Joe Biden told supporters at a town hall Wednesday afternoon that Barack Obama might have been better off choosing Hillary Clinton as his running mate.
“Make no mistake about this, Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Let’s get that straight,” Biden said testily when a voter told Biden he was glad the Delaware senator had been chosen and not Clinton.
I'm sorry, the only way to read Biden's statement is as a self-effacing pol speaking in defense of a colleague. You've got to be incredibly desperate for a fix in order to twist that into an admission that the Democratic campaign would be "better off choosing Hillary Clinton."
I know that detox is a bitch, but people really need to let this one die.
[updated]: per ez in the comments, I'm an idiot. How's that for self-effacing!
You left off the part where he said:"She is qualified to be president of the United States of America, she’s easily qualified to be vice president of the United States of America and quite frankly it might have been a better pick than me."
ReplyDeleteHow is that not "an admission that the Democratic campaign would be "better off choosing Hillary Clinton.""?
Look, it was an INCREDIBLY STUPID FRAME that Biden imposed on himself!
I think that Obama made a huge mistake by not choosing Hillary, and Mclame made a blatant but apparently somewhat successful attempt to take advantage of the opening. Biden is not helping the situation by stating the (obvious) fact that he was not the best choice...
D'oh! That's what I get for not reading the entire piece. I thought it was a bunch of news niblets cobbled together. I'm not a smart man, as they say.
ReplyDeleteAgreed that this was another case of the foot-in-mouthism we all knew Biden was capable of, but I don't buy that it was a mistake not to put Hillary on the ticket, for reasons I've stated before.
mistakes were made....nuff said...
ReplyDeleteThe broader context was that a member of the audience commented about how glad they were that Obama picked Biden and not Hilary. In that sense, I think it is very much a defense of a colleague, not a flat admission that he was the wrong choice. Granted, he still shouldn't say that kind of thing out loud.
ReplyDeleteWould Hilary have been the "right" choice if Palin wasn't the GOP pick? I'm inclined to think that Hilary, as always it seems, would have cut both ways. Lots of talk is made these days about the pro-hilary voting public and how to sway them, but remember the anti-hilary public? And what would be made of Obama picking someone who repeatedly undermined the notion that he is qualified? Making up at the convention is one thing, but that would be a lingering gash for GOPS to open up if she were on the ticket.