SPRINGFIELD, Illinois - Of all the gaffes Democratic White house hopeful Barack Obama probably hoped to avoid, he accidentally introduced Joe Biden as the presidential candidate rather than the No. 2 man on the ticket.
He quickly corrected himself but the McCain campaign quickly pounced on the mistake to suggest that Biden, a veteran Delaware senator, might wield the real power in an Obama administration.
As Biden stepped to the podium at his first joint rally with Obama, the Democratic White House candidate said, “Let me introduce to you, the next president — the next vice president of the United States of America: Joe Biden.”
Known as a leading expert on foreign affairs, Biden, 65, has served in the Senate for 35 years and is expected to bring considerable heft to the Democratic ticket in a key area.
Polls show Obama lags well behind his Republican rival John McCain in polls on voter confidence on his readiness to handle international affairs. Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, could help close that gap for Obama.
But Republicans hope Biden’s foreign policy gravitas, rather than boosting Obama, will highlight his thinner resume and they used the verbal gaffe to press that point.
“Barack Obama sounded as though he turned over the top spot on the ticket today to his new mentor, when he introduced Joe Biden as the next president,” said McCain spokesman Ben Porritt, adding that Obama was “not ready to lead.”
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
- Photo credit: Reuters/Kamil Krzaczynski (Obama and Biden at their first rally together as the Democratic ticket.)
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Just because he accidentally left out the vice when he said it the first time it doesn’t mean that deep down inside he feels that Biden should be the president. He got excited at revealing his number 2 and missed a word. Big deal. At least he corrected himself and moved on… which is what everyone else should do. Move on, this is a silly arguement.
- Posted by NicholeOMG a human made a verbal slip of the tongue. This obviously will predict the fate of America if he’s elected.
- Posted by Get over it.Holy cow with all the Bushism’s we’ve had to put up with for the last eight years I am really surprised the RNC is jumping up and down on this one.
I’d also figured they would support the Obama / Biden ticket considering it’s been Cheney actually running the country this whole time.
- Posted by MABObama a liberal? Oh please! What we have in this country is one party with two names. Now that Obama has selected Biden as his VP running mate, it should be painfully obvious that we are in for more of the same old same old Washington politics. You know, the kind that is owned by big business, makes decisions based on what is good for big business, and the rest of us will pay for it. Literally.
Sigh, if only I had the option of voting for Dennis K.
- Posted by MarlaWell, Mr. & Mrs. Reader…just what I wasn’t waiting for. I am not now excited about the upcoming election. It is quite obvious that Mr. Biden is not the poster child for change. His prepared remarks did not say anything more than that he doesn’t have to wear his reading glasses at the podium.
Mr. Biden has a lot in common with Messrs. Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Clinton, Lieberman, Romney, Rove et al. All of these politicians showed personal cowardice in their youth by avoiding service in the active duty uniform of the United States during wartime in a war zone, i.e., they avoided membership in Our Best & Finest during the counterinsurgency operations presided over by presidents Johnson & Nixon for eleven long and bloody years in SE Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos) during the 1960’s and early 1970’s (1963-1973).
Incidentally, Mr. Biden’s so called “foreign relations power” in the senate is disproportionate to the number of voters in his tiny Delaware constituency (like many of America’s 100 senators who hail from sparsely populated states).
Additionally, Mr. Biden (along with Mrs. Clinton) was part of the “stupid vote” in congress during the Autumn of 2002, i.e., the blatantly unconstitutional resolution to deploy Our Best & Finest to what the Brits have been calling “Iraq” since they cobbled it together following the elimination of the Ottoman Turk empire after World War I.
To make the results of his war resolution vote appear to be “beyond his control”, Mr. Biden has consistently used the same excuse that Mrs. Clinton still does, i.e., they either didn’t know what was really going on (the “actionable intelligence” issue), or their votes were well intended–and Bush/Cheney simply screwed everything up after getting congress’ carte blanche approval to commit Our Best & Finest to the ongoing sixth year of occupation and unwinnable counterinsurgency in SW Asia.
Incidentally, the “deal” being worked out by Bush/Rice for the withdrawal of Our Best & Finest from Iraq by 2011 is merely a masquerade to assist Mr. McCain on November 4th…by attempting to momentarily diffuse the presidential election’s biggest foreign policy issue (America’s poor economy being the biggest domestic issue).
So…instead of the democrat ticket compensating for Mr. McCain’s active duty service in the uniform of Our Best & Finest during wartime in a war zone…Mr. Obama presents Mr. Biden (i.e., just as poor a choice as Mrs. Clinton would have been).
Without such as Marine combat Vet, Senator Jim Webb (VA), or Army combat Vet, General Wes Clark (Retired), on the ticket…I’ll be supporting a minority party candidate this time around.
It won’t be the first time I’ve done this. After mistakenly supporting Mr. Johnson as far back as 1964, I avoided major party candidates until 2000.
I supported Mr. McCain during the primary in 2000. However, when he got gored by the Bush/Rove bullcrap, I supported Mr. Gore (even though Israeli-in-disguise, Mr. Lieberman, was on the ticket).
Mr. Lieberman turned out to be a very poor choice of vice presidential running mate (i.e., a buddy of Mr. Cheney who had a “pillow fight” with the latter during their televised VP debate in 2000). That debate was the forerunner to Mr. Lieberman’s support of Mr. McCain because of the latter’s unconditional support for Israel (i.e., a continuation of the U.S. occupation and counterinsurgency in Iraq, and a possible “preemptive” U.S. strike on Iran).
In 2004, I supported Mr. Kerry (even though he also had a very poor choice of vice presidential running mate, i.e., Mr. Edwards). Mr. Kerry is a Navy combat Vet (SE Asia).
It is time to vote again (I always do), but I simply do not see very much support for the middle class and working class coming out of either the democrat or the republican camps.
OK Jack
- Posted by OK Jack