Notable and Quotable (I)

“Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Quite frankly it might have been a better pick than me.”

–Joseph Biden Jr., earlier this week while speaking in Nashua, New Hampshire

Posted in * Economics, Politics, US Presidential Election 2008

15 comments on “Notable and Quotable (I)

  1. Chris Molter says:

    This is the outcome of Obama’s most important political decision to date. Fantastic.

  2. RickW says:

    I think that Biden needs to be given some room on this comment. He was trying to compliment Hilary (he did), he was being humble and self deprecating (Sorry I can’t spell – and he was). I don’t support either biden or obama – and there are a lot more issues that should be directed toward them aside from this. Follow Biden long enough and he will continue to open his mouth to change feet – that has long been known.

    The question should be – is Biden ready to be VP – based on his record (no!), Is Obama ready to be president based on his record and vision? (an open question).

    It’s time for serious issues, evaluation and consideration of the future plans. Please let go of this kind of goofy quote and give the guy a real test of the issues.

    Peggy Noonan’s article today in the WSJonline is very good considering all of this stuff.

  3. Dave B says:

    I agree Rick. I say a comment today that Obama is attacking McCain for his computer skills. Is this really what the country needs?? I would really like more things like the McCain Obama forum last night. More Charlie Gibson type interviews with all the canidates. Obama goofed in attacking Palin…

  4. Dave B says:

    Should be “I saw” sorry

  5. DonGander says:

    I rarely find a chance to agree with Mr. Biden. I do agree with him about Hillary, although she is not fit nor ready to serve, either.

    Don

  6. stevejax says:

    I would tend to agree, as well, that Biden was attempting to be gracious. However, the [url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/11/america/biden.php]Int’l Herald Tribune[/url] does note that Biden is gaffe-prone. Notabley, he recently asked a paraplegic state senator from Missouri to “stand up and let the people” see you. Yikes! This may make good fodder for late night television (think: the [url=http://lateshow.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/]Late Show’s[/url] Great Moments in Presidential Speeches), but it could cause problems with the public.

  7. sophy0075 says:

    At least he didn’t plagiarize this statement – unlike others he has made during his career!

  8. Jeffersonian says:

    Politically, I’m not a fan of Biden, but I have to say that I’ve usually found him to be endearing in a lot of ways. I think he’d be a good guy to sit down and have a few beers with and talk things over.

  9. Scott K says:

    What would have been nice about having Hillary on the ticket is that it would have made it much more easier to decide who to vote for — I could just cross her ticket off my list of choices. Now, however, I’m still torn between the two major candidates and their running mates (I happen to like/admire all four of them).

  10. Clueless says:

    #5 I’m with Don. However I think this is Obama making “drop out noises” so as to put Hillary back on the ticket if polls indicate that this would be helpful.

    I recall folks saying something on the order of “Obama thought out his strategy for months and wisely chose Biden, while McCain just went with his gut, so O is smarter or wiser or something.”

    Looks like McCain’s gut works a whole lot better than BO’s brain.

  11. withasword says:

    How can you say Biden was being gracious to HRC when he referred to her as “it”.

  12. Sidney says:

    He probably started out the last sentence intending to say ‘it might have been better to pick her,’ but finished differently. Happens to everybody…

  13. Scott K says:

    “It” is used in place of “the pick” not in place of “Hillary.”
    “It might have been a better pick than me” = “[The pick of Hillary] might have been a better pick than [the pick of] me.”

  14. Chris Hathaway says:

    Dave, how about less Charlie Gibson type interviews if he is going to baldly misquote them through critical omision and claim it’s an “exact quote”.

  15. Tom Roberts says:

    The problems I have with Biden’s gaffe here are, first, this AIN’T the first example of such, and, second, this really brings into question the results of the primary and convention process. Face it, there is about a 50-50 chance of this guy being vice president and he’s obviously incapable of keeping the major themes of the campaign straight (like, elect Obama-Biden, as they are the most competent…). Now, what would he do as President when something happens to Obama? Say whatever comes to his head?