Friday, October 24, 2008

Biden: "I Made a Mistake This Big!"


Or, "D'oh! I did it again!" Biden says as he has a Homer Simpson moment.

Biden spoke of four or five scenarios where an Obama presidency would be tested by an international crisis much like JFK was. Essentially, Biden said that a new inexperienced president, like Obama, would be tested. Biden did not elaborate on the specifics of the scenarios. D'oh!
Obama and his camp can try to spin this all they want but, it was a stupid thing for Biden to say.

Also, it's a gift wrapped present for McCain to open and show to everyone that will listen. Unfortunately, McCain and his staff have not received quite the traction they should have because of the Palin clothing purchases by the RNC that somehow have taken up as much or more air time and print space.
I think the Palin clothes issue is an RNC problem. I can understand why some of their donors would have a problem with their money going to buy her clothes. Does the RNC buy clothes for male candidates? I don't know. However, I think in large part it's a small story made big because or Palin's, "joe six-pack," supposed appeal. But, it is definitely not as big a story as Biden's remarks.

I think one could hear the top Obama campaign staffers yelling, "D'oh!" all across the country. Obama's camp had somehow lasted this long without letting Joe Biden say something to try to derail an otherwise smoothly run campaign. Remember, Biden has lost the Democratic nomination at twice, in 1998 and 2008 that I can think of off the top of my head, at least in part because of these types of gaffes. Again, off the top of my head, in 1988 there were plagiarism issues with some of Biden's speaches. In 2008 Biden described Obama as, "clean." Don't even ask me to start on what that last one means. Biden at times seems to have no filter. And now this.

The McCain camp should and has attempted to make an issue of this. But given their limited budget relative to Obama, the Palin clothing thing, and just the nature of the new cycle and it being negative of McCain (although much of that negativity McCain brings on himself) it'll be interesting to see if they can make any hay with this. (see blog post #4 here for more on McCain campaign budget)
McCain also recently started describing Obama's tax policy as socialist.
I have expressed my thoughts on that description already in relation to McCain's own tax policy. (see blog post #20) However, the "socialist" talking point is strong for McCain, especially coupled with Biden's prediction of an Obama presidency's international crisis.

They're both strong talking points because of Obama's lack of a clear and concise response to either or both. We'll see if over the weekend Obama's camp comes up with some type of cogent, responsive talking points to each. Or Obama's camp may just hope to let the news cycle wash them away as they watch the clock tick down to November 4. I've never been a fan of the latter. I think Obama needs some type of response, perhaps on Sunday, a slow news day and then start the last full week of the campaign anew. Respond once to each concisely and move on. Obama doesn't want to be saying, "D'oh!" on election day because he let these McCain talking points fester and gain traction.

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