The Obama-Biden Laugh Track Strategy
With the stock market dropping, oil prices skyrocketing, and taxpayers footing the $1 trillion bill for Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae and investment bank bailouts, the Democratic ticket has adopted a new strategy in recent days to help lighten the mood of voters here in the swing states of the Midwest by getting comedic advice from senior Obama campaign strategist Sandra Bernhard and court jester/U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken.
Joe Biden got this new laugh track strategy started last week here in the battleground state of Ohio during an impromptu rope line debate in Maumee, right outside Toledo. When Biden was asked by a supporter why his ticket was supporting clean coal he responded that he was for it — as long as it was done in China, not the U.S.:
We’re not supporting “clean coal.” Guess what. China’s building two every week. Two dirty coal plants. And it’s polluting the United States. It’s causing people to die. … No coal plants here in America. Build them, if they’re going to build them over there make ‘em clean because they’re killing you.”
Now this “no coal plants here in America” joke is particularly funny because Ohio ranks third nationally in the use of coal and 87 percent of the state’s electricity comes from coal, mostly mined in Ohio. And Ohioans have few other energy resources available beyond coal. In the event of an Obama-Biden win on November 4th, the joke will be on Buckeye State families already feeling the pinch at the gas pump to find their electricity costs skyrocket while Chinese families laugh at their distress.
Adding to the hilarity is that the Obama campaign website promises that they will push for clean coal — the same technology that Biden wants limited to China. And as Politico observes, Biden was praising the virtues of coal technologies to an audience of coal mine workers in Castlewood, VA, just a few days ago. At least no one can accuse Obama-Biden of letting their act get old.
But the Democratic duo keeps them coming faster than Abbott and Costello.
Take for instance Barack Obama’s “who’s on first” gag with Matt Lauer during an interview that aired Tuesday morning. After criticizing John McCain for coming out against the AIG bailout last week, Lauer asked about his own vice presidential candidate taking the exact same position not three minutes after McCain made his remarks. The laughable result was Barack Obama spinning faster than a frog in a blender, saying that running mate Biden — a 36-year Senate veteran — needed to consult with the straight man first before stating his opinions.
Joe Biden is definitely the Robin Williams of this campaign cycle, showing off his improv chops to Katie Couric while riding the campaign bus through the Ohio countryside last Thursday. In what is sure to become a stand-up classic, Biden called the Obama campaign ad mocking John McCain’s computer skills “terrible,” but then came out a few hours later and said that he had never seen the attack ad. Apparently Biden hasn’t heard of these things called “computers” to see what his own campaign is putting out.
He then followed that one up with a gut-busting one-liner about how Franklin D. Roosevelt handled the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 by going on TV to tell his fellow Americans how it happened. The unspoken punch line is, of course, that FDR wasn’t even president in 1929, and he didn’t make his first TV appearance until a decade later in 1939.
And no doubt they are rolling in the aisles back home in Scranton, PA, over his recent sight gag, asking Missouri State Senator Chuck Graham to get up out of his wheelchair.
The Barack Obama and Joe Biden ticket certainly makes for great family entertainment, but they are beginning to learn that it’s hard to keep an audience, as Obama found out earlier this week in Green Bay, WI, where 4,000 less people showed up than a McCain-Palin rally there just a few days before. Unfortunately for the Democratic duo, many Americans are already in on the joke.
McCain and Palin’s huge advantage in gaff land is that they believe in what they believe and that is all out in the open for the public to see. So they don’t have to dance around their positions and thus it is harder for them to make gaffs. Obama and Biden on the other hand really believe in not using energy available in the US whether it be coal or offshore oil and they also believe in getting elected. So they have to tell coal states they believe in coal but since they really don’t it gets fractured.
Gaffs are caused by smart guys trying to defend indefensible positions to make them palatable to voters who they know they lose if they hang the truth out about their positions.
Expect more.
ha ha ha
Thank you PPoole; good summation of the last week’s inanity of the DemDuo. Unfortunately, we either need the MSM to do their job and show how feckless and dangerous the Dems’ energy policies are and will continue to be………how, they’re banking on some kind of electric car that will miraculously cure our problems………but they don’t support nuclear power plants to produce the electricity……..or solar or wind power that won’t work for God knows how many decades! What are these Democrats saying? Well, we know the MSM won’t call them on it, and we know 70% of Americans are too stupid to figure this out themselves. What does that leave? It leaves the debates. But I know the leftist sponsors of the debates will not ask the right questions. Therefore, whenever the question gets even CLOSE to the issue of energy or the economy, McCain and Palin MUST pounce on the right energy policy, versus the feckless non-policy of Obama&Dems. Don’t you agtree?
With politicians like these, who needs comedians?
He would keep everyone joyful. He made the Obama ticket tolerable to me. A game changer.
You forgot Biden’s ‘forced’ helocopter landing in Afghanistan (no doubt due to Al Qaeda’s weather machine(AoS) or something).
…FDR wasn’t even president in 1929, and he didn’t make his first TV appearance until a decade later in 1939
TV didn’t even come to be (somewhat prevalent) in American homes until the early 1950′s.
If FDR spoke on a TV broadcast in 1939,it would have been experimental and a tiny audience…at that year’s World Fair ?
Oh yeah, Joe and 2 other Senators (“and some 3 Stars” Joe’s reference to generals) in a helicopter that was “forced down” in Afghanistan. (therefore, Joe might claim “ex-purt-tease” relative to the location of bin Laden…)
One of the Senators with Joe was John Kerry, who relates how a surprise snowstorm forced them down and they were bussed back to the American base.
Joe’s “Coptergate” story parallels Hillary’s “Snipergate” story.
Maybe the hairplugs heighten the Megalomania.
FDR did not make his first TV appearance in 1939, because there was no television then. Television did not really become widespread until the 1950s.
FDR used “fireside chats” on the radio to discuss public issues.
Gotta love ole Joe. It seems he doesn’t really have it in him to be as disingenuous and malicious as Obama would have him be. I suppose choosing somebody for a running mate that even resembles a typical middle American is a double-edged sword, eh, Obama? He should have stuck with some one truly nasty, like a Kerry or Pelosi.
While his fireside chats were on the radio, he was the first sitting president to be on television, as a demonstration at the 1939 World’s Fair.
This keeps getting better and better, it’s the trainwreck that you know is horrible but you just can’t seem to look away from.
The next big joke I’m waiting for is for Ole Joe to contract some dibilitating disease and have to beg off the ticket. Don’t forget, they still have Hillary saddled in the paddock to prance out for the next episode of this dog and pony show.
I think this election will go down in history as the biggest and final mistake the Democrats ever made. If anyone is still taking them seriously it’s because they forgot to take their anti-psychotic today!
Obama/Biden are showing their expertise in how they’re going to handle things if they attain the White House. Sure as hell won’t be any laughing matter then!
To remark the obvious, the press would have crucified McCain, Palin, both their families, as well as their ancestors, if either of them had committed any of these blunders.
I suppose we should all take consolation, however, knowing that if Biden and FDR were contemporaries, it’s quite possible the absent-minded senator may have asked the Commander in Chief to stand up for a round of applause. Now that would have been one for the record books!
http://www.ourrepublicblog.com/2008/09/mccain-lied-about-campaign-managers.html
You guys actually like being lied to I think. Why can’t you just secede and take your idiotocracy with you. Seriuosly, no wars, who the hell would want you bible thumping, lowest common denominator loving morons?
Replying to Sarah’s comment about having Hillery in the paddocks ready to pounce on the chance.
From my point of view, this would show the lack of experience and decision making ability of Obama. It screams of “Oops I made a mistake.”
If he makes this big a blunder, what would he do if elected? Say “Oops I didn’t mean to insult you president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Let me lick your boots.”
The gaffe machines are just speaking their mind. Imagine they may be lording over us in the next four years.
osama obama can’t leave home without his teleprompter to help him with his lies incase he forgets some of them. joe blo is a natural born liar and condescending bass-turd.
HAHAHA: Have a life and some humor. We are not lie detectors, we are laughing at gaffe machines.
Ummm Philip, that’s the point I was trying to make….
I’m just saying, if something horrible happens to Joe Biden don’t be suprised! That way he can drop out of the race and Obama won’t look like such an A$$ when he chooses Hillary to replace him.
HAHAHA, your comment belongs on Dr. Hanson’s essay on elitism – you are the example I think of the point he was making….
here.
Hardly anyone had one, but TVs were happening in 1939, and I’ve no doubt FDR might have been on TV during the World’s Fair. Biden is still a tool; but the author’s not wrong to suggest it had to be 1939 for FDR to be on TV, whether president yet or not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_in_television
The sad thing is that the American public is only a few weeks away from electing this dynamic duo to the White House. I wonder who will be laughing then. I am holding out hope for 2012 because McCain isn’t going to get the job done regardless of Palin. Then Palin can come back in 2012 and claim like Obama that running for President was executive experience.
Sandy,
I hope you’re wrong because I don’t want the 4 years of the Obama experience, but keep in mind Sarah will probably have been a governor for 8 years by then.
That is true and she would once again be a true Washington outsider. I wish that my vision into the future was not so clear, but the American public doesn’t vote on issues and as long as McCain limits Palin’s exposure Obama wins the personality game with the public. The public is already filling in the blank spots on Palin because there isn’t anything out there to show her for who she really is. They have gotten one great speach and then a ton of crap, so it is hard for them to decide on her.
We now have the two stooges! Moe (Obama) and Curly (Joe Blo Biden).
any suggestions for who would make the best third stooge?? there’s certainly no shortage of candidates!
This is obviously a Republican website.
Given that Lunch Pail Joe is such a rich source of gaffes I am waiting for SNL to start doing skits about Joe.
Sally,
Why do you think that?
Sally:
The Republicans are hilarious. But it gets boring.
the only main reason i refuse to vote for macain is he whats nuclear reactors, which we have no good why of disposing the waste, and i don’t want nuclear landfills around me.
Have you seen how Biden had put his arms almost around the girl’s neck answering her question about coal? Usually he’s just a gaffer with such a nice face expression that you cannot be angry with him, even if you want to: he’s not evil, he’s just stupid. But this time it was spooky.
Funny-funny, children, but better stay away from him!
Am I the only person who is too thirsty to keep waiting on the “trickle down” water to find its way into my cup? Do you find it odd that for the first time since 1992 our public confidence in the economy is below 10%. If memory serves me well that was the end of the last Republican tenure in the Oval Office but it may all be in my mind. And speaking of “all in my mind” I am waiting on John McCain to tell me this is merely a “psychological financial crisis” so I can relax and go on with my life.
I love guys like Simberg keeping the deck chairs nicely arranged on the good ship SS Democrat. Here’s a news flash ,I was around then and there were no television RECEIVERS.
SettingYouFree (guffaw): It is indeed all in your mind. The “last” Republican Administration ended in January 2005 after trouncing a twit named Kerry in November 2004. The DOW was, at that time, on it’s way to 14,000. Unfortunately, the Dems took control of Congress (and the power to control the national budget) in January 2007. DOW now 10,825 and sinking fast. Oops.
I apologize, you are absolutely right. In two years the Democrats found a way to cause a collapse of our financial system, double unemployment, inflate energy costs, and run our country bankrupt by passing what piece of “liberal” legislation? Oh you mean all those bills on the extreme left that George W. Bush signed. I somehow forgot how perfectly balanced the budget was in 2005 because the government had gotten so much smaller since 2002.
Sarah
While the Dem’s definitely are on track to lose this election because of the corrupt empty suit they put up, don’t forget about all that voter fraud Obama bought from Acorn for $800K.
Electoral fraud is the Democrats’ ace in the hole. And the Republicans in positions that could do something about it are too busy being “nonpartisan” to do anything about.
At the end of the day, Democrats have a big advantage. They will do anything it takes to win. They have no ethics or loyalty. Winning power is everything to them. To defeat such evil scum, one must at the very least stop treating them as honorable opponents and treat them as the mad dogs they really are.
jake tapper of ABC has so far collected 18 Biden gaffes just under 2 months..can you imagine if we really end up having him as the VP..fun ride indeed
here is the complete list her in this blog:
http://www.obamasgaffes.blogspot.com
Unbelieveable,
“They have no ethics or loyalty. Winning power is everything to them”.
Does this not sound like the last 8 years to anyone else? Voter fraud? It’s funny how convenient this subject is when it fits your cause. Let us not forget that it was statistically impossible for Bush to have won many of the counties in Ohio last election. How do I know that you ask? Well the firm that concluded the odds of some largely African American precincts who voted over 80% Democrat in 2000 suddenly voted nearly 60% Republican in 2004 was 4 Billion to one (statistically impossible). And why should we trust this firm, because they virtually invented scientific analysis and oh yeah, they are who Bush trusted to make sure elections in Ukraine were on the up and up. I could go on but it is obvious nobody here is interested in truth, merely harping on the flavor of the day that suits their interests.
Was Rudy right or what we he said that Biden better get that VP in writing?? If Ms.Palin had said just a few of these things she would have been run off the ticket by the lousy press.
4 billion to one? Jeepers!
There’s an OBVIOUS explanation. The dark wizard ROVE used his MIND RAYS to control minority voters fingers in the voting booth! Remember how he used his mind rays to control the CIA’s supersecret weather control sattelite to guide Hurricane Katrina DIRECTLY to New Orleans minority neighborhoods! With power like that, of COURSE GW won!
And I’ll bet Joe watched it all on the TV FDR gave him for his birthday!
by the way, Jake tapper has added two more Biden gaffe:
http://www.obamasgaffes.blogspot.com
4,000,000,000:1 !!! Good thing it’s real life, not a game. Look, Swift Boat did in Kerry. In OH, they may be mostly Dems, but they’re generally socially conservative. Lots of guys there serve in the military. Lying about your military record is a big no-no. Big. Huge. I served. I know.
There’re some unwritten rules, and some written rules. Written: you don’t EVER wear a medal to which you’re not entitled. Unwritten: You don’t exaggerate your war record, and you don’t pull a Jane Fonda. Patriotism is just a word to Libs, but to Cons, it’s Holy.
tom u:
You are badly misinformed on the topic of nuclear power. We have *dozens* of good ways to dispose of the waste, we just can’t make the political decision which to choose. This indecision has forced us to use the default method: store above ground on the site of the nuclear plant itself. I live 25 miles away from SONGS, the nuclear plant at San Onofre, California. I would live closer if the commute to work wasn’t such a pain. The waste stored there has never contributed to the smog I have to breathe from all the non-electric cars we are forced to drive (how’s THAT for “safe disposal”, eh?) If storing the waste above ground in dozens of sites around the country (arguably the worst of our current choices) has caused no problems in 30 years, why are all the other choices in any way “bad”? Since you are voting for him, what’s Obama’s solution to our energy crisis? Hmmmmm?
Personally this has been the biggest, stupid mess to watch, and it answers alot of questions ,HOW DID THIS COUNTRY GET IN A MESS LIKE THIS”, you watch what is running, this my people is ower problem, all that was on that stage against OBAMA, they couldn’t win, not even HILLARY, i find this under-handed as hell, to the point the DEMS. have to win no matter what, he’s had a free ride because he BLACK, BLACK’S will vote, get off there lazy asses and vote, this is the winning card, push him no matter what, we’ll deal with the rest later, we got to win.THE McCain party, it’s a hard road to shake 8yrs. of BUSHY-TAIL, they pick JOHN because he doesn’t agree on alot of things, but really the best, i like JOHN, but not my pick, then out came his card, PALIN, this women does alot for me, i like her because if they get in there will be no stopping, change we’ll see, and fast, she’s not spoiled with the WASHINGTON games, hopefully she’ll always be on her toes about that, yes with PALIN it will be pay-back time, me, i would stay in my nice little bubble, but this women has ideas, and somehow i believe both can do it as a team, ready, for what, to screw the tax payers more, or ready to start making CONGRESS WORK FOR THEIR MONEY..GO MCCAIN/PALIN
J Barnett – I think you’re wrong about the cause of the problem. This is nothing new. Demagoguery has been around forever.
Watch when Obama speaks. When he makes a point, he uses simple, declarative sentences. He speaks with conviction, which trumps many people’s reason. Gosh, it must be true! Catch him in a lie or contradiction, tell the people about it, and he’ll deny it. He’ll start his spin with the authoritative statement that, “I’ve ALWAYS maintained, blah, blah, blah….”
During the debate, he stated, “Sanctions don’t work!” ONE minute later, he stated, “We need tougher sanctions!” He says it firmly, and each sentence gets taken stand-alone as true. Only when one gets suspicious of him, does one start to check the logic or consistency.