Video: Biden says “It’s a depression”
posted at 8:48 am on October 20, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Via Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit, we have Vice President Joe “Loose Cannon” on video raining on Barack Obama’s Chip Diller “All is well!” approach to the economy. While the White House touts statements from some economists who believe the recession has ended, Biden told an audience that we’re not only coming out of the problem, it’s worse than you think:
Sean Hannity begs Obama to lend Biden just one of his teleprompters, but remember what happened the last time Obama lent Biden a TOTUS? Better to just keep Joe at an undisclosed location as often as possible.
Biden didn’t limit the embarrassment to economics, either. As Andrew Malcolm reports, Biden also got a chance to exercise his fabulist impulses by rewriting the script on how exactly he came to be Obama’s flunking flunky. In his previous version, he accepted when Obama called him at the dentist’s office, in the middle of a root canal, when Obama promised Biden that he’d have a substantive role in the administration. In the new version, Biden made Obama ask twice and changed the promise into something less self-serving:
“I initially said no,” Biden said tonight, according to press pool notes, “that I wasn’t interested.”
Biden said the freshman Illinois senator asked the longtime Delaware senator to think about it.
According to tonight’s version, “a couple months later,” a persistent Obama repeated the offer in a hotel room in Minneapolis.
According to Biden, he looked at Obama and said, “Are you really committed to changing the course of this country?”
Biden recounted tonight, “He reached out, shook my hand and said, ‘I am[.]‘”
Anyone think Obama might be wishing he’d picked Evan Bayh instead?
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2
“Give them cake”.
Johan Klaus on October 20, 2009 at 10:12 AM
OmahaConservative on October 20, 2009 at 10:13 AM
“Give them cake”.
Johan Klaus on October 20, 2009 at 10:12 AM
Johan Klaus: Screw that,let èm eat waffles and cupcakes!!:)
canopfor on October 20, 2009 at 10:14 AM
There’s one small problem with your argument here, though, that Kafir and I and a couple of others have said (not that I like Biden…I think he’s an idiot). And its the fact that that clip was very obviously taken out of context. It was a statement taken out of the middle of something out. And taking things out of context is a typical assault of the liberal wing, not what we do. That’s a tactic of the other side in a lot of things. We shouldn’t sink to that level. Now, if he (Biden) continued to say something like that AROUND that clip about the nation being in a depression, then I’ll agree wholeheartedly to SKEWER him with it…but we don’t know that’s what he said. Unfortunately. :(
Highlar on October 20, 2009 at 10:15 AM
Did Biden happen to mention the ongoing constitutional crisis?
flyfisher on October 20, 2009 at 10:16 AM
Could be worse,or worser,like a Suppression!!
canopfor on October 20, 2009 at 10:16 AM
Yep, but he’d get lost in his golf cart…driving endless circles around the Schwartz bronze statue.
jbh45 on October 20, 2009 at 10:18 AM
I still disagree.
“Depression” is a toxic word. If we’re not in a depression, don’t even approach the word.
I’ve worked around military officers for two decades. They are extremely careful about what they say, because any word they say can be “taken out of context”. It goes with the job.
I’m sure CEOs are the same way. Utter the wrong word at the wrong time and your stock drops.
It is appalling to me that we have a buffoon who even USES the word “depression” at a moment in time like this. He’s too much of a jackass to understand how toxic that word is at a time like this.
NoDonkey on October 20, 2009 at 10:20 AM
While I definitely see the logic of his quote in context, it strikes me that there’s a fundamental contradiction in proclaiming anything over while there is still high unemployment AND fear of unemployment is higher than it has been in decades as well. Even if we were to say, “OK, the economy can get out of a recession with 10% unemployment”, could it also do so with the remainder of the employed population bringing up its savings rate to potentially ward off difficulties if or when they lose their jobs as well? There needs to be another category in that list besides recession and depression, to account for the heightened fear of losing your job, which is especially prevalent now because job losses are not simply focused in a couple of industries, but are economy-wide.
venividivici on October 20, 2009 at 10:24 AM
Oh, I’m not disagreeing with you on “depression” being a toxic word. It certainly can be, and especially so with the economy today. All I’m saying is that its quite obvious that that clip is taken out of context. He said “depression” true, but in what context was he using the word? We really need to know what came before, and definitely what comes after, to determine how he was meaning it.
Highlar on October 20, 2009 at 10:24 AM
Joltin’ Joe firing from the lip again. Well done Mr. Vice President.
webproze on October 20, 2009 at 10:25 AM
Could Joe be an “idiot savant?”
The truth spills out un-Biden?
(I apologize in advance for the crude, crude double entendre)
ExpressoBold on October 20, 2009 at 10:33 AM
In ObamaWorld, up is down, left is right, and…
Black is white.
TXUS on October 20, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Thank God the adults are in charge:
This is the “super smart” Biden in September:
Biden: Stimulus Working Better Than Expected
Nearly 200 days into the effort, Vice President Biden delivers an upbeat report card about the $787 billion rescue effort that President Obama pushed through Congress.
AP
Thursday, September 03, 2009
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/03/biden-stimulus-doing-hoped/
Now Joe “the smartest democrat in the Senate” Biden says this:
But “super smart Biden” has already explained why the Obama administration appear to not have a clue as to what is going on with the economy and how to deal with it:
VP Joe Biden on ABC’s This Week,
July 5,2009
But….But…But how could this be.
Hope and Change….the smartest people in the room…the adults are in charge….”Smart Power”….on…and…on…and…on…and…on that is all we heard from the democratic party.
This does not exemplify a high rate of intelligence now does it.
I mean only an idiot would call this “smart power”.
But Biden has already explained why he has no idea what is going on from one day to the next:
“I’m sorry I’m not an economist,” Biden said as he was describing the methodology. “My background is foreign policy and the constitution.
But according to Newsweek, Biden is “no fool”.
Of course Newsweek also told us the “recession is over” months ago also.
Absolutely stuck on stupid!!!
Baxter Greene on October 20, 2009 at 10:37 AM
No the ship of state isn’t sinking!
We have just installed a bottomless salt water pool in the lower decks and will soon offer refreshing pool service to the upper decks brought right to your cabin!
ajacksonian on October 20, 2009 at 10:41 AM
Sure, it’s a Depression.
But it’s Boosh’s depression.
BigAlSouth on October 20, 2009 at 10:41 AM
Although I do wish Biden would do more public speaking so he would make more blunders, this one is no big deal.
The MSM won`t report on it, his words are being taken out of context and most people do not have a clue what the difference is between a recession and a depression.
And he would be wrong if he really meant that the US is in a depression. It is not….yet.
albill on October 20, 2009 at 10:43 AM
Hannity is really trying to work the retard button here. Biden is a buffoon but this is a common metaphor for a recession/depression. And he says it’s a depression for millions of people who’ve lost their jobs since Obama took office.
It’s not saying it’s a Depression(tm).
lorien1973 on October 20, 2009 at 10:53 AM
Maybe you should employ the liberal artifice and meme employed by Whoopi:
It’s not a depression-depression.
ExpressoBold on October 20, 2009 at 10:58 AM
People who invest large sums of money, do. People who start businesses, do.
He shouldn’t even be mentioning the word, he’s a complete jackass and this is just more evidence of it. He has no idea what it is he’s doing and neither does the guy one level up.
NoDonkey on October 20, 2009 at 10:58 AM
I think Hannity is also a buffoon, however Biden is the VP, his words are taken seriously, the world hears and reacts to his words. This isn’t some commentator, but the second most powerful man in the world. When he speaks, it is the administration speaking.
His words were depression, those are critical exact defined words…if he doesn’t know the difference he should not be speaking.
It is not up to us to parse his words, his words (as all leaders words do) speak for themselves.
Don’t confuse Biden with a talking head…these words should be carefully crafted as one of the leaders of the U.S.
right2bright on October 20, 2009 at 10:59 AM
Reagan said essentially the same thing during the 1980 election.
lorien1973 on October 20, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Where is whitehouse spokeswoman Anita Mao to blame this on Fox News?
Dire Straits on October 20, 2009 at 11:09 AM
I agree with you on this one, lorien1973. As much as I usually like Hannity, I think he just took this one too far and too much out of context. He would have been much better doing what Beck does and show the full clip, but highlight the part he is talking about. That’s the only way to really lock in the liberals into what they are saying: show it in context with the whole thing they are saying. That’s when it becomes really damning, as in the Anita Dun/Mao comments.
Highlar on October 20, 2009 at 11:10 AM
“Lunchpail” Joe Biden: idiot savant (99.99% idiot, 0.01% savant)
ya2daup on October 20, 2009 at 11:17 AM
ya2daup on October 20, 2009 at 11:23 AM
“Anyone think Obama might be wishing he’d picked Evan Bayh instead?”
The only good thing that would have come from that is Governor Daniels picking a Rupublican replacement. Evan Bayh likes to dress up like a man, but he’s a company toad for the DNC and will do what Obamao tells him to.
Biden is a joke and laughably inept, but without any real power, mostly harmless except to our national image (which will be a worldwide disgrace by 2012 anyway).
SKYFOX on October 20, 2009 at 11:40 AM
If only he were harmless . . .
Would be nice if we had an actual competent human being in that position.
We have complete jackass idiots in upper leadership positions in our government then we wonder why everything is a mess.
Biden is the rule, not the exception. He’s the poster boy for Democrat corruption and incompetence.
NoDonkey on October 20, 2009 at 11:53 AM
This is 2010, you are about 30 years late…you think 1980 is the same as 2010?
What a strange argument…”Hey someone said something similar about 30 years ago, under different circumstances, and different conditions, and during a campaign….but I forgot to include the link”
right2bright on October 20, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Hilarious (and good point, too:-)
rightrevelation on October 20, 2009 at 12:15 PM
Hey, ya gotta give Joey the “entertainment” factor.
GarandFan on October 20, 2009 at 12:16 PM
Heckuva a job Baracky.
18-1 on October 20, 2009 at 12:19 PM
Crazy ol’ Uncle Joe strikes again…
Don’t we all have a oddball family member like this that we have to put up with for a few hours each year at Thanksgiving?
All that being said, I wouldn’t truast him with the TV remote.
JohnBG on October 20, 2009 at 12:22 PM
I bet ObaMao is wishing the dentist wired Biden’s mouth shut.
mizflame98 on October 20, 2009 at 12:25 PM
I know I wish it had been Evan Bayh.
Then there’d be only 59 Democratic senators.
JohnGalt23 on October 20, 2009 at 3:10 PM
(Heh, heh; I know this is his agenda, but he does like to apologize and appease for the so called U.S. exorbitance, unless he and Michelle are partaking of it in Paris).
Cybergeezer on October 20, 2009 at 4:17 PM
Anyone think Obama might be wishing he’d picked Evan Bayh instead?
Evan Bayh may be thinking,”Thank God, he didn’t pick me, he’s worse than Carter!”
patch on October 20, 2009 at 5:27 PM
Biden’s so stupid he whips off at the local ho house, AND PAYS FOR IT!
Cybergeezer on October 20, 2009 at 6:42 PM
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2