So Let's Talk About It: Is Biden Smart Enough To Be Vice President?

Is he prepared? is he mentally alert? Does he have the "integrative complexity" necessary for the job?

Gee, we (the royal we, by which I mean the media) used to ask this question quite a bit. But now? Not so much.

Rudy Giuliani just says what everyone's thinking-- including those in the media, though they would never ever say something that could seriously hurt the Obama ticket.

KUDLOW: You know, what did he say? ‘Y’all going to be put back in chains’? That almost has racial overtones, Rudy Giuliani. What’s your take on that?

GIULIANI: Well, I think if it came from somebody serious maybe we’d get all excited about it. But the — I think the vice president of the United States has become a laugh line on late night television. I mean, he — I’ve never seen a vice president that has made as many mistakes, said as many stupid things. I mean, there’s a real fear if, God forbid, he ever had to be entrusted with the presidency, whether he really has the mental capacity to handle it. I mean, this guy just isn’t bright. He’s never been bright. He isn’t bright. And people think, ‘Well, he just talks a little too much.’ Actually he’s not very smart.

Video at the link.

Bernie Goldberg also asks The Question The Media Daren't Ask.

As does John Fund.

Biden has been very lucky that the national media have largely given him a pass until now. American history for the last half century has been replete with Republicans who have been portrayed by the elite media as dim or addled — from Dwight Eisenhower to Gerald Ford to Ronald Reagan and Dan Quayle to, of course, George W. Bush and Sarah Palin. No Democrat with comparable national stature has been saddled with a similar reputation. The media have tended to explain away Biden’s strange statements and unforced errors by saying, “Oh, well. That’s just Joe, you know.” Or they casually admit, “Well, he just talks a bit too much,” and then move on.

In the middle of a hotly contested presidential campaign, that may now be changing. In the Washington Post yesterday, Alexandra Petri discussed “the trouble with Joe” and took the VP to task for “periodically alarming outbursts” that are unbecoming of the second-highest office in the land. “He inspires the sort of discomfort one feels upon introducing one’s fiancé to Grandpa after he has had a Scotch too many,” Petri scolded. “His cringe-inducing gaffes . . . inspire less anger than embarrassment.” A New York publishing source told me that “Biden is now seen as a Catholic Sam Goldwyn, and that’s not a good place to be.” Sam Goldwyn was the legendary Hollywood producer who was known for malapropisms (“A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on”).

Prediction: The media will begin casting the most important qualification of a would-be president as not as his brains and smarts but as his heart and spirit.

Bonus: Biden, who is a confused borderline-retarded old man, doubles down on his casually racist ploy, and announces he said exactly what he meant to say.

Video of Stephanie Cutter's Defense of Biden: Although the quote is well-reported, the video came out later. Here's @stefcutter, telling a reporter she endorses Biden's "chains" statement.

Via the Jamster.

Biden's Greatest Dumbest Hits: Now linked by Drudge.

posted by Ace at 02:52 PM

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