Just like 28 years ago,it all begins with him and Maureen Dowd. Then Dowd was the one who got him on the plagiarism charge that dropped him from the 1988 Presidential race.
Of course, these days the only thing Maureen Dowd cares is harming Hillary Clinton. Kind of like the Benghazi Committee, her whole purpose is to bring down Hillary's poll numbers.
So it was never surprising that she of all people had the big revelation-for the Beltway at least rather than Democrats-that Beau supposedly asked Joe to run on his deathbed.
Now there's a story in Politico that this revelation to Dowd was from Biden itself and was meant as his Presidential trail balloon.
I heard EJ Dionne last night say on Rachel Maddow that it's not fair to use the death of his son to attack Biden. This doesn't really resonate with me when you recall that he's used it as a political weapon all along.
A representative for Vice President Joe Biden pushed back on a Politico reportTuesday that suggested Biden had told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd his dying son's wish that he run for president to "trial balloon" a potential campaign.
"The bottom line on the Politico story is that it is categorically false and the characterization is offensive," a Biden spokesperson told NBC News. Biden's team, however, did not confirm or deny that the vice president told Dowd that story.
"Multiple anonymous stories told Politico that the story appearing in Dowd's Aug. 1 column of Biden's son Beau telling the vice president to challenge Hillary Clinton came from Biden himself. Beau Biden died of brain cancer in May."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/biden-politico-dowd-response
I mean for me it's hard to characterize it as anything but a trial balloon.
Listen, I have to say. I am sympathetic to the grief he's been under and appreciate the work he's done as the President's partner, but this is getting stale. There was never really a Democrat groundswell for Biden-it was just the Beltway press who kept trying to make something out of nothing.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/10/why_democrats_aren_t_dying_for_joe_biden_to_run_against_hillary.html
My growing frustration and I've heard a number of other Democrats who feel the same is this whole King Hamlet routine is not good for the party. I would have considered him for the job if he had had this conversation a year ago. Here I feel it is nothing but counterproductive for the party-as opposed to the press who loves this for its own Hillary hating reasons.
Biden keeps saying he has to think about the best interests of his family: what about the best interests of the Democratic party? I never hear him mention that.
But I have some real mixed feelings when I hear things like this about Biden.
"According to multiple sources, it was Biden himself who talked to her, painting a tragic portrait of a dying son, Beau’s face partially paralyzed, sitting his father down and trying to make him promise to run for president because "the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/joe-biden-beau-2016-214459#ixzz3ntDU591W
First of all Maureen Dowd is the worst kind of Hillary hating Beltway hack. She has the nerve to claim Hillary uses her gender to get ahead while Dowd herself uses her gender as a man could never get away with her misogynistic columns.
So right there I have a hard time seeing Biden as acting in good faith as a Democrat rather than an opportunist.
And what are these superior Biden values? Biden's record includes him plagiarising a Labor MP speech in 1987, helping Clarence Thomas be confirmed despite the fact that he was guilty of doing those terrible things to Anita Hill and years later David Brock would hear friends of his on the bench admit they knew it all along.
Can you imagine a greater setback for feminism than Biden being the choice over Hillary?
But here's where he really loses me:
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2015/10/a_biden_presidency_would_be_grim_news_for_feminism.htmlBefore that moment and since, Biden has told the Beau story to others.
"Sometimes details change — the setting, the exact words. The version he gave Dowd delivered the strongest punch to the gut, making the clearest swipe at Clinton by enshrining the idea of a campaign against her in the words of a son so beloved nationally that his advice is now beyond politics. This campaign wouldn’t be about her or her email controversy, the story suggests, but connected to righteousness on some higher plane."
"Biden has portrayed his decision about a 2016 run as purely emotional, a question of whether he and has family have the strength. That’s a big part of it. But it’s not all of it.
"By every account of those surrounding Biden, Beau is constantly on his father’s mind. But so are Clinton’s poll numbers — and his own, as the vice president notes in private details, such as the crosstab data that show him drawing more support from Clinton than Bernie Sanders. So is the prospect of what it would mean to run against a candidate who would make history as the first female nominee, and potentially first female president. So is knowing that the filing deadlines are quickly closing in and that he almost certainly has to decide in roughly the next week to make even a seat-of-the-pants campaign possible."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/joe-biden-beau-2016-214459#ixzz3ntLJZW2e
But the fact that he actually mentioned Hillary's Benghazi testimony date to Elizabeth Warren? Sorry, game, set match.
"At the end of August, while friends were still worrying aloud that he was in the worst mental state possible to be making this decision, he invited Elizabeth Warren for an unannounced Saturday lunch at the Naval Observatory. According to sources connected with Warren, he raised Clinton’s scheduled appearance at the House Benghazi Committee hearing at the end of October, even hinting that there might be a running-mate opening for the Massachusetts senator."
"Biden and Warren were alone that afternoon, and those around them have been particularly secretive about the meeting. Warren’s spokesperson didn’t return requests for comment."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/joe-biden-beau-2016-214459#ixzz3ntMI8JWW
I'm sorry. With his record he's going to run as the character candidate based on Emailgate and has taken pleasure and glee in seeing her numbers driven down thanks to a GOP Super PAC called the Benghazi Committee?
He needs to stay out of this race for his own good.
A commentator named Wayne Anderson at Politico puts it well:
"I like Biden well enough but this is getting tiresome. The presidency is not some type of grief counseling so Joe can get an emotional boost after the loss of his son. The presidency is more important than that. And leaking his "son's dying wish" and using it for political gain just seems inappropriate, to say the least. Not to mention Biden would not win, his history of verbal gaffes, his shoddy treatment of Anita Hill, the list goes on and on. He has tried before and there was just NO support for his candidacy, and he will only sully what's left of his reputation."
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/joe-biden-beau-2016-214459
I've always liked the Vice President too. To keep it that way I'm looking to hear the end of this soon.
Of course, these days the only thing Maureen Dowd cares is harming Hillary Clinton. Kind of like the Benghazi Committee, her whole purpose is to bring down Hillary's poll numbers.
So it was never surprising that she of all people had the big revelation-for the Beltway at least rather than Democrats-that Beau supposedly asked Joe to run on his deathbed.
Now there's a story in Politico that this revelation to Dowd was from Biden itself and was meant as his Presidential trail balloon.
I heard EJ Dionne last night say on Rachel Maddow that it's not fair to use the death of his son to attack Biden. This doesn't really resonate with me when you recall that he's used it as a political weapon all along.
A representative for Vice President Joe Biden pushed back on a Politico reportTuesday that suggested Biden had told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd his dying son's wish that he run for president to "trial balloon" a potential campaign.
"The bottom line on the Politico story is that it is categorically false and the characterization is offensive," a Biden spokesperson told NBC News. Biden's team, however, did not confirm or deny that the vice president told Dowd that story.
"Multiple anonymous stories told Politico that the story appearing in Dowd's Aug. 1 column of Biden's son Beau telling the vice president to challenge Hillary Clinton came from Biden himself. Beau Biden died of brain cancer in May."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/biden-politico-dowd-response
I mean for me it's hard to characterize it as anything but a trial balloon.
Listen, I have to say. I am sympathetic to the grief he's been under and appreciate the work he's done as the President's partner, but this is getting stale. There was never really a Democrat groundswell for Biden-it was just the Beltway press who kept trying to make something out of nothing.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/10/why_democrats_aren_t_dying_for_joe_biden_to_run_against_hillary.html
My growing frustration and I've heard a number of other Democrats who feel the same is this whole King Hamlet routine is not good for the party. I would have considered him for the job if he had had this conversation a year ago. Here I feel it is nothing but counterproductive for the party-as opposed to the press who loves this for its own Hillary hating reasons.
Biden keeps saying he has to think about the best interests of his family: what about the best interests of the Democratic party? I never hear him mention that.
But I have some real mixed feelings when I hear things like this about Biden.
"According to multiple sources, it was Biden himself who talked to her, painting a tragic portrait of a dying son, Beau’s face partially paralyzed, sitting his father down and trying to make him promise to run for president because "the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/joe-biden-beau-2016-214459#ixzz3ntDU591W
First of all Maureen Dowd is the worst kind of Hillary hating Beltway hack. She has the nerve to claim Hillary uses her gender to get ahead while Dowd herself uses her gender as a man could never get away with her misogynistic columns.
So right there I have a hard time seeing Biden as acting in good faith as a Democrat rather than an opportunist.
And what are these superior Biden values? Biden's record includes him plagiarising a Labor MP speech in 1987, helping Clarence Thomas be confirmed despite the fact that he was guilty of doing those terrible things to Anita Hill and years later David Brock would hear friends of his on the bench admit they knew it all along.
Can you imagine a greater setback for feminism than Biden being the choice over Hillary?
But here's where he really loses me:
"Sometimes details change — the setting, the exact words. The version he gave Dowd delivered the strongest punch to the gut, making the clearest swipe at Clinton by enshrining the idea of a campaign against her in the words of a son so beloved nationally that his advice is now beyond politics. This campaign wouldn’t be about her or her email controversy, the story suggests, but connected to righteousness on some higher plane."
"Biden has portrayed his decision about a 2016 run as purely emotional, a question of whether he and has family have the strength. That’s a big part of it. But it’s not all of it.
"By every account of those surrounding Biden, Beau is constantly on his father’s mind. But so are Clinton’s poll numbers — and his own, as the vice president notes in private details, such as the crosstab data that show him drawing more support from Clinton than Bernie Sanders. So is the prospect of what it would mean to run against a candidate who would make history as the first female nominee, and potentially first female president. So is knowing that the filing deadlines are quickly closing in and that he almost certainly has to decide in roughly the next week to make even a seat-of-the-pants campaign possible."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/joe-biden-beau-2016-214459#ixzz3ntLJZW2e
But the fact that he actually mentioned Hillary's Benghazi testimony date to Elizabeth Warren? Sorry, game, set match.
"At the end of August, while friends were still worrying aloud that he was in the worst mental state possible to be making this decision, he invited Elizabeth Warren for an unannounced Saturday lunch at the Naval Observatory. According to sources connected with Warren, he raised Clinton’s scheduled appearance at the House Benghazi Committee hearing at the end of October, even hinting that there might be a running-mate opening for the Massachusetts senator."
"Biden and Warren were alone that afternoon, and those around them have been particularly secretive about the meeting. Warren’s spokesperson didn’t return requests for comment."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/joe-biden-beau-2016-214459#ixzz3ntMI8JWW
I'm sorry. With his record he's going to run as the character candidate based on Emailgate and has taken pleasure and glee in seeing her numbers driven down thanks to a GOP Super PAC called the Benghazi Committee?
He needs to stay out of this race for his own good.
A commentator named Wayne Anderson at Politico puts it well:
"I like Biden well enough but this is getting tiresome. The presidency is not some type of grief counseling so Joe can get an emotional boost after the loss of his son. The presidency is more important than that. And leaking his "son's dying wish" and using it for political gain just seems inappropriate, to say the least. Not to mention Biden would not win, his history of verbal gaffes, his shoddy treatment of Anita Hill, the list goes on and on. He has tried before and there was just NO support for his candidacy, and he will only sully what's left of his reputation."
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/joe-biden-beau-2016-214459
I've always liked the Vice President too. To keep it that way I'm looking to hear the end of this soon.
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