on the campaign trail talking about – gasp – substance and issues.  Silly Joe.  Unlike us bloggers, journalists are too serious to talk about such banalities.  Better to spend countless hours on lipstick, hockey and moose hunting.  You know, the important criteria for selecting the most powerful leaders in the world. 

36 thoughts on “Biden, His Time?”

  1. I’ve seen Biden speak on CNN once or twice. They always cut him off right as he’s getting the crowd rolling. Funny how that happens, eh?
    People couldn’t shut up about speculating over the Democratic VP nominee until the nominee was picked and it turned out not to be named Hillary Clinton. In fact, I think Hillary has received more attention than Biden since the convention by an order of magnitude or two. The only time Biden did score any major political coverage was when he mentioned Hillary Clinton by name and suggested she would be as good a VP if not better. And then the coverage went right into speculation on sexism and how people within certain circles have been so mean to poor non-nominee Hillary.
    *gag* It really is enough to make you sick.

  2. They will cover it about as much as Obsidian Wings will post about the Democratic “Culture of Corruption. From Fannie, Freddie to Lehman…
    Anyone care to guess the big recipient of Lehman dollars?
    Clinton, Hillary S NY D $409,980 $3,000 $406,980
    Obama, Barack S IL D $395,574 $0 $395,574
    Meet #1 and #2
    Buying off democratic politicians… priceless.
    Btw, I’m still waiting the post calling for Rangel’s resignation. I bet if he was a Republican the posts would be coming daily. Some corruption is good other is bad.

  3. Joe Biden? I kinda recall that the Democratric guy…wait, wait..don’t tell me his name…Oh, yeah Obama… picked him for VP or something. Is that right?

  8. I don’t mind the coverage of the Palin/mcCain ticket. The emergent theme(liars!) is accurate and good for us. She’s getting the vetting from the press that McSame didn’t bother with, which will in the end be to our advantage. Biden is very good and his message is probably getting betyter play in local markets than in the national one.
    I’m still worried about the help Palin gives to poor old John, but the polls are turning our way and her approval rating has dropped seventeen points in the last three days…so I’m OK with the media continuing to perseverate on her for awhile.

  9. Anyone care to guess the big recipient of Lehman dollars?
    Clinton, Hillary S NY D $409,980 $3,000 $406,980
    Obama, Barack S IL D $395,574 $0 $395,574
    Meet #1 and #2
    Buying off democratic politicians… priceless.
    That’s a great point. Look how great a return Lehman got for those dollars, instead of having the senior management being drawn and quartered, as was the Republican position, they only had to file for bankruptcy…. Priceless.

  10. I’d say Lehman figured that a Democrat will win in November and donated accordingly. (You’ll see the same party shift in corporate contributions to congressional candidates as well.) Funny, that — let’s not confuse cause and effect here.

  12. Anyone care to guess the big recipient of Lehman dollars?-treeme
    Those are donations from individual employees, you asshat. Obama’s received donations from lots and lots and lots of individuals.
    Better trolls, please.

  13. Unlike us bloggers, journalists are too serious to talk about such banalities.
    No, actually Andrew Sullivan had a letter from a reader the other day that was spot-on about how the GOP (they said, “Rove,” but it really could be Steve Schmidt or any of the McCain campaign staff) has been playing the left blogosphere like a fiddle. The blogs rant and rave about how terrible McCain and Palin are and drown out Obama and Biden’s message.
    I think that pretty much nails it. Now, it’s fine to call lies lies, and it’s fine to occasionally stoke the outrage against McCain for the kind of campaign he’s running. But the narrative has been all about McCain and Palin since the VP announcement the day after the DNC! And it’s the liberal blogs that are failing to counter the narrative, that’s part of the problem.
    Stepping back, and off my high horse…. I’m violating my own belief that people should have the right to write about whatever interests them. But the fact of the matter is, Palinpalooza sells ads on the liberal blogosphere, and apparently Joe Biden’s policy speeches don’t.

  17. Gist of the piece I linked above, for those who don’t want to wade through the fluff at the beginning of the article (she does work for Newsweek):
    Biden has virtually no press coverage (my classmate was one of SEVEN reporters. Seven) nationally, but locally it’s pretty big (he made a stop in my city, St. Louis, recently and it was a big story). Obama’s folks claim to be fine with that, which would track with their general local-over-national emphasis.

  19. But the fact of the matter is, Palinpalooza sells ads on the liberal blogosphere, and apparently Joe Biden’s policy speeches don’t.
    Even for the internet, that’s remarkably preposterous.
    (1) How many liberal blogs are there that are self-financing through ad revenue? Darn few . . .
    (2) Look around you, do you see any ads?

  20. I’ve been loving what Joe Biden’s been bringing. If you’re one of the “where’s Biden been?” crowd, you haven’t been paying attention. Or you’ve been hoping cable news will get it out-always a bad move.

  21. “That candidate was George W. Bush. Remember that? Remember the promise to reach across the aisle? To change the tone? To restore honor and dignity to the White House?”
    Yup. I also recall a Medicaid drug benefit, and immigration ‘reform’, both cases where Bush worked with Democrats over the vehement objections of his own party. Would have been a lot more of that, I suspect, if you guys hadn’t gotten to outraged about Florida that you wouldn’t work with him.
    For which my profound thanks, BTW.

  23. Agreed, it was pathetic, but you guys did it anyway. For which, as I say, my thanks. This would be a very different country if the Democratic party weren’t so frequently self-defeating; God knows the Republicans can’t manage it without your help.

  24. Would have been a lot more of that, I suspect, if you guys hadn’t gotten to outraged about Florida that you wouldn’t work with him.
    Yeah. The Bush administration was so eager to work with Democrats, that 3 days after Bush was inaugurated, the Bush administration began its first “lie to the media about the Democrats” campaign. The White House vandal scandal that wasn’t.
    At the time, early 2001, this just looked like a disgusting piece of petty revenge. You have to wonder now, given the strategy used that we were to see repeated again and again – an unsourced “leak” to a trusted beltway journalist, followed by press briefings that didn’t quite lie but never actually told the truth, backed up by more leaks from unnamed “Bush aides” – if this was just a trial run to see what the media would let the Bush administration get away with.

  25. And, moving past Brett’s pathetic and pointless attempt to blame the Democrats, Google News gives me figures:
    If I google Joe Biden, I get 240 occurrances of “If you’re ready for four more years of George Bush, John McCain is your man”.
    If I google Sarah Palin, I get 768 occurrences of “Let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side”.
    If I google Barack Obama, I get 1991 occurrences of “I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to……one that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down”.
    (If I google John McCain, the Google News quote at the top is “He’s very eloquent,” … “it was the wrong thing to say” – which is in reference to the McCain’s campaign’s claim that “lipstick on a pig” is a sexist attack by Obama on Palin – 241 occurances.)
    Interesting set of data, isn’t it?

  26. This would be a very different country if the Democratic party weren’t so frequently self-defeating
    once again, Brett brings the tu quoque. the GOP is never to blame, it’s always the Dems.

  27. Is Brett talking about the Medicaid drug benefit for which the Administration simply outright lied about the projected costs, then tried to blame the Democrats for the bill being more expensive than expected? That Medicaid drug benefit?

  28. This Medicaid Drug Benefit?
    The number of lawmakers who said they were voting for the legislation with misgivings was striking. In the end, the bill passed the House, but only after the roll call vote was held open three hours while Republican leaders muscled together a majority. The bill passed the Senate more comfortably, although most Democrats, including Mr. Kennedy, voted against it.

  30. I also recall a Medicaid drug benefit, and immigration ‘reform’, both cases where Bush worked with Democrats over the vehement objections of his own party. Would have been a lot more of that, I suspect, if you guys hadn’t gotten to outraged about Florida that you wouldn’t work with him.
    Wait, Florida was after the Medicare drug benefit and immigration reform?

  31. Even for the internet, that’s remarkably preposterous.
    (1) How many liberal blogs are there that are self-financing through ad revenue? Darn few . . .
    (2) Look around you, do you see any ads?
    I’m referring to the high-volume blogs I read such as Drum, Benen, Marshall, etc.
    In any case, motivation of the bloggers aside, that doesn’t change the big picture. Democratic bloggers blog about Palin. Democratic bloggers don’t generally blog about Biden’s stump speeches.
    You may find my statement about advertisers idiotic, but don’t lose sight of the point. The left blogosphere is *deciding* to cover McCain and Palin more than Obama/Biden’s policy speeches.

  32. The left blogosphere is *deciding* to cover McCain and Palin more than Obama/Biden’s policy speeches
    Yeah, but are you really suggesting that the left blogospher could change national attention?
    What do you think the effect of Palin coverage in left blogosphere is having on actual voter trends?
    Meaning: If you combine Atrios, Drum and Benen, how many viewers do they reach? And what is the composition of the audience?
    Compare that to, say, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and MSNBC.

  33. Eric,
    No, I agree 100% about the limitations of bloggers, especially among low-information voters. (And elections are pretty much decided by low-info voters, aren’t they?)
    If you look back to the line in your OP that I was responding to, you seem to be saying sarcastically that journalists are refusing to talk about substance, “Unlike us bloggers”. And I’m just saying that bloggers could do more to talk about substance too.
    Serious question: Granted that the public doesn’t read blogs, mostly, but do some journalists keep up with topics on the blogs?

  34. Fair enough.
    Serious question: Granted that the public doesn’t read blogs, mostly, but do some journalists keep up with topics on the blogs?
    Yes.
    If you look back to the line in your OP that I was responding to, you seem to be saying sarcastically that journalists are refusing to talk about substance
    The difference, I would submit, is that bloggers do both. When something like Palin comes up, we talk about Palin but we also talk about other things. It’s not like Benen or Drum or Atrios were dominated by Palin in the same way as the media.
    Even when discussing Palin, many blogs address her positions on important issues – and the impact that her governance style could have on the executive branch.

  36. Jes, “If I google Sarah Palin, I get 768 occurrences of “Let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side”.”
    Is, assuming a God, and assuming that God benign, is a quite reasonable thing to pray. It boils down to, “Let’s pray we’re doing the right thing.”

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