NYC Letter: The Greats Of Political Whoredom -- Mr. Obama Redux

Day 1,300 of CHOPE
D-minus 156 Days

God love 'em, they’re not hiding the ball, they’re just saying exactly what they believe.

Joe "Unshackled" Biden,
talking about Republicans unaware he is describing himself
April 1, 2012 (Mediate/CBS)

Mr. Obama defends his first ever presidential-level decision.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: NO APOLOGIES,
NO SCOLDING FOR JOE BIDEN'S REMARK

DUBUQUE, Iowa August 15, 2012 (People) - Vice President Joe Biden may have sparked the latest war of words in the presidential campaign, but he'll get no talking-to from the boss on this one. Just a small sigh – and a vote of confidence.

PEOPLE sat down with President Obama one day after Biden's remark to voters in Virginia on Tuesday – that GOP running mates Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan are "going to put y'all back in chains" – and asked the President if he'd spoken to Biden about the controversial comment. ... [But Obama] seemed unrattled by the controversy. He said Biden's words needed to be considered in context; that he was only saying "you, consumers, the American people, will be a lot worse off if we repeal these [Wall Street reform] laws as the other side is suggesting."

"In no sense was he trying to connote something other than that," Obama added.

"In no sense"! OH! PUH-leeeze! Here is the context: Mr. Biden affected a Southern accent and the delivery style of a black preacher man, warning his black audience:

They’ve said it. Every Republican’s voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they’re proposing. Romney wants to let the—he said in the first 100 days, he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules–unchain Wall Street. They’re going to put y’all back in chains. He’s said he’s going to do nothing about stopping the practice of outsourcing

Here is more context:

Biden may have been talking to all of his audience when he used the word "y'all," since both blacks and whites use the term in the South. But the "back in chains" part wasn't for whites because whites weren't the ones in chains in Virginia.

Even celebrity friendly PEOPLE magazine can't quite swallow the celebrity president's phony "context" argument.

Pressed to say whether Biden's wording was unfortunate or something he's okay with, the president sighed. "The truth is that during the course of these campaigns, folks like to get obsessed with how something was phrased even if everybody personally understands that's not how it was meant," Obama said. "That's sort of the nature of modern campaigns and modern coverage of campaigns. But I tell you, when I'm traveling around Iowa, that's not what's on people's minds."

The remark offends. The defense of the remark sickens. Mr. Obama is counting on the usual pass from everybody on his campaign's slash-and-deny* style. [Pause.]

FMR. VA. GOV. DOUGLAS WILDER TO BIDEN:
'SLAVERY IS NOTHING TO JOKE ABOUT'

August 15, 2012 (TDC) - On the Wednesday broadcast of Fox News Channel’s Your World with Neil Cavuto, former Democratic Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder told Vice President Joe Biden: "Slavery is nothing to joke about."

Wilder, who was the first black American governor since Reconstruction, referred to Biden’s remarks on Tuesday from Danville, Va., calling the rhetoric divisive. Mr. Wilder:

Well, first of all it is divisive and certainly uncalled for. I don’t think the Obama administration needs that at this time.

... Wilder suggested that at some point, the Obama campaign and his apologists have to question just how much more of Biden’s gaffes they can withstand before it interferes with Obama’s mission.

Joking about slavery is a liberal staple -- though usually liberals don't bother much with the jokey pretext.

ARTUR DAVIS: BIDEN "IN CHAINS" COMMENT
"INSULTING TO AFRICAN-AMERICANS"

August 15, 2012 (CBS News) Artur Davis, a Democrat-turned-Republican former congressman from Alabama, on Wednesday accused Vice President Joe Biden of using racially divisive rhetoric that is "insulting" to African-Americans. Mr. Davis appearing on CNN:

I know what Joe Biden was doing yesterday. Every black person in that room knew who the 'y'all' was. They knew what the chains were. They knew what the metaphor was about.

Big ouch coming up.

Mr. Davis continued:

It's a divisive tactic that's insulting to African-Americans. It's insulting to the American people. President Obama has talked so movingly about our country moving beyond race, and his own vice president makes this kind of comment yesterday? It was wrong. And the president ought to be embarrassed by it.

Yes he should. No he's not. And he isn't going to take any heat for it.

IN REVERSAL, OBAMA SAYS BIDEN 'CHAINS'
PHRASING IS A 'DISTRACTION'

August 15, 2012 (FNC) - After VP Joe Biden declared that he'd never change his ways, and senior campaign aide Stephanie Cutter said the President agreed with Biden's remarks, watch Obama himself reverse course and admit in an new interview that Biden's "phrasing is a distraction..." [Video at headline link.]

Obama: You know, look, we don't spend a lot of time worrying about the chatter. You know, the country's not as divided or obsessed with gaffes or some stray remark as Washington is.

Nancy O’Dell, Entertainment Tonight: When you first heard that Biden had made the comment, that they were going to put y'all back in chains, when you heard it was phrased that way, what was your reaction?

Obama: What Joe Biden was talking about, again, is an example of a substantive argument, a substantive issue that the American people should be concerned about, and his phrasing is a distraction from what is at stake.

That's hardly a reversal. It's plan B of "stuck with Joe".

WHITE HOUSE SAYS OBAMA WILL STICK
WITH BIDEN AS RUNNING MATE
August 16, 2012 (The Hill)

"Stick" till "unstuck".

I am 1,000 percent for Tom Eagleton and I have no intention of dropping him from the ticket. This is what I said yesterday and I am repeating it to assure no misunderstanding on my position.

George McGovern (D-SD),
then-presidential candidate, backing his VP pick
before dumping him a few days later, July 1972
The Eighteen-Day Running Mate
By Joshua M. Glasser
(New Haven: Yale University Press, August 1, 2012), 197

CHOPE.

Being Obama means never having to say you're sorry.

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* And here.

Posted by Damian at August 16, 2012 11:45 PM