Joe Biden

Joe Biden’s mother has passed away:

Catherine Eugenia 'Jean' Finnegan Biden, 92, "was the center of our family and taught all of her children that family is to be treasured, loyalty is paramount and faith will guide you through the tough times," Biden said in a statement.

I still remember his mom walking out at the convention.

That’s the meme the wingnuts are trying to spin right now, following the lead of Byron York:

Vice President Joe Biden's favorable rating has fallen to 42 percent in a new Gallup poll, down from a high of 59 percent just after last year's election. Biden's unfavorable rating in the new poll is 40 percent, up from 29 percent last November. (Eighteen percent of those surveyed say they have no opinion of Biden.)

Biden's average favorable rating during his time in office so far is 45 percent -- well below the average 65 percent favorable rating for Vice President Dick Cheney during Cheney's first year in office. Vice President Al Gore's favorable rating during his first year, 55 percent, was also higher than Biden's. (Gallup did not measure vice presidential popularity before Gore.)

This really isn’t that shocking. Biden hasn’t been front and center on a lot of stuff. We just went from a period of imperial vice-presidencies, lead by Cheney, to returning the office back to it’s constitutionally intended place.

What’s really interesting though is how York finishes his post:

Finally, there is a greater gap between Biden's favorable rating and President Obama's than there was between Cheney and President George W. Bush and Gore and President Bill Clinton. Biden's 45 percent average favorable rating this year is well below Obama's average of 63 percent. Cheney's 65 percent average was near Bush's average of 69 percent, and Gore's 55 percent rating was close to Clinton's average of 57 percent.

Let’s examine what happened in the first years of all these presidencies. Clinton took office amid a recession, albeit a much more mild one as compared to the near depression level economy Obama had to contend with since day one. Bush and Cheney had something happen in that first year too. What was it? Apparently York has forgotten about it, but I don’t think none of us have. It was 9/11. Whenever a country is attacked people flock behind their leaders. Even the most bleeding heart liberals supported Bush and Cheney after the attacks.

So Byron – when Biden’s approval rating gets down to the 13% mark then I will grant you a victory lap.

Joe Biden is officially the vice-President of the United States. You’re outta here Cheney!

The GOP is still going through their post-mortem and trying to figure out just how they became so insignificant, which is leading to even more problems:

During a closed-door Republican Conference meeting on Tuesday, DeMint offered proposals to impose term limits on the Republican leader and to restrict how long members can serve on the Appropriations Committee. The resolutions were soundly defeated, but not without bitter exchanges among the Republicans present for the meeting.

Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida said the meeting was “terrible” and “caused consternation” among his colleagues because of the dispute over DeMint’s proposals.

Not sounding too hopeful for the party that just four years ago was going to be the “permanent majority”. Shockingly, one of the voices of reason seems to be coming from DeMint in this:

“We think the whole problem is George Bush and not us, and we’re part of the problem,” added Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina.

One solid first step would be to stop acting as the party of smears. The American people aren’t buying onto the old GOP catch phrases they try to paint their opponent with. Just four years ago, Liberal was considered an insult by many. Now more people are associating themselves with that name. Instead of engaging in the policy of pettiness, try to engage in actual policy. Forget being the “obstructionist” party, something even the GOP leaders applaud, instead learn to work with the controlling party.

The GOP has simply become a party of hypocrisy. Look at all the ethics problems that have plagued them over the past several years. They damn near want to have you executed for being an adulterer, yet they circle the wagons when one of their own is caught. And can switch adulterer out with other words like “gay”, “lesbian” or “drug user”.

Yesterday Sarah Palin tried to divide this country even more with her idiotic rhetoric of divisiveness. She declared how she liked being in "pro-America areas of this great nation". Today Joe Biden fires back:

(video just uploaded so give it a few)

Which state has a secessionist party that is supported by their Governor and even had the governor's spouse as a member? Oh yeah - Alaska and it's Sarah Palin who supports it. Since she has brought up "pro-America' I think it's now time to ask her about her ties to the AIP and if she hates America as much as the parties founder.

Ryan Lizza has a great piece up about the Democratic ticket. This part really caught my eye:

Biden consulted with his closest political advisers, including Ted Kaufman, Mike Donilon, and John Marttila, all of whom have been with him since the early days of his career. “They convinced me that I could have more influence on policy as a Vice-President with Barack,” Biden said. “And so the bottom line of all of this is that I said, ‘Barack, look, if you’re going to ask me to do this, please don’t ask me for any reason other than that you respect my judgment. If you’re asking me to join you to help govern, and not just help you get elected, then I’m interested. If you’re asking me to help you get elected, I can do that other ways, but I don’t want to be a Vice-President who is not part of the major decisions you make.’ ”

Now could you imagine Sarah "what does the vice-President do?" Palin making such a educated and well thought out decision as this?

That didn't take much time.

My God could Gwen Ifill have been any more slanted towards Biden? Ok - had to get that little joke out of my system.

Despite having one hell of a cold, I managed to watch the whole thing. Honestly, it was exactly what I expected it to be. No massive screw ups from either candidate. One small thing I did notice was that Palin was looking at an awful lot of notes while answering. Perhaps I picked that up since I was watching and not trying to live blog it.

I don't see tonight's performances helping or hurting either campaign significantly. It was basically a wash. Palin may have calmed some nerves on the right, but she didn't bring anyone over. The same with Biden and his known history of gafffs. I do however think Palin fell flat on her face when she tried to play Reagan with her "there you go again Joe" line. Watching the reaction thing on CNN, it appears the focus group also thought the same thing.

So I am sure people on the left will be upset the Palin didn't totally implode, but that's not a problem. She now has a month of doing interviews and more time for Couric style blunders with no more debates to try and recoup a little comfort amongst the population.

Also I notice the polls over all are showing that Biden won. I have to agree. Yeah I am somewhat partial, but putting that aside, I saw answers out of Biden with great substance. I didn't see that so much out of Palin. It also helps restore a little faith in the American electorate since it appears they may have seen the same thing.

UPDATE:

I've been reading blog reactions from both sides of the spectrum. Needless to say the left says Biden won, the right says Palin won. The interesting thing from the right though is that this is some how a game changer. When Obama named Biden as his running mate, the right was quick to say that a Presidential race isn't won by the running mate. This is very true, but not is seems to be ignored by the right. If anything this may have made the race more where it should be - Obama versus McCain, and in that sense McCain is losing rather badly.

I turned on Morning Joe and heard him going off about Gwen Ifill moderating the debate tomorrow night. His complaint is that she has authored a book; The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama . I hadn't heard about this book, so I started Googleing it. One of the first links I found was from none other than the National Review by none other than Malkin:

My dictionary defines “moderator” as “the nonpartisan presiding officer of a town meeting.” On Thursday, PBS anchor Gwen Ifill will serve as moderator for the first and only vice presidential debate. The stakes are high. The Commission on Presidential Debates, with the assent of the two campaigns, decided not to impose any guidelines on her duties or questions.

But there is nothing “moderate” about where Ifill stands on Barack Obama. She’s so far in the tank for the Democratic presidential candidate, her oxygen delivery line is running out.

And how does Malkin know exactly what is in Ifill's book when it won't be released until the very day our new President takes office, January 20, 2009? Reading the editorial review, it just says she is talking about the breakthrough of African-Americans in politics. Nothing about it being specifically about Obama.

So could this become the reason the McCain campaign does a last minute pull out of the debate? I Wouldn't be shocked if that's the case. If that's the case then how about Tom Brokaw, who has been acting as a "liaison" between the McCain campaign and NBC?

His [Brokaw's] mission, he said, was to assure the candidate's aides that -- despite some negative on-air commentary by Mr. Olbermann in particular -- Mr. McCain could still get a fair shake from NBC News. Mr. Brokaw said he had been told by a senior McCain aide, whom he did not name, that the campaign had been reluctant to accept an NBC representative as one of the moderators of the three presidential debates -- until his name was invoked.

"One of the things I was told by this person was that they were so irritated, they said, 'If it's an NBC moderator, for any of these debates, we won't go,' " Mr. Brokaw said. "My name came up, and they said, 'Oh, hell, we have to do it, because it's going to be Brokaw.' "

Here's the problem. Both candidates agreed to these moderators. Olbermann and Matthews' bias towards Obama or the Democrats is not newly found. It has been obvious before these campaigns even started. So then why didn't the McCain campaign say, "hold it right there - these moderators are too biased"? The answer is simple. Because when they agreed to these debates, McCain's campaign wasn't in self-destruction mode.

McCain has destroyed his chances at becoming President and he has now echoed his inner Hillary with a constant attack on the "liberal media". The problem is it's not working. The media was in bed with the McCain campaign for so long and people know it. Now that McCain has become so bad that they had no option but to start reporting the truth, McCain is out to blame them. This really echoes the similarities between George Bush and John McCain, two people both unable to admit their own problems. That is more of the same.

There is a silver lining to what happened today. Congress is in recess until Thursday, meaning they could pass something on Thursday, but that is not very likely. That means we got a debate Thursday night with Sarah Palin and Joe Biden and the economy will be brought up. Considering Palin's dismal responses to Couric's questions on the economy, she will destroy herself. The best part is that Biden don't even have to do anything - just sit there and let her talk.

There will also be questions about McCain's involvement in the bailout brought up.McCain's going to try everything to spin himself out of the pickle he has placed himself in, but that is not very likely given the public perception of McCain now, as evident by the polls. So now Palin's big night just had a few more obstacles put in.

Oh and let's not forget what we saw today. McCain needs Palin on the trial with him to bring in any kind of crowd. Every minute she is out giving speeches is time away from prep work. Thursday can't get here quick enough!

Joe Biden is speaking in Cincinnati today and the reports are that people are waiting over 90 minutes to get tickets to see him. You might think that is nothing, but keep in mind that we are talking about one of the reddest sections of a key battleground state. Also we are talking about Biden, not Obama. It there is that much enthusiasm in Cincinnati for the bottom half of the Democratic ticket, then things are looking pretty good for us this year.

If she is too afraid of Biden, how can she stand up to world leaders?

At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates.

McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

The wrangling was chiefly between the McCain-Palin camp and the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which is sponsoring the forums.

I believe this is a first in history - a candidate scared to debate. The Obama campaign really needs to push this out there to show how unprepared of a pick John McCain made.

Of course it only matters when you go after a Democrat:

Republican sources have been circulating a 2002 news story (from the Tribune) that reported Ashley Biden was arrested for obstructing a police officer in Chicago in August 2002 after getting into a verbal spat with a cop in a late-night nightlife district. The charges were dropped after she apologized to the officer involved. Ashley Biden, then 21, was a Tulane University student at the time. She now works as a social worker in Delaware.

This is absolutely nothing compared to what the National Enquirer has coming up.

Joe Biden is out on the campaign trail and man is he firing back at the Republican rhetoric we heard this week.

Incidentally, Joe will be on Meet the Press tomorrow. He has been doing the Sunday talk show circuit since being picked as Obama's running mate. I wonder how long before the wingnuts start bitching they are giving unequal airtime to the V.P. candidates, even though that is totally at the McCain campaign's choosing?

First up we have the awesome speech delivered by Bill Clinton:

After that, John Kerry gave a more powerful speech than he did during his entire campaign in 2004. If he would have been like this in 2004, then we would be heading into his second term.

And the headliner of the night - Joe Biden. Biden is so good at giving speeches from the heart. Some people say he isn't the greatest speech writer, but they all agree on his passion. That passion was shown last night in full force.