Politics

At U.S.-Africa summit, Joe Biden refers to ‘nation of Africa’

Joe-Biden-200x130Two relevant flashbacks, both related to the choice of vice presidential picks in 2008, both from the New York Times. First, the paper of record from Aug. 23 of that year:

Senator Barack Obama introduced Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. as his running mate on Saturday at a boisterous rally in Springfield, Ill., a choice that strengthens the Democratic ticket’s credentials on foreign policy…. [Emphasis added]

Here is the Times again on Aug 29:

Senator John McCain astonished the political world on Friday by naming Sarah Palin, a little-known governor of Alaska and self-described “hockey mom” with almost no foreign policy experience, as his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket. [Emphasis added]

Now flash forward to yesterday, to Biden, at the  U.S.-Africa Summit held in D.C.

[Watch video here]

“Nation of Africa,” is it? Those foreign policy credentials sure come in handy.

Going after Biden for yet another gaffe — for that matter, going after his boss — is the dictionary definition of the idiom shooting fish in a barrel. But speaking of one the world’s biggest idioms, David Martosko writing at the Mail Online seems unable to restrain his mirth over the vice president’s latest attack of foot-in-mouth disease. Here are some highlights:

Biden isn’t just a walking gaffe machine – he’s a walking gaffe top-ten list.

[…]

It was just four years ago that he noted in a diplomatic face-palm moment how Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen’s mother had ‘lived in Long Island for ten years or so’ before her death.

‘God rest her soul,’ Biden said somberly, before realizing that  ‘wait – your mom’s still … your mom’s still alive. Your dad passed. God bless her soul.’

In 2012 he made the sign of the cross while on stage to address a group of more than 1,600 conservative rabbis in Atlanta.

Reporters guffawed later that year when he tried to capture the spirit of President Theodore Roosevelt’s famous ‘Speak softly’ philosophy, by noting that ‘the president has a big stick. I promise you.’

It brought back memories of a 2008 photo-op outside Biden’s home where he told journalists that he had just returned from ‘a successful dump,’ which turned out to be a trip to a nearby landfill.

Two months later during an Ohio campaign speech, Biden criticized then-GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain for what he called a ‘last-minute economic plan’ that did ‘nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class.’

‘It happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs.’

Several of Biden’s most cringe-worthy moments have riled conservatives who say their own political stars would have been pilloried in print and on television if they had made similar comments.

‘You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent,’ he told an Indian-American man in 2006, with a C-SPAN camera rolling.

Somewhere Sarah Palin (or, as Biden would doubtless call her, “the late Sarah Palin”) is laughing her rear-end off.

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