|
Gregory D.
Lee
Read Greg's bio and previous columns here
September 1, 2008
Joe Biden: Obama’s
Evil Twin
Despite Sen. Joe
Biden’s denial on Meet the Press and other media outlets that he
was not interested, it seems as though his insider supporters lobbied
heavily for him to be Sen. Barack Obama’s pick for vice president. I
hardly think these supporters did this without the knowledge and consent
of Sen. Biden.
According to The
Wall Street Journal, Sen. Biden’s “team” sold Sen. Obama on Joe’s
“humble roots” by pitching his poverty compared to other senators, and
his strong foreign policy experience. His team would like you to believe
that commuting by train to and from Delaware to the nation’s capital
means he’s not a Washington insider despite being a U.S. senator since
he was 30 years old.
His alleged modest
lifestyle also was a major attraction to Sen. Obama’s VP vetting team
because he listed his net worth between $59,000 and $366,000. Shortly
after the announcement that Sen. Biden was Sen. Obama’s pick as his
running mate, the media flocked to Joe’s “humble” home. From what I saw
on cable news channels, Humble Joe’s home looked more like a compound. I
wonder how many kitchen tables he has to choose from to discuss family
matters. News anchors said the mansion in the camera’s view actually
belonged to his mother, the wife of the equally humble car dealer who
helped raise Joe.
Somebody must have
sold a lot of cars during his career. I find it hard to believe that
after receiving a senator’s salary for over 30 years, plus his
PhD-wife’s income, that they haven’t amassed over $366,000 in net
assets. The landscaping at his compound probably cost more than that.
Sen. Biden’s camp
torpedoed the chances of front-runner Indiana Sen. Even Bayh, when they
discovered that his wife made nearly $1 million annually from sitting on
various corporate boards. What does her salary have to do with Sen.
Bayh’s ability to be vice president? It’s all about perception. It’s
hard to be humble when you earn $1 million a year.
But Sen. Biden’s
biggest attraction was his potential to capture scarce working-class
white peoples’ votes, something Sen. Obama was not able to do during the
primaries in states like Pennsylvania, which is where Joe grew up.
How does one promote
changing Washington when you have the consummate Washington insider as
your VP? If Sen. Biden has so much experience in foreign relations,
wouldn’t he make a better Secretary of State, who can actually do
something as opposed to a vice president whose only official job is to
vote in the Senate as a tiebreaker? Does Sen. Biden remaining a senator
prevent him from consulting with the president on crucial foreign
relations issues? One reason Sen. Biden was picked was to fill the void
of experience voters recognize Sen. Obama does not have. But picking
Sen. Biden still won’t make Sen. Obama more experienced.
Sen. Biden is Sen.
Obama’s evil twin. It’s hard to turn a family member down when he asks
for a job. Humble Joe seems to feel about blacks and other minorities
the same way Sen. Obama feels about typical white people who cling to
their Bibles and guns during hard times. Humble Joe was recorded by the
Washington Post editorial board as saying that the reason
Washington D.C. schools are failing is that they are inundated by blacks
whose mothers don’t read to their children before they enter school,
unlike white women. The real reason couldn’t have something to do with
the school’s educational philosophy and liberal curriculum, could it? At
another event, he was recorded saying that you couldn’t go to a 7-Eleven
or Dunkin’ Donut store in Delaware unless you have a slight Indian
accent. But Sen. Biden’s supporters dismiss his biases by saying,
“That’s just Joe.”
Sen. Biden forgot to
mention in his acceptance speech at the Democrat National Convention
that he has the U.S. Senate’s third most liberal voting record, just
slightly behind the most liberal record, that of Sen. Obama. He favored
immigration reform that essentially provided immunity for illegals, he’s
against the Central American Free Trade Agreement, and voted against
renewing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He also wanted to
divide Iraq into three nations: Kurd, Shiite and Sunni. Like his twin,
Sen. Biden also fully supports abortion on demand, said the surge
wouldn’t work and never met a strict constructionist jurist he liked for
the Supreme Court.
Sen. Biden’s higher
“pay grade” as vice president won’t change his liberal Beltway
mentality, but it will finally get him out of the Senate.
Gregory D. Lee is a
nationally syndicated columnist for North Star Writers Group. He can be
reached through his website:
www.gregorydlee.com
© 2008 North Star
Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
Click here to talk to our writers and
editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.
To e-mail feedback
about this column,
click here. If you enjoy this writer's
work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry
it.
This
is Column # GL038. Request permission to publish here. |
