After another high-visibility gaffe on the campaign trail this week, there is simmering if not growing speculation that Vice-President Joe Biden could be dropped as President Obama's running mate before or at the upcoming Democratic National Convention, which is set for September 3-6, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Speaking before a largely African-American audience, old Joe went well beyond his tendency for rhetorical flourishes saying that the regulatory policies of Romney-Ryan would put people back in chains.
"They're going to put y'all back in chains," said Biden in a dialect and pitch that he thought would curry favor with his audience. It should be noted that Danville was the last capital of the Confederacy, so it looks like Joe may have had the race card up his sleeve.
Joe got so worked up in his oratory that he went on to offend the hearing-impaired community when he quipped that the person that was providing a simultaneous sign-language translation of his remarks was going to get tendonitis.
Here's the quote:
I have more to say, but I am saying too much already because these guys get me going… and you’re gonna have trouble translating all this! The poor lady, she’s gonna have tendonitis by the time she finishes this.
Earlier, Joe told the audience, that they could help the Obama-Biden ticket win North Carolina, which would be fine except that Joe was in Virginia.
Maybe Joe should stick to plagiarizing the words of others since he frequently gets into trouble when he uses his own, dare I say, prose.
But that might not work either.
If you recall, Biden, a candidate in the 1988 presidential election, was forced to drop out of the race when he was caught borrowing a speech from Neil Kinnock, the then leader of Britain's Labour Party.
Biden initially denied it, but when the commentators "went to the videotape," Joe was caught. And as Joe would say, this was a BFD!
He tried the usual excuses, but as Slate Magazine reported, "Biden didn't simply borrow the sort of boilerplate that counts as common currency in political discourse — phrases like 'fighting for working families'. What he borrowed was Kinnock's life. Biden lifted Kinnock's precise turns of phrase and his sequences of ideas—a degree of plagiarism that would qualify any student for failure, if not expulsion from school."
(BTW: Slate is generally regarded as a left-leaning publication friendly to Democrats.)
Joe tried to hold on as he was rising in the polls after Gary "Monkey Business" Hart was forced to drop out following his dalliance with Donna Rice. But when it was subsequently revealed that Biden plagiarized early and often (like voting in Chicago) appropriating the words of Hubert Humphrey, Robert Kennedy and other prominent figures, old Joe was toast... at least for that campaign.
As Slate reported, the end of Joe's run for President came when he went off on a rant during a campaign stop, telling a heckler, "I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you do, I suspect."
During this particular tirade, Joe claimed then he went to law school on a full academic scholarship, that he graduated in the top half of his law-school class, and that he had earned three undergraduate degrees.
All claims that were proven to be false. So on September 23, 1987, Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race.
Now, Patch readers, you may be wondering why during the 2008 campaign, we never heard of Mr. Biden's problem telling the truth.
It's simple. The national media had sent hordes of reporters to uncover any dirt they could find on Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential nominee.
There was simply no time to write about Joe. You understand. In fact the national... yes I'll say it mainstream media... could not find the time to vet Joe's "running mate" either, which is why we know a whole lot about Sarah Palin and very little about Barrack Obama.
But I digress.
Yes, Biden could be dumped. If before September 6, President Obama throws old Joe under the bus (as he is wont to do when people no longer serve his interests), the "new" team would be on the ballot in all 50... or is it 57?... states.
And the Dems have to be worried about the Vice Presidential debate. Ryan vs. Biden. Anyone for mincemeat?
And who might be the DH for 2012 Dems.
Who you gonna call?
C'mon. You know who.
One Hillary Rodham Clinton, that's who.
And as a Republican totally amped and stoked about the Romney-Ryan ticket, I would have to admit that replacing Joe Biden with Hillary Clinton would cause me some concern.
Some, but not much.
Contrary to prevailing opinion, I think something else is brewing and will continue to build in the weeks and months leading up to the November election: A Romney-Ryan victory of landslide proportions. Think Reagan-Carter in 1980.
Stay tuned.
