Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Biden Goes Negative on Economy

After a few days of upbeat economic talk, Joe Biden started pushing the catastrophe angle again.

He said that for a lot of people "this is life and death."

Huh?

What happened to the "Obama factor"?

What about all that hope and confidence?

From Politico:

Vice President Joe Biden’s tone on the economy Monday night was a stark contrast from the upbeat message coming from the Obama administration over the past few days.

In a 20-minute speech thanking supporters at a Democratic National Committee event, Biden said that the country’s dire economic situation was even more complex than the Great Depression.

“This president has inherited the most difficult first 100 days of any president, I would argue, including Franklin Roosevelt,” Biden said.

“Let me explain what I mean by that,” he added. “It was clear the problem Roosevelt inherited. This is a more complicated economic [problem]. We’ve never, ever been here before – here or in the world. Never, ever been here before.”

...Biden, who was introduced by DNC chairman Tim Kaine, was shouting at times and whispering at others. He said he was ending his speech three times before he ended it.

It sounds like he may have been intoxicated. He may not have been drunk on alcohol, but he surely was drunk on being in the spotlight.
He at once bleached the politics out discussion of the president’s agenda, while linking it directly to the Democrats’ political futures.

“Folks this is the real deal, this ain’t politics. This is life and death for a lot of people,” he said, referring to programs in the stimulus package and the budget proposal.

Minutes later he said getting the president’s agenda passed would “change the political climate.”

“It will have every single pundit out there, even the ones who are covering this today, saying, ‘You know, these guys not only came up with an idea, whether we like it or not, they moved and they passed it,’” Biden said. “And we are willing to win or lose – win or lose – upon the soundness of our judgment.”

Biden said that "this ain’t politics."

Give me a break. It most certainly is. It's all politics. It's about money. It's about the perpetual campaign. Suddenly, we're back on the edge of a depression greater than the Great Depression.

Biden's remarks weren't off-the-cuff. This turnaround was prepared and calculated.

How can the Obama administration be so incapable of presenting a coherent message?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No more incoherent that this blogger.

Anyone can claim there is a calculated change of message, when their world view is too small to imagine that a single problem, "the economic situation," has a "range," of effects over different socio-economic groups affected.

Anonymous said...

What is big Joe's drink of choice?