Joe Biden speaks at the Presidential Gun Sense Forum in Des Moines, Iowa.

[Drunken Irishman]

This is the forum where he supposedly gaffed. Listen to Biden's words. It's a shame a few have co-opted what he actually said, taken just a sliver of his message, and ignored the rest of the context of his message.

There's things here that, to me, show just how sharp Biden is.

For one. he rattles off statistics, numbers, like no candidate I've ever seen on the fly. It's impressive (starts it around the 5:20 mark).

Secondly, he's good at wrapping the message around to a personal story that was relayed to him, or he knows about, from someone in the audience. In this instance, it's the mother, whose son was murdered when he was 14 years old, who relays a story about leaving the crock pot on simmering while her and her husband goes to the store, bu the husband tells her to turn it off because they may not return. It's a throw away story that, if you weren't paying attention, could easily be forgotten. Biden remembered it and mentions it again (at around the same exact spot as the above point - the 5:18 mark). He did this in his interview with Anderson Cooper, where he spoke of Cooper's brother passing. He's done this on the campaign trail and at forums and I think it speaks to both his memory, but also his attentiveness when discussing issues with people. He actually listens.

Biden's full time here:

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[Vegas Roller]

1. Go Joe -- kick Trump's ass

K&R

[ucrdem]

2. People give him a hard time about that 1994 crime bill

but you know what? Crimes are committed and it's no fun to get assaulted, robbed, burgled, or worse. And I have been all of the above except worse. And yes if a homeless person gets violent the place s/he needs to be is in prison. That's the way it goes. And if it doesn't, people will buy more and bigger guns and get crazier and crazier.

Moral: you can let criminals out prison or you can control gun sales but you can't have it both ways. I'd rather control guns.


p.s. I mixed that up the first time and just corrected it. But the point is, for gun control to work people have to feel safe, and that means there have to be consequences for crimes that make them feel unsafe, locally and nationally.