Biden as Secretary of State?

[PatSeg]

Kevin McCarthy has this answer:

<Iowa House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy , who endorsed Biden today, joshed about the speculation of many pundits that Biden really aims to head the State Department, saying "Given that Iraq is the number one issue facing this country, and it will be for the next few years, wouldn't it be nice to have a president of the United States who's smarter than his Secretary of State?">


More at: http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/09/biden_prebutts.html

[jefferson_dem]

1. And Edwards as Atty. General...

...in Obama's administration.

I could go for that.

[PatSeg]

4. I never thought of that one!

Edwards definitely would be an incredible Atty General. Brings back memories of RFK!

[Ian David]

2. I'd nominate Biden as either press secretary or dog catcher. n/t

[daninthemoon]

3. Why do so many du'ers dislike Biden so vehemently?

[PatSeg]

5. I think the media has a lot to do with it

and there are those who are stuck on certain votes they disagree with, but scrutiny of any long time Senator will produce unpopular positions.

I see similar attitudes towards other candidates though. No one is immune from the slings and arrows.

[foo_bar]

10. the problem is he ran for president 20 years ago

or tried to, but didn't withstand the vetting process to go head to head with the Dukakis juggernaut (although the Redskins might have played a role). Then he took a two decade hiatus from presidential politics, presumably to cultivate a generation of voters who'd never heard of Joe Biden, and now he's starting from scratch with this 18-21 demographic. He's like the next Dick Clark.

[PatSeg]

11. From Wikipedia on 1988 campaign

<Controversy emerged during Biden's candidacy ; he ended his presidential campaign on September 23, 1987 after being accused of plagiarism. Though he had correctly credited the original author in all speeches but one, the one where he failed to make mention of the originator was caught on video. In the video Biden is filmed repeating a stump speech by British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock with only minor modifications. “After Biden withdrew from the race it was learned that he had correctly credited Kinnock on all other occasions. But in the Iowa speech that was recorded and distributed to reporters (with a parallel video of Kinnock) by aides to Michael Dukakis, the eventual nominee, he failed to do so. Dukakis fired John Sasso, his campaign manager and long-time Chief of Staff, but Biden's campaign could not recover.<1><2><3>>


It is my understanding that John Sasso later apologized to Biden.

<After ending his Presidential campaign Biden requested the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Delaware Supreme Court review the issue. The Board concluded on December 21, 1987, after Biden had withdrawn, that the senator had not violated any rules, although Biden did not release this result until May 1989.>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden_presidential_campaign%2C_1988

[foo_bar]

12. the three sentences between your first wiki excerpt and the second one

As a part of this controversy, it was revealed that Biden had been involved in a similar incident during his first year at Syracuse University Law School in 1965. Biden initially received an “F” in an introductory class on legal methodology for writing a paper relying almost exclusively on a single Fordham Law Review article, which he had cited. Biden was allowed to repeat the course and passed with high marks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden_presidential_campaign%2C_1988

Context is everything (-Derrida?). If Biden speaks to you, go with the flow; just be aware that it's an also-ran dog and pony show without any ponies.

Kinnock (original)

Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Why is Glenys the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university?

Was it because our predecessors were thick? Does anybody really think that they didn't get what we had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment? Of course not. It was because there was no platform upon which they could stand.

Biden

I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? Why is it that my wife who is sitting out there in the audience is the first in her family to ever go to college?

Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? . . . No, it's not because they weren't as smart. It's not because they didn't work as hard. It's because they didn't have a platform upon which to stand . . .

It turned out Biden had also borrowed passages from old campaign speeches by Robert Kennedy and had inflated his academic record. But oratory has a long tradition of borrowing and even "heavy lifting," as speechwriters call it, so Biden stayed alive in the presidential race. The last straw, however, came when it turned out that twenty years earlier Biden had received a failing grade in a law school course for plagiarizing a legal article (he'd given a single footnote while lifting five full pages from the article). Biden said he'd been unaware of the appropriate standards for legal briefs, but the public was unimpressed. His campaign collapsed and he withdrew from the race.

http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/plagiarism.html

[jillan]

16. And Maureen Dowd decided to run thru the mud with it.

And then the media had a story.

But did they give Sasso's apology as much press as they gave his smear campaign?
The fact that people still are talking about Biden the plagerizer is your answer.

[PatSeg]

17. Once the media puts a tag on someone

it tends to stick for years, even decades. Dukakis in a tank, John Kerry wind-surfing, HW Bush looking at his watch during a debate, Kerry saying he "voted against the bill before he voted for it", Howard Dean's scream (played over and over again), etc.

Every election, the pundits replay the same old stuff claiming that one or two missteps or gaffes were somehow a defining moment in an election. Any explanation that doesn't fit into a nice, neat soundbite does not stick with a public that has a short attention span.

[Ian David]

6. I think it has something to do with him being Evil. n/t

[daninthemoon]

7. Well, that certainly explains it. Now I don't like him, either.

[PatSeg]

9. Me too!!!

Why didn't I see that??? I HATE evil!!!

[truebrit71]

8. Voting FOR the bankruptcy bill has a big part to play in my personal disdain for...

...plagarizing Joe....

[goodhue]

13. He would be a poor secretary of state because job requires diplomacy

Biden typically speaks before thinking, and so gets foot in mouth occasionally.

[SteveG]

14. not likely

If he isn't the President, I don't think he would be willing to give up his Senate seat. He is Chairman of the Foreign Relations Comm. and as such has nearly as much clout as a Secretary of State.

[Inuca]

15. Agree

IMHO oppinion he would be foolish to trade.

[ellacott]

18. When Kerry was running Biden said he wanted to be Sec. of State

He was on one of the Sunday morning shows when he said that.

I also think he would be more effective in the Senate.

[jillan]

19. SoS for Kerry - yes.

That was kinda in the works.
Biden was one of the two people Kerry had mentioned for SoS.
They have worked together on the SFRC for many years.