Biden: World Thinks Obama is Weak

Senator Biden: "Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

Do we really need more international crises? Wouldn't it be better to have a president who didn't invite our enemies to challenge us? We live in dangerous times, with the challenge of Muslim extremism, Russian aggression, and the ever expanding power of China. Our enemies know John McCain means business. As Biden readily admits, they don't feel the same about Obama. Biden was asked during the primary whether Obama was ready to be president. He replied, "I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training."

Compare that to what Biden has said about John McCain: "America would be well served [by a McCain presidency]," and "I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, I think the country would be better off."

McCain responded: "America will not have a president who needs to be tested. I've been tested, my friends." I think I might like Palin's response even better: "I guess the looming crisis that most worries the Obama campaign right now is Joe Biden's next speaking engagement."

Gosh Darn It, Joe!

National Review Online has a good article about Biden's debate performance. Biden was lying through his teeth through most of the debate.

For the most part, these were gross exaggerations or convenient fictions aimed to allow him to make a point he couldn’t otherwise support. How to answer the charge that he and Obama voted for a budget resolution that called for taxing Americans making $42,000? Assert that John McCain voted for it too, although he didn’t. How to argue that we’re paying no attention to Afghanistan? Claim repeatedly that we spend more in Iraq in three weeks than we have spent in Afghanistan in seven years, although that’s very far from true. How to explain his vote for the Iraq war in light of his subsequent views? Say it wasn’t a war resolution, though it was. And on and on Joe went.

Biden misrepresented McCain's views on deregulating the banking and health care industry. The Washington Post says Biden's claim that McCain's healthcare plan would result in the middle class paying more for health insurance and in taxes was a "fabrication." Part of McCain's plan is to allow you to buy insurance from out of state (currently illegal). This is what Biden calls "deregulation." McCain's plan would make health care more affordable, give you more control, and make it portable if you switch jobs.

Biden claimed that McCain has special tax cuts planned for oil companies. This is untrue. McCain wants to lower corporate tax rates for all corporations, not just oil companies. And who does Biden think pays corporate taxes? They are passed down to us through higher prices.

Debate Tonight

I'm looking forward to the VP Debate tonight. Random thoughts:

Hopefully Senator Biden's plane lands safely, without being forced down by enemy fire.

Great choice for moderator tonight, Gwen Ifill is committed ideologically and financially to an Obama win. She violated journalism ethics by failing to disclose to the Commission on Presidential Debates that she has a book coming out on inauguration day titled "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama." She's probably studying Charlie Gibson right now to learn how to look at Palin with contempt after every answer.

Joe Biden should be a formidable debater. After all, he received academic distinction in college, was the "outstanding student in political science," "graduated with three degrees," "went to law school on a full scholarship - the only one in [his] class to have a full academic scholarship," won an international moot court competition, and finished in the top 1/2 of his law school class. Oh wait, I forgot, he made up every one of those claims.

Palin should be debating Obama and let Biden debate McCain. That way we'd get the debate between the inexperienced candidates out of the way first.

The Leftist and the Moderate

Obama is working hard to paint McCain as Bush II. This is laughable as everyone knows that McCain is a moderate Republican who has gone against his party more times than I can count. If he is Bush II, then why did John Kerry ask him to be his running mate and why did Joe Biden say he would be honored to be McCain's running mate and that the country would be better off with McCain as president? The fact is, McCain is the most moderate presidential nominee in a long time.

If McCain's moderate voting record makes him Bush II, then what does Obama's voting record make him? The National Journal ranked him the most liberal senator in Washington for 2007, based on 99 key Senate votes. Joe Biden was ranked third. Get this: Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), the first admitted socialist to be elected to the Senate, is ranked fifth. Obama talks a good game, but he is far, far to the left of the average American.

Biden's Giving

I've commented before on how many big time Democrats, despite their claims to care so much more about the down trodden than those greedy Republicans, give very little of their own money to charity (Gore, Kerry, Obama, etc.). Byron York of National Review examined Joe Biden's tax returns and found that in the last 10 years, on earnings of $2.4 million, Biden has given a grand total of $3,960 to charity. Not even an average per year, but in total. That is about 1/8 of one percent of his adjusted gross income. The average American household gives 2% of their income, far short of the Biblical tithe, yet still 16 times more than Biden. Does Joe Biden share the same values as the average American when it comes to helping those in need?

Here's another fun fact for you: the top 25 most generous states (as measured by charitable deductions/average adjusted gross income, IRS data) are all red states. I would argue that this is because liberals preach a collective responsibility to help the poor, while conservatives believe in an individual responsibility to help the needy. A collectivist believes he is helping the poor merely by voting Democrat, thereby outsourcing personal responsibility to the government.

Biden's Big Mouth

Quite the running mate Obama has chosen. He recently said that if McCain and Palin were elected, it would be "a step back for women." Then came this gem:

I hear all this talk about how the Republicans are going to work in dealing with parents who have both the joy, because there's joy to it as well, the joy and the difficulty of raising a child who has a developmental disability, who were born with a birth defect. Well guess what folks? If you care about it, why don't you support stem cell research?

That's classy, using Palin's son with Down Syndrome to make false claims about your opponent. McCain and Palin support federal funding for adult stem cell research but oppose using federal funds for embryonic stem cell research. He is also suggesting that Palin must not care about children with disabilities if she doesn't agree with him on embryonic stem cell research. If Biden cares about it so much, how much money has he donated to private research into embryonic stem cell research? My guess is exactly $0.

*Update: Now Obama has called Governor Palin a pig. She has them running scared and they don't know what to do.

McCain/Palin's Big Bounce

The Republican Convention and the addition of Governor Palin to the ticket have given McCain a huge boost in the polls. Before the convention, McCain trailed Obama by 7 points. Now, among registered voters, McCain leads 50% to 46% and among likely voters, he leads 56% to 46%. The poll was taken from Friday to Sunday, included 1,022 voters, and has a margin of error of +- 3 points. Historically, convention bounces tend to wither a little, but having a ten point advantage at this point is better than I thought possible.

One of the reasons the Republican convention was so successful because it shattered the narrative of McCain presented by Obama at the Democratic convention and the narrative of Palin presented by the media. Obama told you that McCain is Bush II, but his record clearly shows him to be a maverick reformer. The media and Obama told you Palin was inexperienced, but we found out about her impressive record of battling corruption and oil companies as well as fighting her own party on government waste. Obama now looks even less experienced in comparison, and he's on the top of the ticket.

Other interesting developments:

• Biden told Meet the Press that life begins at conception, but he wouldn't dare impose his "religious" views on other people. Maybe we shouldn't impose our "religious" views about murdering people outside the womb either. At least he doesn't think the issue is "above his pay grade."

• Obama on the surge in Iraq: “I think that there’s no doubt that the violence is down. I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated." Go ahead and say it, "I was wrong to oppose the surge, and John McCain was right."

• Obama now says he would delay rescinding Bush's tax cuts for wealthy Americans if the economy is weak (he didn't mention that we had robust growth of 3.3% last quarter). Is this an admission that raising taxes on the rich hurts the economy?
  

Biden

I was hoping Obama would choose Senator Joe Biden as his running mate. It's the safe choice, probably a mistake considering how much ground McCain has been gaining lately. Biden is thought to be experienced on foreign policy, which shores up a major weakness, but he's not exactly on board with Obama's foreign policy. In the last few years he may have been more supportive of John McCain than Obama, but Obama picked him to be a brawler, and that is what we should expect. However, past comments by Biden could come back to haunt him.

Biden on Obama

"I think he can be ready, but right now I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training."

"Having talking points on foreign policy doesn't get you there."

“If the Democrats think we're going to be able to nominate someone who can win without that person being able to [bring to the] table unimpeachable credentials on national security and foreign policy, I think we're making a tragic mistake.”

On Obama’s Iraq plan, Sept. 2007: “My impression is [Obama] thinks that if we leave, somehow the Iraqis are going to have an epiphany. I’ve seen zero evidence of that.”

“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

“When this campaign is over, political slogans like ‘experience’ and ‘change’ will mean absolutely nothing. The next president has to act.”

Biden on Iraq

Meet the Press, 2002, on Saddam: “He’s a long term threat and a short term threat to our national security… “We have no choice but to eliminate the threat. This is a guy who is an extreme danger to the world.”

2005: “We can call it quits and withdraw from Iraq. I think that would be a gigantic mistake. Or we can set a deadline for pulling out, which I fear will only encourage our enemies to wait us out — equally a mistake.”

Meet the Press, 2007, on WMDs: "Well, the point is, it turned out they didn’t, but everyone in the world thought he had them. The weapons inspectors said he had them. He catalogued — they catalogued them. This was not some, some Cheney, you know, pipe dream. This was, in fact, catalogued.”

On Obama's Iraq plan, August 2007: “I don’t want [my son] going [to Iraq]. But I tell you what, I don’t want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years and so how we leave makes a big difference... "[Criticizing Obama and Clinton's efforts to stop funding bills for Iraq] There’s no political point worth my son’s life. There’s no political point worth anybody’s life out there. None.”

Biden on Senator McCain

2007: “The only guy on the other side who’s qualified is John McCain.”

2005: “John McCain is a personal friend, a great friend, and I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off..."

2007: “I’ve been calling for more troops for over two years, along with John McCain and others subsequent to my saying that.”