It’s hard to believe they’re still running this scam, but apparently it pays them a decent salary. And it’s about as easy a gig as you could imagine.
It is a fraying, combed-back helmet that barely covers a longtime fact of Washington life: The senator from Delaware has taken steps to pre-empt baldness.The most common hypothesis is that he received a hair transplant, where follicles from the bushier back of the head are grafted onto fading spots closer to the front of the dome.
Well, it’s a good thing someone’s keeping us up to date on the Hair of the Democrats. I wonder how long it’ll be before someone determines how much Biden has spent on his hair, compares that sum to what McCain spends on his, and turns the comparison into an implication that McCain of the Seven Houses would be a better manager of the economy.
Fortunately, not everyone in the traditional media, which Politico certainly is despite its web-based delivery method, is that vapid. Another article there reminds us of a Biden zinger at the Democratic debate on July 23, 2007.
Via a video clip, a man identifying himself as Jered Townsend from Clio, Mich., said: “To all the candidates, tell me your position on gun control, as myself and other Americans really want to know if our babies are safe.”Then Townsend picked up what appeared to be a semiautomatic assault rifle.
“This is my baby, purchased under the 1994 gun ban,” he said. “Please tell me your views. Thank you.”
After a lengthy explanation of past Democratic difficulties with the gun issue, we get a reprise of Bill Richardson’s pander to the NRA.
Then [Anderson] Cooper turned to Joe Biden. “Senator Biden,” he asked, “are you going to be able to keep his baby safe?”And Biden gave an answer that was 100 percent Joe Biden.
“I’ll tell you what, if that is his baby, he needs help,” Biden said. “I don’t know that he is mentally qualified to own that gun.”
Biden went on to say that he was “the guy who originally wrote the assault weapons ban” and “we should be working with law enforcement, right now, to make sure that we protect people against people who are not capable of knowing what to do with a gun because they’re either mentally imbalanced and/or because they have a criminal record.”
Then Biden added sardonically: “I hope he doesn’t come looking for me.”
It was, as Roger Simon says, “a tough, honest answer that did not play to the crowd.” If only we could get that kind of honesty on the bankruptcy bill, or Iraq, or NAFTA.
I'll admit I never visit Politico, except when there's a link to it on one of the blogs I visit.
I do understand why Biden's answer didn't play to the crowd; Biden has a very good ability to take metaphors and analogies that the press comes up with and turn them around on their head. He called John Roberts on his "baseball umpire" analogy and turned it around and rendered it meaningless by pointing out that Roberts would get to define the strike zone as the umpire. (I just read that somewhere but can't remember where). Biden can easily embarrass the press by making their silly games appallingly apparent. And that's why Stephen Colbert's speech to the press several years ago didn't play to the crowd. The crowd, except for a few exceptions, is a bunch of dimwits and lazy twits who can't do real investigative reporting so they come up with silly, stupid subjects like hair, shoes, suit color, silly analogies, etc. that don't come close to doing what the press is supposed to be doing, which is reporting on the news.
But maybe Biden can keep the press in check and nudge them towards doing their jobs. But I suspect if an Obama/Biden administration occurs, we'll get about the same from the press that they gave us when the Clintons were in the White House.
Posted by: Buck on August 26, 2008 10:52 AM