excuse his french
eachers and scholars consider the unattributed use of someone else's words and ideas to be a very serious offense, but the public doesn't seem to mind much, at least when it comes to politics. The incidents of plagiarism and fabrication that forced Joe Biden to quit the 1988 presidential race have drawn little comment since his selection as Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate—just as revelations of plagiarism by Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin scarcely hurt their book sales. In 1987, before Biden quit the race, he called the incidents "a tempest in a teapot." Although most reporters disagreed then, at least enough to pursue the story, they seem now—perhaps jaded by two decades of scandal-mongering—to have come around to Biden's view.
But Biden's exit from the 1988 race is worth recalling in detail, because his transgressions far exceeded Obama's own relatively innocent lifting of rhetorical set pieces from his friend Deval Patrick, which occasioned a brief flap last February. Biden's misdeeds encompassed numerous self-aggrandizing thefts, misstatements, and exaggerations that seemed to point to a serious character defect. In some ways, the 1988 campaign—in which scandal forced not just Biden but also Gary Hart from the race—marked a watershed in the absurd gotcha politics that have since marred our politics and punditry. But unlike Hart's plight, Biden's can't be blamed on an overly intrusive or hectoring press corps. The press was right to dig into this one.
2. Creepy Joe http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/joe-bidens-woman-touching-
habit/article/2560311
3. Gaffe Blunder Joe
On Oct. 2, 2014, Vice President Biden, while speaking at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, touched off a diplomatic incident after he sounded off on U.S. allies in the fight against the Islamic State -- suggesting they heedlessly gave arms and money to extremists.
"The Turks ... the Saudis, the Emiratis, etc. What were they doing?" he said. "They were so determined to take down [Syrian President Bashar] Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war."
Biden afterward apologized to top officials in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
During the same event, Biden also replied to a question from a student who identified himself as the vice president of the student body. "Isn't it a b-tch?" Biden responded. "Excuse me...the vice president thing."
-- On Sept. 16, 2014, Biden, while speaking at an event in Washington, D.C., recalled how when his son was serving in Iraq, troops spoke about the tough housing market back home in the U.S. "People would come up to him and talk about what was happening to them at home in terms of foreclosures, in terms of bad loans ... I mean, these Shylocks who took advantage of these women and men while overseas."
Shylocks is considered an offensive term for Jews by some groups. Biden later apologized for the remarks.
-- On Aug. 14, 2012, Biden told a Virginia crowd, Mitt Romney's plan would "put y'all back in chains."
-- On April 26, 2012, Biden tried to riff on President Theodore Roosevelt's famous quote “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far," by saying, "I promise you, the president has a big stick. I promise you."
-- On Aug. 1, 2011, as a follow up to Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle suggesting that dealing with Tea Party and fiscal conservatives was like negotiating with terrorists, Biden reportedly piled on by saying, “They have acted like terrorists.”
-- On June 26, 2010, Biden called the manager of a custard shop outside of Milwaukee a "smartass" after the man asked him to lower taxes. Biden made the comment after the Kopp’s Frozen Custard shop manager told him that his dessert would be on the house if he lowered taxes. "Why don’t you say something nice instead of being a smartass all the time?" Biden said a few minutes later.
-- On March 23, 2010, an open microphone caught Biden saying, "This is a big f---ing deal" to President Obama during a Washington signing ceremony for the president's health care law.
-- On July 16, 2009, Vice President Biden gave a blunt summation of the administration's approach to stimulus spending: "People, when I say that, look at me and say, 'What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?" he said at a stop in Virginia. "The answer is yes."
-- On July 5, 2009, in an interview with ABC's "This Week," Biden conceded that the White House team "misread how bad the economy was." His confession came as unemployment hit 9.5 percent, despite the administration's insistence that it would hold to 8 percent with the stimulus plan.
-- On April 30, 2009, Biden gave advice on dealing with swine flu that seemed to contradict President Obama's warning not to panic. Speaking on NBC's "Today," Biden, a longtime Amtrak rider who has commuted for decades daily from Delaware to Washington, D.C., said he wouldn't advise family necessarily against going to Mexico, the source of the H1N1 outbreak, but he wouldn't tell them to get into any small area like a subway car, automobile, classroom or airplane.
"I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places right now," Biden said. "It's not that its going to Mexico, it's that you are in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes, it goes everywhere through the aircraft. That's me."
-- On March 13, 2009, Biden addressed a former Senate colleague by saying, "An hour late, oh give me a f**king break," after he arrived on Amtrak at Union Station in Washington, D.C. The vice president's expletive was caught on a live microphone.
-- During a Feb. 25, 2009, interview on CBS' "Early Show," Biden encouraged viewers to visit a government-run Web site that tracks stimulus spending. When asked for the site's web address, Biden could not remember the site's "number."
"You know, I'm embarrassed. Do you know the Web site number?" he asked an aide standing out of view. "I should have it in front of me and I don't. I'm actually embarrassed."
-- At a Jan. 30, 2009, swearing-in ceremony of senior White House staff, Biden mocked Chief Justice John Roberts for his presidential oath blunder on Inauguration Day.
"Am I doing this again?" Biden said, after Obama asked him to administer the oath. When Biden was told the swearing-in was for senior staff -- and not cabinet members -- the vice president quipped, "My memory is not as good as Justice Roberts," prompting a stern nudge from Obama.
-- On Inauguration Day, Jan. 20 2009, Biden misspoke when he told a cheering crowd of supporters, "Jill and I had the great honor of standing on that stage, looking across at one of the great justices, Justice Stewart." Justice John Paul Stevens -- not Stewart -- swore Biden in as vice president.
-- When criticizing former GOP nominee John McCain in Athens, Ohio, on Oct. 15, 2008, Biden said, "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."
-- In a Sept. 22, 2008, CBS interview, Biden misspoke when he said Franklin D. Roosevelt was president when the stock market crashed in 1929.
"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," he said. Herbert Hoover -- not Roosevelt -- was president in 1929, and television had not yet been invented in 1929.
-- During a Sept. 12, 2008, speech in Columbia, Mo., Biden called for Missouri State Sen. Chuck Graham, who is wheelchair-bound, to "stand up."
"Oh, God love ya," Biden said, after realizing his mistake. "What am I talking about?"
-- At a Sept. 10, 2008, town hall meeting in Nashua, N.H., Biden said, "Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of theUnited States of America. Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me."
-- Biden mistakenly referred to Alaska governor Sarah Palin as the "lieutenant governor" of her state during a town hall meeting on Sept. 4, 2008 at George Mason University in Manassas, Va.
"I heard a very, by the way I mean this sincerely, a very strong and a very good political speech from a lieutenant governor of Alaska who I think is going to be very formidable, very formidable not only in the campaign but in the debate," Biden said.
-- Biden said he was running for president -- not vice president -- during a Sept. 1, 2008, roundtable discussion in Scranton, Pa.
"Today is the moment for me as a United States senator running for president to put aside the national politics and focus on what's happening down there," Biden said.
-- Biden referred to John McCain as "George" during his vice presidential acceptance speech on Aug. 27, 2008, at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Co. "Freudian slip, folks, Freudian slip," he explained.
-- Biden confused army brigades with battalions when speaking about Obama's plan for sending troops to Afghanistan.
"Or should we trust Barack Obama, who more than a year ago called for sending two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan?"
-- During his first campaign rally with Obama as his vice presidential running mate on Aug. 23, 2008, Biden introduced Obama by saying, "A man I'm proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next President of the United States -- Barack America!"
-- On Jan. 31, 2007 -- the day Biden announced his presidential bid -- the Delaware Senator was roundly criticized for calling Obama "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."
4. ANTI ISRAEL JOE http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/menachem-begin-to-joe-biden-i-am-not-a-jew-with-trembling-knees/2015/04/03/ While the Obama Administration continues their pressure on Israel, for at least Vice President Joe Biden, it would not be the first time that there has been personal animosity with an Israeli leader. The reality is that while some of the names change, this conflict is about Israel’s refusal to surrender to a Palestinian Arab enemy who seeks to destroy them. The United States is wrong to pressure Israel – yet, this too shall pass.
4. ANTI ISRAEL JOE http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/menachem-begin-to-joe-biden-i-am-not-a-jew-with-trembling-knees/2015/04/03/ While the Obama Administration continues their pressure on Israel, for at least Vice President Joe Biden, it would not be the first time that there has been personal animosity with an Israeli leader. The reality is that while some of the names change, this conflict is about Israel’s refusal to surrender to a Palestinian Arab enemy who seeks to destroy them. The United States is wrong to pressure Israel – yet, this too shall pass.
History often repeats itself.
On June 22 1982, Joe Biden was a Senator from Delaware and confronted then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin during his Senate Foreign Relations committee testimony, threatening to cut off aid to Israel. Begin forcefully responded, “Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”
As media reports that the United States Government continues to pressure Israel, the reality is that America must respect the will of the Israeli public, whom overwhelmingly re-elected a Netanyahu government. As a senior Israeli elected official noted, “Settlement building will be one of the basic guidelines of the next government and just as I don’t interfere in America if they build in Florida or California, they don’t need to interfere in building in Judea or Samaria.”
Senator Biden reportedly banged the table with his fist, and Begin retorted, “This desk is designed for writing, not for fists. Don’t threaten us with slashing aid. Do you think that because the US lends us money it is entitled to impose on us what we must do? We are grateful for the assistance we have received, but we are not to be threatened. I am a proud Jew. Three thousand years of culture are behind me, and you will not frighten me with threats. Take note: we do not want a single soldier of yours to die for us.”
After the meeting, Sen. Moynihan approached Begin and praised him for his cutting reply. To which Begin answered with thanks, defining his stand against threats.
5.. STUPID JOE http://nypost.com/2015/02/22/maybe-the-media-should-point-out-that-joe-biden-is-a-moron/
The liberal media won’t tell people that Joe Biden is a moron
Modal Trigger
If Biden were a Republican, would the media have laughed off his molestation of Stephanie Carter?Photo: Getty Images
MORE ON:It was just another Tuesday for the vice president of the United States, and another week in which the mainstream media turned their genteel eyes away from the highly questionable conduct of the figure of low comedy whom tragedy might make our president.
On Tuesday morning, Joe Biden was photographed placing his hands in a cringe-inducingly inappropriate manner on the shoulders of a much younger woman — the wife of the about-to-be-sworn-in secretary of defense — and keeping them there . . . and keeping them there . . . and keeping them there . . . for 28 full seconds.
When Biden let her go at last, you could see Stephanie Carter relax her shoulders a little after having had them tensed up while he rested his hands upon them. Go watch it on YouTube. Some enterprising director will surely adapt the scene for one of those found-footage horror movies — “Paranormal Activity VI: The Bidening.”
Biden’s day of creepiness was far from over. In the afternoon, he spoke at the White House summit to combat violent extremism and made reference to the people of Somalia, who have suffered for decades under the yoke of warlords and Islamists.
ACCORDING TO THE MARK HALPERIN-JOHN HEILEMANN BOOK “DOUBLE DOWN,” AN EXASPERATED OBAMA WONDERED ALOUD: “HOW MANY TIMES IS BIDEN GOING TO SAY SOMETHING STUPID.”
Of the Somalis living in his home state of Delaware in the capital of Dover, he said this: “If you come to the train station with me, you’ll notice I have great relationships with them because there’s an awful lot driving cabs and are friends of mine. For real. I’m not being solicitous. I’m being serious.”
The thing is, he was being serious.
He was actually claiming to possess special knowledge of the woes of Somalis from having taken rides in their taxis. Aside from the offense provided by the some-of-my-best-friends-are-black trope here, does anyone actually believe that Biden has ever let a cab driver, Somali or otherwise, get a word in edgewise? Or anyone else, for that matter?
So a little groping in the morning and a little racial stereotyping in the afternoon; sadly for Biden, he had no evening events planned, or he might have hit the trifecta.
Yes, this is just Biden being Biden — which is to say, he’s a socially inappropriate logorrheic.
Just a month ago, he was caught on video trying to plant a kiss on the desperately uncomfortable 13-year-old daughter of Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, who looked like she wanted the earth to open up and swallow her whole. Coons later said he was being nice and telling her a story about his own daughter Ashley, but the video makes it clear he was practically nuzzling her ear.
As for racial stereotyping, there was the legendary moment back in 2006 when he told an Indian-American that “you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.”
As for logorrhea, I’ve told the story in these pages before of a small lunch I attended with Biden in 1986 when he was still just a junior senator from Delaware. Someone asked him an opening question, and he completed his answer . . . 45 minutes later.
On Election Night 2012, President Obama called Biden “America’s happy warrior.” That’s not what he says in private. In her book on the Obamas, Jodi Kantor reveals that Obama passed a note saying “Shoot. Me. Now.” to an underling during a Biden speech on the floor of the Senate in 2005.
During the 2012 campaign, according to the Mark Halperin-John Heilemann book “Double Down,” an exasperated Obama wondered aloud: “How many times is Biden going to say something stupid.”
Heilemann and Halperin say the Obama team considered replacing Biden with Hillary Clinton but decided to stick with the “happy warrior” when polling showed a switch wouldn’t make much of a difference. (And on an exceedingly rare occasion when Biden actually stuck to the script written for him, the one for his 2012 vice presidential debate with Paul Ryan, he performed well.)
Biden’s problematic behavior has been an issue for decades. He was drummed out of the 1988 presidential race when he appropriated an anecdotal story told by the British politician Neil Kinnock and tried to pass it off as his own.
Despite all this, Obama put him in a position of power. Perhaps reporters and commentators should have objected?
It was of far more moment to the media that Rudy Giuliani, nearly 14 years out of office, said something slighting about Obama at a private dinner than that Joe Biden behaved grotesquely in two public sessions in his official capacity as the damn vice president of the United States.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word “bias” thus: “Prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.” The Giuliani v. Biden hijinks this week is the pluperfect example of media bias.
On the one hand, three days of severely critical coverage of a remark by a Republican long out of office with demands that his fellow Republicans disavow what he said.
And on the other, a kind of shrugging and even gently amused acceptance of the inexcusable conduct of the man one heartbeat away from the Oval Office — who happens to be a Democrat. And who, of course, would practically have been run out of office for the very same behavior had he been a Republican.
Here endeth Example No. 3,877,491 of the workings of liberal-media bias. And like its 3,877,490 predecessors, those guilty of it will snort derisively and claim they have absolutely no idea what on earth you’re talking about.
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