The Ones Who Are With Her
Showing posts with label Joe Biden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Biden. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Saturday, January 3, 2015
"One thing you can do right now that will make a big difference to your health"
It's Old Handsome Joe this New Year to tell you why you should sign up for the Affordable Care Act today.
Full transcript here.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
" It’s long past time to cut the middle class back into the deal"
You tell 'em, Old Handsome Joe.
Full transcript here.
Friday, August 8, 2014
The Politician of Joy
Wonkette favorite Old Handsome Joe Biden was his usual irresistible self at Netroots Nation last month, as Charlie Pierce writes:
He's one of the last politicians I know who really enjoys getting up and doing this, who really enjoys jumping through the preposterous hoops that are set up for every national candidate. The general feeling here is that Biden will not run for president if Hillary Clinton does. This is unfortunate. If there was ever a contrast to be made with the dour, mechanized, winning-through-effort style of the former Secretary of State, it is Biden's Humphrey-esque joie de pancake breakfast. As much as he deplored the politics of division in this country, which he did throughout the last third of his speech, Biden finds in politics the kind of joy and the kind of outlet for the goofier angels of our nature that have been bred out of our politicians by four generations of political consultants. Biden is Lyndon with his beagles, and FDR with a cocktail shaker. He is the last real eccentric, and he knows it, and he plays it to the hilt because it is so much of what he is. Tattered and worn and old as it is. Joe Biden's freak flag still flies high and proud.
Also, he swims in the nude. If he runs against Hillary, I will quit my job to work on his campaign.
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Joe Biden is a Class Act
Old Handsome Joe 2016.
TPM:
Vice President Joe Biden reached out to the park ranger who was chewed out by a Republican congressman on Wednesday at the World War II memorial in Washington.If you've ever worked for a living, if you've ever had to tolerate an asshole publicly humiliating you for doing your job, if you've ever had a boss who genuinely appreciated your work, you don't need to know anything else about the difference between Democrats and republicans.
"I'm proud of you," Biden told the ranger over the phone. The call was announced on the vice president's official Twitter feed.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Old Handsome Joe 2016
It's no coincidence that the man behind President Obama's gun safety initiative is the most underestimated politician in D.C.
Last week, Ezra Baby Wonk Klein had an excellent piece on the man most likely to give the Democrats their first third-term re-elect in 70 years. *
For a 70-year-old man, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden sure spends an awful lot of time winning the Internet.* Not counting the win in 2000 that the Supreme Court stole from Al Gore
No other living politician has quite the same ratio of words spoken to memes inspired. Last week’s contribution was the patter of joyously weird, occasionally creepy, one-liners he threw off while swearing in the 113th Senate.
“Spread your legs!” He told Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s husband. “You’re gonna be frisked!”
“Mom, I’ll see you in a little bit,” he winked to Senator Bob Casey’s mother (he called all the mothers “mom”). “I hope I’ll sneak over and see you.”
Senator Tim Scott’s brother, a former football player, got this instant classic: “Need any help on your pecs, man, give me a call.” Senator Orrin Hatch’s granddaughter was advised: “No serious guys until you’re 30.” To the brunette alongside Senator Robert Menendez, it was: “You are so pretty. God love you. Holy mackerel.” At one point, Biden turned to the crowd in the gallery above. “Anybody else want to be sworn in as a senator today?”
You could no more imagine President Barack Obama delivering these lines — save maybe the “pecs” one — than imagine him eating pork rinds while watching “Two and a Half Men” enfolded in a Snuggie. Obama doesn’t do backslapping bonhomie. But people love watching Biden do it. (Have you seen the gif, “This Is How Joe Biden Greets Babies”? Amazing.) That’s why the White House website is featuring a petition to let Biden star in his own reality show. It’s a good idea, I think. Why don’t we call it the 2016 presidential campaign?
Zany, Ambitious
In the continuing drama that is the Obama presidency, Biden often appears as comic relief. He’s the zany neighbor, the adorable uncle. As a result, his presidential ambitions, which burn brightly even today, have mostly been laughed off. Somehow, the sitting vice president of the United States, the former chairman of both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, a man who’s on a nickname basis with many of the world’s most powerful leaders, is seen in many quarters as lacking the gravitas to be president.
Yet just a few days before he was giving dating advice on C-SPAN2, Biden again proved himself perhaps the most effective member of the Obama administration. He reprised his role as the White House closer, the guy who can cut a deal with the Republicans after everyone else has failed. In the end, Biden got Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to strike a deal that the White House was happy with. That’s something neither Obama nor Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner had achieved. And it wasn’t the first time. Biden also helped close the 2011 deal that lifted the debt ceiling and the 2010 deal that extended the Bush tax cuts in return for fresh stimulus.
Biden’s skills as a campaigner are also considerable. According to Nielsen, his speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention won better television ratings than the addresses of either Bill Clinton or Obama (or Republicans Mitt Romney and Representative Paul Ryan, for that matter). His debate performance against Ryan bucked up anxious Democrats and arguably stanched the bleeding from Obama’s hapless initial appearance against Romney.
SNIP
Biden has also proved himself an effective and trusted manager in the Obama administration. He was named top cop on the stimulus — “Nobody messes with Joe,” Obama grinned when appointing him — and the funds were spent on time and shockingly free of graft and fraud. Subsequently, Obama put him in charge of other crucial tasks, including the current push for a viable package of gun-control policies, in which Biden just succeeded in bringing Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to the table.
SNIP
The irony, of course, is that the one bright spot in the White House’s dealings with Republicans has been Biden’s old- school, back-slapping, Senate-steeped, Washington-lifer approach. Turns out that sometimes an old dog knows the right tricks.
So don’t laugh when you hear that Biden wants to run for president. Biden is one of the most successful vice presidents in history, and one of the most successful politicians of a very difficult era. He may sometimes make himself a punch line, but he has the record of a heavyweight.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Biden 2016
'Cause he's got the lady vote all wrapped up.
We don't have the words to express how much we love Old Handsome Joe Biden.Joe Biden: Ladies Man
Love or hate him, Vice President Joe Biden has an old-style, retail-politician way of pressing the flesh -- especially when it comes to wooing women voters. On Friday, Biden spoke with an African American woman at a local restaurant in Ohio. "My name is Gorgeous." The vice president responded: "Hello, Gorgeous." Here are more photos of Biden charming his biggest fans.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Friday, October 12, 2012
How Progressives Miss the Point on Abortion
I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people, women that they cannot control their body.
This issue will never be "solved" at least not that way. There will always be unintended pregnancies. That is a function of being human. And there will always be abortion. There always has been. Some people do not agree that women should have the right to do that and they will agitate to outlaw it. But it will not prevent it. Because women do own their own bodies and direct their own lives and some of them will go to extreme lengths to maintain that autonomy, even if it means putting their health and lives in danger. We have centuries of data supporting this.Read the whole fact-packed thing.
So when a couple of elite males decide that they will find some sweet spot that will make these women happy as well as those who don't think these women should have the right to make that choice, it's an infuriating denial of women's basic human agency. It is simple. Women are going to have abortions, full stop. The only question is whether or not they are going to be forced to go through hell and possibly die to get them --- and whether society is going to admit that it cannot and should not make that decision for them. Once you accept that reality, the rest is just talk. If religious leaders want to counsel their adherents not to do it, fine. If politicians want to lecture the public that it's wrong, fine. If they want to create programs to help women get access to birth control and afford to raise kids if they want them and all the rest, terrific. If you care about your fellow humans, you should want all of that. But the right to abortion is a fundamental human right and the necessity of it being safe, legal and available is a requirement for a decent society.
The common behavior of everyday women from all walks of life proves that this is a simple question:
Quote of the Day 2
SEK at Lawyers, Guns and Money, on everything you need to know about Paul Ryan as a debater and as a person:
The one thing you don’t address — the one you know better than to pursue — the one that must be avoided at all costs — the one that must not even be mentioned in a debate with Joe Biden is a tragic car accident. The attempt to elicit sympathy for Romney by anecdotal proxy is a poor enough of a play. The decision to do so via an anecdote about a tragic car accident in a debate with Joe Biden means you’re either a sociopath or possessed of an idiocy of immeasurable power.
Quote of the Day
Charlie Pierce, concluding his excellent analysis of the VP debate:
You know what's the difference between Sarah Palin and Paul Ryan?Read the whole wonderful thing.
Lipstick.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Joe Real
Joe Biden is a national treasure.
Rarely do I watch Joe Biden give a speech or an interview without looking for some evidence, in his eyes or the lines of his face, of the fact that he lost half of his young family when he was 30 years old. It is inconceivable to me, always has been, but especially in the years since I became a father. For all his goofballism, Biden has gone through a crucible that I cannot imagine. And he did so when he was 30, an adult, already deeply invested in the life he was building.
That’s not to diminish the tragedies that children endure. But at 30 years old to lose your wife and baby daughter, to almost lose your two toddler sons, and to somehow carry on? It truly baffles me. I know everyone says you do what you have to do. But that’s not really true. You don’t. You could curl up in the fetal position, if not literally then emotionally, and shrivel up. I’m more certain that that’s what I would do than I am confident I would find a way to persevere.
But Biden has been through it. He’s seen hell and been back.
That he served his entire 36-year Senate career after that searing experience in December 1972, shortly after winning election, and then went on to become vice president, adds some drama to the story, I suppose. But for me the emotional highlight is just him getting out of bed the next day, and the day after that, and the one after that.
Which brings me to Joe Biden’s speech today in Shanksville, Penn., commemorating the victims of Sept. 11, 2001. The speech is marvelously and sensitively written. But rendered by Biden, drawing on his own life experience, in rhetorical ways that are not ostentatious and which don’t try to elevate his own story above those of the victims’ families, it packs a wallop that still makes me cut him a lot of slack for his sometime inexplicable goofiness.
From the transcript provided by the White House:
10:30 A.M. EDT THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Superintendent — Jeff, you’ve done a remarkable job here. And the thing I notice when I speak to you about is you’re invested in this place. It sort of has a — sort of stolen a piece of your heart. And that’s why I’m confident that all that you plan will happen.
Patrick, you’re keeping the flame alive, and keeping the families together is — from my experience, I imagine you all find solace in seeing one another. There’s nothing like being able to talk with someone who you know understands.
And it’s an honor — it’s a genuine honor to be back here today. But like all of the families, we wish we weren’t here. We wish we didn’t have to be here. We wish we didn’t have to commemorate any of this. And it’s a bittersweet moment for the entire nation, for all of the country, but particularly for those family members gathered here today.
Last year, the nation and all of your family members that are here commemorated the 10th anniversary of the heroic acts that gave definition to what has made America such a truly exceptional place — the individual acts of heroism of ordinary people in moments that could not have been contemplated, but yet were initiated.
I also know from my own experience that today is just as momentous a day for all of you, just as momentous a day in your life, for each of your families, as every September 11th has been, regardless of the anniversary. For no matter how many anniversaries you experience, for at least an instant, the terror of that moment returns; the lingering echo of that phone call; that sense of total disbelief that envelops you, where you feel like you’re being sucked into a black hole in the middle of your chest.
My hope for you all is that as every year passes, the depth of your pain recedes and you find comfort, as I have, genuine comfort in recalling his smile, her laugh, their touch. And I hope you’re as certain as I am that she can see what a wonderful man her son has turned out to be, grown up to be; that he knows everything that your daughter has achieved, and that he can hear, and she can hear how her mom still talks about her, the day he scored the winning touchdown, how bright and beautiful she was on that graduation day, and know that he knows what a beautiful child the daughter he never got to see has turned out to be, and how much she reminds you of him. For I know you see your wife every time you see her smile on your child’s face. You remember your daughter every time you hear laughter coming from her brother’s lips. And you remember your husband every time your son just touches your hand.
I also hope — I also hope it continues to give you some solace knowing that this nation, all these people gathered here today, who are not family members, all your neighbors, that they’ve not forgotten. They’ve not forgotten the heroism of your husbands, wives, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers. And that what they did for this country is still etched in the minds of not only you, but millions of Americans, forever. That’s why it’s so important that this memorial be preserved and go on for our children and our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren, and our great-great-grandchildren — because it is what makes it so exceptional. And I think they all appreciate, as I do, more than they can tell you, the incredible bravery your family members showed on that day.
I said last year my mom used to have an expression. She’d say, Joey, bravery resides in every heart, and someday it will be summoned. It’s remarkable — remarkable — how it was not only summoned, but acted on.
Today we stand on this hallowed ground, a place made sacred by the heroism and sacrifice of the passengers and the crew of Flight 93. And it’s as if the flowers, as I walked here, as if the flowers were giving testament to how sacred this ground is.
My guess — and obviously it’s only a guess; no two losses are the same. But my guess is you’re living this moment that Yeats only wrote about, when he wrote, pray I will and sing I must, but yet I weep. Pray I will, sing I must, but yet I weep.
" width="420" height="245" FlashVars="launch=48987120&My personal prayer for all of you is that in every succeeding year, you’re able to sing more than you weep. And may God truly bless you and bless the souls of those 40 incredible people who rest in this ground.Amen.
Video below:
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#999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center;
width: 420px;">Visit NBCNews.com for http://www.nbcnews.com">
, http://www.msnbc.msn.Thursday, May 24, 2012
Release the Biden!
More of this, please.
David at Crooks and Liars:
Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's social polices would take the U.S. back to the 1950s.
Speaking to supporters in Keene, New Hampshire, Biden noted that his speech would focus on the economy but he also wanted to make a point about Romney's social and foreign policies.
"We will not go back to the 50s on social policy, to the Cold War on our foreign policy and to the policies of the last administration on our economic policies!" the vice president exclaimed. "We will not do it their way again! We intend to move forward!"
"I haven't even touched on Romney's social policy, either," he explained. "One that says a woman should no longer get to make her own decisions about her body and her health. One that says that it's OK for insurance companies to charge women more for health insurance than men, to count pregnancy as a pre-existing condition. I know this sounds like fiction."
Biden continued: "Ladies and gentlemen, the new Republican Party's attempt to unravel the bipartisan consensus on something that I wrote and I'm proudest of in my whole career, the Violence Against Women Act. The Violence Against Women Act has become part of our popular culture. Businesses, everybody has embraced the notion that a woman has a right to be free of violence an intimidation on the street and in her own home, wherever it is. And these guys in the House just voted down our version, the continuation of the existing Violence Against Women Act. And they cut out big chunks."
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
"The Only Ones Who Can Stop the Onslaught"
I was horrified on Monday to witness a small-town "Labor Day" parade with dozens of vehicles not one of which mentioned a union, workers, labor or the real point of the day in any way. However, at least three vehicles flaunted their support for treason by flying large confederate flags.
I should have gone to Louisville.
Kenneth Quinnell at Crooks and Liars:
On Labor Day, despite all the focus on Jimmy Hoffa's comments, it was actually Vice President Joe Biden whose speech was the most important one of the day. He gave the type of speech that labor supporters have long wanted to hear from the White House. The speech was fiery and was an accurate portrayal of the struggle that labor faces in the United States. The problem is we should've heard this speech from the president and it should've been given years ago and been matched with significant action. If the vice president finds him self unemployed in January 2013, this failure might be a key reason as to why.
The speech had particular resonance because of where Biden made it. Zandar:
Here in Cincy, the annual AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic at Coney Island is always a big draw, and following last year's visit by President Obama, this year Vice President Joe Biden showed up to talk about the GOP's assault on Ohio unions.Thousands of Greater Cincinnati union members say they are energized following a speech by the Vice President on Monday.
Vice President Joe Biden told crowds of people at the annual AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic at Coney Island repealing SB5, now Issue 2, is the fight of their life.
“You are the only folks keeping the barbarians in the gates. You are the only non-governmental power, the only non-governmental power, the only one that has the power and the capacity to stop this onslaught.”
Issue 2, the referendum to overturn GOP Gov. John Kasich's bill that removes collective bargaining power from the state's unions, means Democrats have a big opportunity to send a major message to anti-labor Republicans in just two months. Kasich's law removes strikes, collective bargaining, sick pay for teachers, and lets local, county and state government have the final say on labor issues, basically eliminating unions in the state, period. Some 400,000 Ohio workers are affected by this law, and it's unleashed an anti-GOP backlash among Ohio's working class.
Hey Ohio? Vote NO on Issue 2 and remember what Kasich tried to do to Ohio workers.
If the total takeover of the Democratic Party by corporate owners finally forces liberals to form a party that genuinely represents the middle class, we should call it the Labor Party.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
And Chrysler Makes Three Healthy American Car Companies
It cannot be emphasized enough that the auto "bailout" that saved the American car industry and thousands of American jobs was bitterly, savagely opposed by every rethuglican in Congress. Even today, with the bailout an unmitigated success, rethuglicans can't bring themselves to acknowledge it, much less celebrate it.
Yes, rethuglicans hate America. I don't ever care why anymore.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
"Absolute positive necessity of collective bargaining"
We know from the fuck-the-unemployed actions of this administration that it doesn't believe its own rhetoric on jobs and the middle class.
But I think the Vice President is sincere in his support for unions. If only it made a difference against Obama's Wall Street Gang.
Susie Madrak:
Joe Biden's a long-time union backer, and it's good to see that he's out showing support for labor in these ongoing battles with Republican governors:Click to hear the call.
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Biden gave the Obama administration's most forceful statement of solidarity with organized labor in its current battles around the nation on Thursday, encouraging activists to continue fighting for workers' rights.
"You guys built the middle class," said Biden in a virtual town hall conversation hosted by the AFL-CIO. "I would just emphasize what Hilda [Solis] said and say it slightly different: We don't see the value of collective bargaining, we see the absolute positive necessity of collective bargaining. Let's get something straight: The only people who have the capacity -- organizational capacity and muscle -- to keep, as they say, the barbarians from the gate, is organized labor. And make no mistake about it, the guys on the other team get it. They know if they cripple labor, the gate is open, man. The gate is wide open. And we know that too."
The e-mail announcement for the call went out to labor activists, including members of the growing advocacy group Working America, and it pitched the call as a conversation with 100,000 supporters about "Republican assaults on collective bargaining in at least a dozen states." AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis joined Biden on the call, where listeners were also allowed to ask questions (although Biden had to leave before that portion).
Biden's comments underscored the importance of labor not only in terms of workers' rights but also politically. He acknowledged the role that unions played in helping launch his political career, and he noted his personal identification with the activists as someone who grew up in the Rust Belt in Scranton, Penn.
"I've got to state the obvious," he said. "There's an old expression: 'You go home with them that brung you to the dance.' You guys all brought me to the dance 36 years ago in Delaware as a United States senator. You've been with me, and I've stayed with you."
Both Biden and Solis used the opportunity to promote what the Obama administration has done for this valuable constituency, such as restoring a level "playing field" at the Labor Department and the National Labor Relations Board upon taking office.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Biden: Extend help for unemployed and middle-class
You're more credible on this than the President is, Joe.
Full transcript here.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Want a VP Who Really Understands Real Life?
Don't you ever let me hear you call this Democratic ticket elitist, or out of touch, or anything but 100 percent down with what's happening today with real American middle-class families.
UPDATE, 1:32 p.m.: As usual, The Rude Pundit has the bullshit-free analysis.
Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
What Joe Biden Should Say to Sarah Palin
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