Joe Biden Gets Another Pass

You can tell that Joe Biden isn't a top tier conservative candidate.

If he had a spot there, the comments he made yesterday would be big news.

In an interview with the Washington Post's Editorial Board, Biden stumbled, badly.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In what the Washington Post is describing as a "stumble," Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said in an interview with the paper Wednesday that Washington's high minority population is one of the reasons for the city's education problems.

Explaining why schools in Iowa are performing better than those in Washington, D.C., Biden told the Post, "There's less than one percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than four of five percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you're dealing with."

"When you have children coming from dysfunctional homes, when you have children coming from homes where there's no books, where the mother from the time they're born doesn't talk to them — as opposed to the mother in Iowa who's sitting out there and talks to them, the kid starts out with a 300 word larger vocabulary at age three. Half this education gap exists before the kid steps foot in the classroom," the Delaware Democrat added.

The paper reports Biden's campaign quickly sought to clarify the remarks, saying in a statement that the senator was not making a "race-based distinction" but rather a "socio-economic" one.

I don't believe that Biden thinks African-Americans in Washington are less intelligent than Iowa's overwhelmingly non-minority population.

I buy the explanation that Biden was making a socio-economic distinction.

However, for a politician with his experience, you'd think the guy would stop stepping in it.

He's made a number of awkward, racially-charged remarks.

For example, Biden said about Barack Obama:

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

On FOX News Sunday, when discussing his "Northeast liberal" label:

"You don't know my state. My state was a slave state. My state is a border state. My state is the eighth largest black population in the country. My state is anything from a northeast liberal state."

At an appearance, shaking hands with a man and boasting about his support among Indian-Americans:

"You cannot go into a Dunkin Donuts or a 7-Eleven unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."

Biden gets to explain away his comments and the lib media move on.

If a conservative said this stuff, he or she would be toast.

The libs are untouchable.