Senior Obama campaign advisor Robert Gibbs defended Vice President Biden’s comment to a mostly black audience that GOP economic policies would put people “back in chains,” saying that it was no different than Republican references to a need to “unshackle” Wall Street.
No more race baiting than when John Boehner says ‘let’s unshackle Wall Street, let’s unshackle big business,’” said Gibbs.
“I think the vice president was correct in exactly how he explained what happens when we unshackle Wall Street and let Wall Street go back to writing its own rules.“
Asked if Biden was a “drag on the ticket,” Gibbs said “absolutely not.”
“I’m happy to have Joe Biden out campaigning and telling his story to the American people, putting in front of people the choice that’s going to happen in this election,” said Gibbs.
“I’m happy and proud of Joe Biden and I’m happy and proud to have him on the trail every day.”
The vice president had a difficult week on the campaign trail after saying on the stump that Republican policies toward Wall Street would “put y’all back in chains,” a comment that brought swift criticism from Republicans.
The Obama campaign has defended Biden, claiming that his remark was taken out of context.
Yet the latest gaffe led to media speculation that he might be forced off the ticket, despite the administration’s repeated statements that Biden would run with the president.
On Thursday, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Republicans were trying to “distract attention” and said Obama had no intention of getting rid of Biden as his running mate.
Gibbs also rebuffed claims from the Romney camp that the Obama team had lowered the tone of the campaign.
“I’m not going to get lectured by Mitt Romney or anybody on the Romney campaign about the tone of this campaign. This is a guy who’s flown all over this country saying he’s not sure if the president believes in America,” said Gibbs. “He’s auctioning off dinners with the birther-in chief, right-wing nut job Donald Trump, who still questions whether the president was born in the United States of America.”
When has intent ever stopped Democrats from accusing the GOP of racism? Taking innocent comments and placing them in a racial context without regard to the intent or context in which they were made is straight out of Democratic political attack school. One might reasonably argue that Gibbs is correct — that Biden was playing to the bloodlust of the crowd, and that his “chains” comment was simple exaggeration and hyperbole.
Maybe writing about politics is too stressful or challenging for you. These “pox on both your houses” tirades are becoming tiresome. Pick a side and stick to it or else go find something else to whine about. This is politics. And if Joe Biden makes another stupid, racially-antagonistic statement he will rightfully be criticized for it. If that’s too much for your delicate sensibilities to handle then go lie down and take a nap. Nobody is ignoring the “real” issues here. EVERYTHING is on the table.
– the thread.
Yes – the republic will rise or fall based on whether Joe Biden really meant it about chains being placed on black people.
Sorry, my error.
Your two rhetorical questions aren’t remotely similar, which you would realize if you weren’t either “sinking into the depths of apathy” or insulting the intelligence of your readers.
Mitt Romney made a serious point about the the importance of culture in fostering prosperity, and the role of a society’s government in shaping and being shaped by its culture. Rather than engage that point, Democrats screamed racism, as they usually do when they don’t want to engage in adult debate.
Joe Biden adopted a Butterfly McQueen impersonation to tell a black audience, “Dey gon’ put you back in chains!” There’s not a serious point there to debate. It’s just stupid. And if you don’t think government officials should be criticized and mocked when they display such offensive stupidity, you’re not just in the wrong business and the wrong country, you’re in the wrong century.
Why did Joe Biden get picked in the first place to be Vice President? Seems to me the Dems could of done better.
Assassination insurance.
As usual, I do not agree with Mr. Moran and his “I’m cooler than you, because I take a position of moral relativism”.
When Joe Biden says that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are going to “put y’all back in chains”…and then the dim-witted and very slow Gibbs says “that isn’t a racial statement”…and Rick Moran says it’s “just all part of politics and both sides do it”…we wind up with a wimp, a simp and a pimp.
Of course Biden’s comment had racial undertones. That’s the whole point of the comment. Trying to gin up racial animosity as political theater is what the leftists do.
Watching an old, pasty white, dim bulb trying out his minstrel act in front of a black audience is not just cringeworthy, it’s beneath contempt as a tactic. Returning blacks to slavery through economic repression is not merely over the top “political boys will be political boys”.
In Mr. Moran’s zeal to be recognized as “not one of them”…the typical “half a loafer”…he misses all that is wrong, dangerous, destructive to the COUNTRY by allowing the incitement to hate based upon race. Fanning the flames of a slander against white people in general, Republicans in specific and then attributing a false accusation toward an individual man…is so despicable it ought to be below the belt…ever for politicians and for the terminally myopic, such as Mr. Moran.
There should exist a line below which not even a Democrat would go. There isn’t, but there should be.
Gibbs suggesting that there is some analogy to unshackling the legislative handcuffs on business is the same thing, is completely disingenous. The simile does not gin up racial animus, is not intended to do so. Biden’s despicable comment was designed to do precisely that.
No matter how Mr. Moran tries to whitewash it (no racial intent there, either).
Mr. Moran may like to play the Irish Uncle Tom….is a different statement than Huck Finn was a descendant of the Scots-Irish and Uncle Tom was black and there is a lesson in those adventures.
Not knowing where the line is between “politics ain’t beanbag” and intentionally dividing the country along race lines must be much harder of an exercise than I might have originally thought. Certainly Mr. Moran doesn’t see the line. Or he just likes to blur it.
Nice scolding, cf!
It is about where we draw the line. What, exactly, constitutes “below the belt”?
Is this a serious issue? Absolutely! Standards of decency are the very basics of civilization.
The Left uses racial-divide-and-conquer as a distraction from the very issues Mr. Moran thinks we should be discussing. Well, if we want to have a real discussion, we have to take away that weapon. We have to break it so it no longer is effective. If we do not, if we think we should just rise above it and ignore it, we only engage in unilateral disarmament… the typical, spineless-Republican response.
Derek Hunter has a good article about Joe Biden: http://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2012/08/19/our_idiot_vice_president
This idiot is our VP. He may have to take over and make the decisions. Is not his blatant dishonesty and stupidity a serious issue, Mr. Moran? Are not qualifications a serious issue? We should call the idiot an idiot, and he should be rejected as such. Maybe then, we won’t be subjected to such idiocy in the future, and we can then have serious discussions. You cannot discuss serious issues with idiots, Mr. Moran. It is stupid to even try.
– Donks, it’s the toes.
Yes, Biden is an idiot. The significance of his comment will not change many votes, but it does point out (again) the bias in the LSM and the double standard on such remarks.
As for “both sides do it”, yes they do. Politics is a blood sport, and if you’re not ready to get down in the mud, the blood, and the beer and slug it out you don’t belong in the game. I hope Romney gives as good as he gets, every time. The holier-than-thou approach of the McCain campaign got us 4 years of a nightmare.