The NYTimes today has an op-ed feature asking various contributors for questions they'd like to put to the vice presidential candidates tonight. The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg turned in the following:
Senator Biden, you told me once that, shortly before the 2004 election, you advised John Kerry to respond harshly to a new Osama bin Laden videotape. You described the conversation this way: "I'm on the phone, I e-mail, I say, 'John, please, say three things': 'How dare bin Laden speak of our president this way.' No. 2, 'I know how to deal with preventing another 9/11.' No. 3, 'Kill him.'" You then threw up your hands in disgust and said of Senator Kerry, "He didn't make any of it. Let's get it straight. None of it."This story was entertaining, but it wasn't strictly accurate. It turned out that you did not, in fact, even speak with Senator Kerry until well after he had issued a vigorous denunciation of bin Laden. This episode is one of several in which you have appeared to exaggerate your importance. Recently, you spoke of being "shot at" in Iraq. This, too, turned out to be false. Why should voters trust you, after you have made so many provably embroidered assertions?
What does it say about a politician's character, or at least his mental state, that he makes up stuff? I'm serious. I don't think this is necessarily disqualifying of Biden -- I mean, if we tossed out politicians for lying or exaggerating, who'd be left? -- but Biden's behavior is very strange. Doesn't this bother you Obama voters?
(And please, don't respond by attacking Palin; you know I agree with you that she's not up to the v.p. job; stick to the question about Biden. I'll unpublish any responses that skip the Biden query and launch into a Palin attack.)
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Unfortunately he's also legendary for speaking impulsively and leaving others to clean up the mess. "He lacks the filter," says one Democratic strategist. Or as a senior Senate foreign policy aide put it: "Biden is an unguided missile." Not exactly the persona you want out front when the country is at war.
I believe I remember the Joe Biden character from Dr. Strangelove.
"The filter"? It used to be called "honesty".
"Or as a senior Senate foreign policy aide put it: "Biden is an unguided missile." Not exactly the persona you want out front when the country is at war."
You mean like we have had the past 7+ years?
Why are you (and Mr. Goldberg) assuming that these are totally made up, untrue accounts? I think this is a very far reach.
-------- The way I read Mr. Goldberg's quote of Biden, Biden said that he sent an e-mail to Kerry. (Why would he be sending an e-mail if he was already on the phone talking to the person?) Goldberg then says Biden didn't "talk" to Kerry until after Kerry issued a statement - and he doesn't say whether Kerry's statement included any of the 3 points Biden was stressing. Did anyone ask Kerry if Biden ever gave him that particular advice? I don't know, but simply on the basis of Goldberg's statement there is certainly no "provable embroidery" or falsehood.
-------- It's true that (so far as I know) no one ever intentionally aimed a gun or mortar at Sen. Biden in Iraq, but he hasn't said that they did. He was, however, at a location in or near the Green Zone when a shell landed very close by. Sen. Lindsay Graham was also there and also shaken by the incident, I believe. If you are that close to an exploding shell, I would imagine you might refer to the episode as being "shot at." --- This is not to be conflated (as has been done) with Biden's statement that a helicopter in which he, Sen. Kerry and Sen. Hagel were riding was "forced down." He has never claimed that it was forced down by enemy fire and in fact the one time I heard him reference it, he mentioned that it was at 10,000 feet, an unlikely location for snipers one would think. And when he was asked what forced the helicopter down, he responded - accurately - a snow storm.
Bottom line: if Sen. Biden routinely 'made up stuff' or had a questionable 'state of mind,' there is no way he would have the reputation and respect that he does after 30+ years in what is a rather small and very critical community, or representing a small and up-close and personal state. Contrary to your concern, I've always found his statements to be "true" if not precisely accurate. I know that sounds strange but take, for example, his recent inaccurate statement that FDR spoke to the people on TV in 1929 to explain what was going on with the economy. No, it wasn't in 1929 and no, it wasn't on TV -- BUT the central point he was making was valid and true: that, unlike our current president, FDR made direct contact with the public and explained in a way they could understand what was happening. Yes, that is embroidery or sloppiness about non-critical details --- but it's not a lie or even misleading. To try to raise these "gaffes" to the level of something that reveals unpleasant things about a man's character is not fair - or credible.
Contrast Biden's errors, if you would, to someone who insists that they looked at their debate opponent when there is video proof that they did no such thing --- or puts out an ad saying "Obama on Palin" while playing words that Obama spoke about his opponent's economic policy --- or claims that he has "frequently" consulted a person on policy matters when the person has no thoughts on policy and he's only known her for a month plus one brief meeting -- or any number of other examples. THOSE are the kind of things that make me question the integrity of a person and their state of mind. (Only because you said we couldn't am I omitting references to Palin's many manufactured facts and almost pathological lying.)
Having read the other comments, I would like to add two more clarifications:
-- Biden only said, on several occasions, that he had been *told* the other driver involved in his wife's death had been "drinking his lunch" and had no reason to doubt, and in fact believed it, until the other driver's family protested (only after the man's death). He has not mentioned that detail since learning that it was possibly untrue.
-- The 'plagarism' of Neil Kinnock was not plagarism. He took a particular "riff" ("Why am I the first Kinnock to go to university?" etc.) and filling in - accurately - details of his own life. On one occasion he failed to reference Kinnock in doing so and a tape of that was circulated among the press by a Dukakis staffer. There are at least five tapes of Biden using the same "riff" on previous occasions and expressly CITING Kinnock. (In these days of many videocams and YouTube the other tapes would have been up immediately; in 1988 it took a week or two to get evidence that it was his practice to cite Kinnock.) That is not plagarism; it is at most sloppiness or momentary forgetfulness. And there are many articles discussing the fact that it was not plagarism.
And isn't it interesting that after 30+ years in public life, the people responding here can only come up with the same two or three supposed misstatements? If you have been around people who are required to absorb a lot of information rapidly and speak about many different topics very frequently, I think you would find very similar skipping or muddling details.
What makes Biden stand out, I think, are the quite different times when he states very uncomfortable truths very boldly (the man caressing his automatic weapon "has a problem" - Obama is a "clean, articulate" person - there are many Indians and Pakistanis working in convenience stores - etc.) If it weren't for THOSE statements (which aren't in the least untrue) and the unjustified plagarism charge, no one would pay attention to the other things that have been mentioned.
I consider him, and have long considered him, to be one of the most *honest* politicians, whatever the Conventional Wisdom or commonly-accepted story may be. Nothing I've read here makes me question that conclusion. ---- Sadly, I used to put John McCain in that same category, but that isn't possible any longer.
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