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Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Biden on Hillary

posted by on January 31 at 10:35 AM

Joseph Biden, the newly-declared Democratic presidential candidate, took a few choice swipes at his opponents today in the New York Observer. Here’s his analysis of Hillary Clinton’s chances:

“Are [voters] going to turn to Hillary Clinton?” Biden asked, lowering his voice to a hush to explain why Mrs. Clinton won’t win the election.

“Everyone in the world knows her,” he said. “Her husband has used every single legitimate tool in his behalf to lock people in, shut people down. Legitimate. And she can’t break out of 30 percent for a choice for Democrats? Where do you want to be? Do you want to be in a place where 100 percent of the Democrats know you? They’ve looked at you for the last three years. And four out of 10 is the max you can get?”

UPDATE: And this quote, from the same story, is generating a lot of heat in the blogosphere today:

Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

Discussion of whether a dropped comma might be making that comment more potentially-offensive than intended is here.

Biden clarification is here.

RSS icon Comments

1

Bill's done what now?

Posted by Ken | January 31, 2007 11:02 AM
2

Whoa, you missed the real candidacy-killing quote from him:


Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”


Yikes. Note to Sen. Biden: A decidedly nontrivial portion of the Democratic base is African-American. Perhaps you shouldn't implicitly suggest they're mostly inarticulate, dumb, and dirty.

That's what will kill him right there.

Posted by tsm | January 31, 2007 11:05 AM
3

Ah, beat me to it with the update.

Posted by tsm | January 31, 2007 11:07 AM
4

Just when the Democrats finally win a majority in both Houses and can finally come together to do good works for the people, they will all be at each other's throats over Presidential politics. How do all these hats in the ring create or foster cohesiveness?

Posted by SB | January 31, 2007 11:20 AM
5

cohesiveness? Democrats?? You gotta be kidding me.

Posted by Chris | January 31, 2007 11:30 AM
6

Biden's a great senator, but a terrible, terrible presidential candidate (like most or all senators). Bloviating is a religion with him. And don't forget the plagiarism business; future Republicans certainly won't. Biden's got no chance, or if he has any, it's a negative capability for the Democrats.

Posted by Fnarf | January 31, 2007 11:30 AM
7

Biden is done. He always was. He was barely above John Kerry on the "has a chance" meter. Only Republicans think this is a big deal.

Posted by CJA | January 31, 2007 12:00 PM
8

What a pompous, bigoted, windbag.

Posted by Cascadian | January 31, 2007 1:08 PM
9

The Biden campaign is DOA. He's a DLC dem-slave for the Delaware corporate masters with no redeeming qualities. Everytime he has found himself in a position to make a stand about something that matters he wimps out.

I am stunned that is stupid enough to call Hillary's bid a no-go proposition. Have any of you Sloggers ever met a Biden Democrat? Is one of you one?

Posted by mirror | January 31, 2007 1:21 PM
10

Biden needs to slink away from this contest now -- before he starts damaging anyone other than himself.

Posted by Jonathan | January 31, 2007 3:07 PM
11

With or without the comma, Biden has just succeeded in screwing himself.

Posted by mm | January 31, 2007 4:59 PM
12

I don't think that this was what his campaign manager had in mind when he told him to do something that would make voters forget about the old plagarism drama.

Posted by dantc | January 31, 2007 7:47 PM
13

new definition for POLITICAL DEAD DUCK

little chance has become NO chance

and just to set things straight, Jesse Jackson is very articulate, classy dresser and handsome as hell today and killer pretty years ago

Posted by sidney | February 1, 2007 6:43 AM

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