S O U T H E R N
A U T H O R
"A Play for Power"
... available at most every online bookstore!
Order here and save!
Every rodeo needs a clown...
... And the Obama rodeo has one in Vice President Joe Biden. He's a clown par excellence; a gaffe machine. Want proof? Here are the most laughable Biden lines from a political list on About.com:
"An hour late, oh give me a f**king break." - Joe Biden, caught speaking to a former Senate colleague after arriving on Amtrak at Union Station in Washington, D.C., March 13, 2009.
"Jill and I had the great honor of standing on that stage, looking across at one of the great justices, Justice Stewart." - Joe Biden, mistakenly referring to Justice John Paul Stevens, who swore him in as vice president, Washington, D.C., January, 20, 2009.
"Look, John's last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs." - Joe Biden
"A man I'm proud to call my friend ... a man who will be the next President of the United States, Barack America!" - Joe Biden, at his first campaign rally with Barack Obama.
"When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here's what happened.'" - Joe Biden, (apparently unaware that FDR wasn't president when the stock market crashed in 1929 and that only experimental TV sets were in use at that time)
"Stand up, Chuck, let ‘em see ya." - Joe Biden, to Missouri State Sen. Chuck Graham, who is in a wheelchair, Columbia, Missouri, September 12, 2008.
Pretty funny eh? But wait, there's more. Joe Biden is also chronic prevaricator, a pathological liar, a self-absorbed windbag. In that regard, he's a perfect fit for the Obama administration. Remember, during the campaign when Obama claimed that as an American soldier, one of his relatives "liberated Auschwitz"? In fact, Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Union's Red Army!
Here are a few of the better known lies that came from Joe Biden during the vice presidential debate:
AHMADINEJAD MEETING: Joe Biden lied when he said that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. Barack Obama did say that specifically and Joe Biden attacked him for it.
OPPOSING CLEAN COAL: Biden said he'd always been for clean coal. But he later told a voter that he is against clean coal and any new coal plants in America. He also has a record of voting against clean coal and coal in the U.S. Senate.
REGULATION: Biden falsely accused the GOP for weakening banking regulation - if fact, long before the meltdown, the GOP called for more regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
TAX INCREASES: Biden said under Obama, Americans earning less than $250,000 wouldn't see higher taxes, but the plan offered later by the administration raises taxes on individuals making $200,000 or more.
BAILOUT: Biden said the economic rescue legislation matches the four principles that Obama earlier laid out. In reality, it doesn't meet two of the four principles outlined on September 19, which were that it include an emergency economic stimulus package, and that it be "part of a globally coordinated effort with our partners in the G-20."
Perhaps Biden's most flagrant falsehood thus far is his story that his first wife and daughter were killed in 1972 in an auto accident caused by a drunk driver. According to writer Rachel Kipp of the Delaware News Journal who did the research, that story is a lie. DOT records prove that alcohol was not involved in the tragedy that wiped out Biden's family.
Throughout his career, Biden has inflated his accomplishments, embellished his credentials, stolen the words of others and even lied about the fundamentals of his life whenever he felt it would increase public sympathy and win him votes. He dropped out of the 1988 presidential race after being caught plagiarizing a speech by British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.
Then last Tuesday, during an interview on CNN, "Liar, liar pants on fire" Joe Biden had this to say:
"I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office, ‘Well, Joe,' he said, ‘I'm a leader.' And I said: ‘Mr. President, turn around and look behind you. No one is following.'"
A former top aide to President Bush said the exchange was purely fictional. "It didn't happen ... It's his imagination; it's a made-up, fictional world."
A spokesperson for the Bush White House also disputed a similar assertion made by Biden in 2004, when the former senator from Delaware told scores of Democratic colleagues that he had dressed down the president. "When I speak to the president - and I have had plenty of opportunity to be with the president ... the president will say things to me, and I'll literally turn to him and say: ‘Mr. President, how can you say that, knowing you don't know the facts?' And he'll look at me and he'll say - my word - he'll look at me and he'll say: ‘My instincts.' He said: ‘I have good instincts.' I said: ‘Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough.'"
That same spokesperson claimed Joe Biden was never alone with the president for more than few moments and there was staff in the room the whole time.
Folks, we all lie to ourselves about who we are. Heck, in my head, I replaced Joe Namath behind the center for the New York Jets; Coltrane on the tenor saxophone and Captain Sully Sullenberger on Flight 1549. But not wanting to play the fool, I never spoke those lies to anyone. Not so with Joe Biden. Joe Biden speaks every falsehood with the full faith and credit of all that's in him.
Some folks have compared Biden's propensity for lying with O.J. Simpson's. They say that in the same way OJ apparently convinced himself he didn't kill Nicole and Ron Goldman, Biden stands firm and straight faced behind his delusions and his fantasies.
As goofy as it sounds coming from me, all is not lost: every rodeo needs a clown and every administration needs a few good liars. The first one-hundred days have clearly shown that this administration has plenty of both.