VP Joe Biden made the rounds of the morning shows to discuss the president’s speech and his own role as lead man on the stimulus package. I’d say the veep put in something of a . . . choppy performance. Perhaps Matt Lauer had a calming effect on him, because Joe did his best work on Today. But his segments on the Early Show and GMA went considerably less smoothly.
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Lowlights:
- Asked how he’d hold people accountable for the $1 trillion being spent, he told Ms. Robin Roberts of GMA: “we gotta make sure this is done by the numbers, man.”
- He claimed to Roberts that “if you see three foreclosure signs on your street and you had $150,000 in equity in your home before that occurred, you’re going to find you have $50,000 of equity in that home.” I’ve seen estimates that neighboring foreclosures could depress home prices by about 9%, though Jim Prevor at the Weekly Standard persuasively argues that’s overstated. Where does Biden come up with his prediction of a 2/3 reduction in equity?
- After observing that these are “extraordinary times,” Biden added “I know everybody knows that, I almost feel stupid saying it because everybody knows it.” High marks for unpretentiousness, but is it becoming in the man given such a prominent role in restoring confidence?
Things didn’t improve over on CBS . . .
- Asked by Maggie Rodriguez on the Early Show to explain his role, Biden emphasized “this is about discipline and getting this right, and that’s what we intend to do.” When you think of “discipline,” isn’t Joe Biden, notorious for shooting from the lip, about the last DC politician who comes to mind?
- Biden stumbled badly when Rodriguez played a clip of a small businesswoman asking what the stimulus plan would do to help small business. Playing for time, he first suggested the woman call his office. He then surmised that customers might be having a hard time getting across a creek to her business because of a bridge in disrepair. He then said something about how “smart meters” would bring might bring her energy costs down. Joe eventually got around to a better point: freeing up credit in financial institutions. But it was not his finest hour.
- Discussing the GOP response last night, it became clear that the veep didn’t know how to pronounce the name of the Louisiana governor, repeatedly referring to him as Jin-DELL.
- I actually felt a bit sorry for Joe at the end of the Early Show segment. Rodriguez sort of sandbagged him. As she was saying goodbye, Rodriguez suddenly asked “by the way, do you know the website?” Biden: “you know, I’m embarrassed, do you [looking to aides off camera] know the website number? You know, I should have it in front of me. I don’t. I’m actually embarrassed.” Someone apparently slipped it to him, and he was able to announce “it’s Recovery.gov.” The website’s “number”? Maybe Al The-Internet-Inventor could give Joe a crash course on the all the hip new web lingo.
Note: as to the performance being “choppy” . . . was it just me, or was there something slurry about the VP’s diction, almost as if he might have been suffering from loose dentures?
7 Comments
Yeah, but you must remember that ‘nobody messes with Joe’
I don’t think Joe felt very well. He was sighing or taking deep breaths during the interviews and confused as hell. I think BO just threw Joe under the bus.
Darn Joaquin…
You beat me to it!
Talk about hypocrisy when talking about this being about discipline, something that left has never had when it comes to their tactics, spending and obvious goals with their agenda to socialize every little thing they can get their paws on.
A Strangulation bill…yeah real discipline alright…they can say 800 Billion as if that isn’t anything at all cost wise…in reality it really is something like 1.2 trillion…and more leftist pork to come, which is really disguised as more socialist programs and pay-backs to their backers money-wise…there is something like only 1% in the huge bill that was crammed down congress’ and ours that really does anything to stimulate the economy.
Sad what I see happening, more than sad though…it is infuriating.
As Joe said- “You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent”, so you can’t blame him for not knowing how to answer the question about small businesses. He can’t undertand what they’re saying anyways, how can he answer their questions?
TMAN…
I bet he understood Jindal last night…every word too.
Boy, did Jindal ever get pounced, granted, he started out badly, but he improved as time went on, for me it was the substance of what he said, something the msm didn’t want the audience to pay any attention to…naturally.
Btw…Matthews comments with ‘Oh God’ when he came out, before he uttered one word was beyond contempt…then again, Matthews, along with Olbie are beyond contempt every single day anymore, have been for years now in my eyes.
The wheels on the (Obama) bus go thump thump thump…
-Dave
Yo Bigtimer! I’m sorry for beating you by…………….2 hours. Just bustin ya.