The essence of Biden captured

Jonah Goldberg looks back on the mistakes of the Obama presidency as seen from the perspective of 2012:

The first mistake many cite was actually made before Obama was even elected: the selection of Joseph Biden as his vice president. During the campaign, all eyes were on John McCain’s running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. But even then there were signs of the troubles to come (ironically, Biden’s biggest “gaffe”—about Obama being tested early in his presidency—proved eerily prescient).

Still, nothing prepared the country for some of former Vice President Biden’s comments while in office. Early on, when he told the Russian foreign minister he’d “rather punch a nun in the throat” than cooperate on an Iranian nuclear deal, the Obama administration knew they had a problem on their hands.

The strange comments and behavior kept coming: at an international summit on child poverty, he accused the Dalai Lama of issuing a “brain fart,” he phoned Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts at home and called him a “[re]tard in short pants,” and of course the several stories—clearly leaked by aides to the president—of Mr. Biden sitting in the president’s chair in the Oval Office and being more than reluctant to get out when asked to do so by the president.

The last straw was Biden’s complaint, emphatically offered at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, that he would have more influence over foreign policy if he were black. His staff’s effort to dismiss the incident as a joke—at the normally comedic event—fell short largely because Biden shouted “I am not joking!” two dozens times in speech that lasted less than 10 minutes. The fact that Biden had not been invited to speak at the dinner in the first place only added to the controversy.

Ultimately, the embarrassment became too much and Mr. Biden became the first vice president to resign from office since Spiro Agnew.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 02, 2008 03:40 PM | Send