More Biden, Please

[gateley]

The White House is, quite obviously, getting back into campaign mode. This is a good thing for Democrats, because it means putting the last spadeful of dirt on the carcass of President Obama's hopes of bipartisanship in Washington during his term of office. But while Obama has recently begun to make the case to voters why electing Democrats this November is a good idea, Vice President Joe Biden has apparently been doing a much better job in terms of framing the debate on Democratic terms. Which means the smartest thing Obama could do right now is to send the Vice President out in front of the media and in front of campaign events to make the case a lot more strongly than Obama could (or should). In other words, more Biden, please. /snip

Obama wants to retain his moral and political high ground, in other words. He doesn't want to be too harsh on Republican senators, and wants to be seen still holding the hand of bipartisanship out to them. This is understandable, since (as I mentioned) he is the president of everyone, not just his supporters.

Vice presidents, however, are supposed to be attack dogs. Picture Dick Cheney in your mind's eye for about three-tenths of a second, if you have any doubts that this is the traditional role of the number two guy. /snip

Biden spoke recently at a Jackson Day fundraiser for Democrats in Tennessee, along with other Democratic luminaries such as Al Gore. Here are some quotes from his speech (although these separate quotes may not be in the exact order Biden spoke, as without a transcript it is impossible to verify -- these quotes came from an AP article and a local article from Tennessee Report):




" a recalcitrant Republican Party that is dominated by a group that ... have not shown any instinct to offer any real alternative to anything we're doing."

"Repeal and Repeat: Repeal everything positive done, and repeat the polices of the previous eight years of the Bush administration."

"Now, Republicans are claiming to be worried about spending and debt ... Republicans moralizing about deficits is a like an arsonist moralizing about fire safety."

"These guys have zero credibility. They put trillions of dollars on our kids' credit cards."

" gave us a Ponzi scheme masquerading as a vision."

"Throughout the Bush administration, they decided to let Wall Street be the cowboys of the East. Wall Street made outrageous profits, enticing people with mortgages they couldn't afford, with no down payments, teaser interest rates, forcing millions of Americans to face foreclosure on their homes."

"Next week, President Obama will sign a bill ending the outrageous practices taking place on Wall Street in the last eight years, and we did it with virtually no Republican help."

"Let's get the facts straight. We were a nation on the verge of a depression, and we had a foreign policy that consisted of a simple proposition: Either you're with us or against us, led by a group of neoconservatives who have been wrong on virtually every issue."

The AP article went on to report:

Biden urged Tennessee voters to elect more Democrats to Congress to keep the president's agenda on track. He cited examples of drawing down combat troops in Iraq from 140,000 to 50,000 this summer and the health care and financial overhauls passed by Congress. /snip





But Biden's remarks are an even bigger breath of fresh, partisan air into the campaign season. Democrats, as always, have a choice in the upcoming campaign. They can try to convince voters that their ideas are good ones, and their opponents' ideas are either non-existent, consist solely of saying "no," or are hideously bad ideas to begin with. This is called "politics." Democrats' alternative choice is to cower in a corner, allow the Republicans to define the entire debate and the entire campaign, and play reflexive defense for the next four months.

As any casual observer of politics can see, the choice of fighting back and standing up for what you believe is right is quite obviously the better one. And, so far, Vice President Joe Biden has done the best job of defining exactly how Democrats should do this. Since he's not president himself, he is much more free to put things in explicitly partisan terms than his boss. And he seems to be doing a rip-snorting good job of doing so./snip

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/more-biden-please_b_652031.html


(Full disclosure: I LOVE Biden! :7)

[patrice]

1. K & R

[PatSeg]

2. "rip-snorting good job"

Yes, he is and considering all his years in the Senate, he is very credible when he goes after his former colleagues.

[blondeatlast]

3. He was my considered primary choice and I still love him. He knows how to play the

media, too--gotta love that.

[jillan]

4. He is so good at connecting with a crowd.