Posted by
Jason Ivey on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 3:30:05 PM
Drudge leads today with the Joe Biden interview conducted by Jason Horowitz in the New York Observer. The quotes that will most undoubtedly lead to the greatest chattering and buzzing on the right and the left are the comments Biden made about Barack Obama, saying in regards to Obama’s candidacy: “I mean, you got first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s storybook, man.” We’ll await the reaction of Biden’s P.C. friends within his own party, although he may have fewer of them now than he did at the beginning of the week. If this does turn out to be his Jimmy The Greek moment (we’ll see if the race experts at ESPN pick up on this), it may unfortunately overshadow his comments about the other Democratic candidates -- the more interesting aspect to this interview is what Biden says about Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, among others.
Biden has carved a niche for himself recently as being one of the few within his own party who has put forward a legitimate plan for dealing with Iraq. (Biden is a strong proponent for partitioning the country along ethnic lines, and makes a strong case as to why this is the most pragmatic approach under the present circumstances.) He refers to Al Gore and John Kerry as “blow-dry” candidates put forward by the party in 2000 and 2004. He ridicules John Edwards’ lightweight-ness on foreign policy, specifically Iraq, saying: “I don’t think John Edwards knows what the heck he’s talking about,” in reference to Edwards’ calling for an immediate withdrawal of about 40,000 troops from Iraq. In a reportedly mocking tone he calls for an explanation from Edwards about the effect that a large scale pullout would have. It’s obvious to him that Edwards has not thought this through any further. “What about the chaos that will ensue? Do we have any interest, John, left in the region? Well, John will have to answer yes or no. If he says yes, what are they? What are those interests, John? How do you protect those interests, John, if you are completely withdrawn?” Certainly valid questions, indeed. We’ll be awaiting Mr. Edwards’ response.
Then there’s Hillary. “Everyone in the world knows her,” he said. “Her husband has used every single legitimate tool in his behalf to lock people in, shut people down. Legitimate. And she can’t break out of 30 percent for a choice for Democrats? They’ve looked at you for the last three years. And four out of ten is the max you can get?” Well, suddenly there’s some sniping about to the Clintons’ heavy handedness. And the campaign is little more than a week old.
Biden must clearly be somewhat annoyed and frustrated at his lack of respect within his own party; certainly no one would consider him anything close to a “blow-dry” candidate (his coif tells a different story). But surely Joe knows that he belongs to the Blow-Dry Party. This is the party not of ideas, but of personality, good looks, and shallow intellect. We can only imagine what it must be like to have legitimate ideas within that group, only to be overshadowed and outshined by fluffy intellectual lightweights (just ask Joe Lieberman). Assuming he hasn’t just committed inadvertent political suicide, this could become one of the more entertaining aspects of the fledgling Democratic campaign.
Good luck, Joe.