Top 10 Joe Bidenisms

Top 10 Joe Bidenisms
by Human Events
11/05/2011

Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is a veritable gaffe machine who never ceases to amaze. It wasn’t easy narrowing down his verbal miscues to only 10, but here they are: the all-time Top 10 Joe Bidenisms.

1. Republicans want more rapes: While trying to sell President Obama’s jobs bill, Biden hurled a vicious attack on Republicans blocking the bill, saying that if the bill didn't pass, murders and rapes would increase: “It’s not temporary when that 911 call comes in and a woman’s being raped, if a cop shows up in time to prevent the rape. It’s not temporary to that woman. … I wish they [Republicans] had some notion of what it was like to be on the other side of a gun, or a 200-pound man standing over you, telling you to submit.”

2. FDR on TV in 1929: Rarely has a politician gotten as many historical facts wrong in one sentence as Biden did with this comment in a 2008 interview with Katie Couric: “When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.’ ” Of course FDR wasn’t President when the stock market crashed and televisions were not in use at the time.

3. Recovery Summer: Rarely has a politician made a worse prediction than Biden’s June 2010 promise of a Recovery Summer in the U.S. economy. While touting the President’s stimulus legislation, Biden said, “Folks, the act is working, more people are going to be put to work this summer. … The proof of the pudding is in the eating." Nearly a year and a half later, America is still waiting for all of those jobs.

4. Obama “articulate” and “clean": During the 2008 presidential election, Biden seemingly discovered that blacks can have sound hygiene. Imagine the howls of racism if a conservative had uttered this statement: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

5. Barbarians at the gate: Even though the President called for increased civility in the public discourse, his vice president couldn’t resist attacking the political opposition. At an AFL-CIO rally on Labor Day in Cincinnati, Biden told the union members: “You are the only folks keeping the barbarians from the gates.”

6. Three-letter word: Former Vice President Dan Quayle was laughed out of town for misspelling “potato,” yet Biden took little heat for his inability to count past three. Back in 2008 on the campaign trail, Biden said: "Look, John [McCain’s] last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the No. 1 job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs.”

7. Katie’s Restaurant: During his 2008 debate with Sarah Palin, Biden trotted out his working-man sensibilities with this comment: “Look, all you have to do is go down Union Street with me in Wilmington, or go to Katie’s Restaurant or walk into Home Depot with me, where I spend a lot of time, and you ask anybody in there whether or not the economic and foreign policy of this administration has made them better off.” Oops! Looks like Joseph Robinette hadn’t mingled with his working-class cohorts for a while. Katie’s Restaurant had closed down years earlier.

8. Indian accent: Biden perpetuated an ethnic stereotype with remarks in 2006 that indicated only Indian-Americans run convenience stores and doughnut shops. “You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. ... I'm not joking,” Biden said. Imagine the media outcry if a Republican had said the same thing (witness how former Virginia Gov. George Allen was pilloried for a calling an Indian-American, “macaca”—a non-slur.)

9. Big [effing] deal: During the ObamaCare signing ceremony, Biden resorted to a vulgarism in the East Room of the White House when he whispered into the ear of President Obama: “This is a big [expletive deleted] deal”—a remark picked up by the microphone for all to hear.

10. Don’t screw around with me: Biden sounded more like a Mafia thug than the second-ranking government official when HUMAN EVENTS editor Jason Mattera pressed him on his rape comments (see No. 1). “I didn’t use, no no no. … Let’s get it straight, guy. Don’t screw around with me,” said Biden, who went on confirm his original remarks, saying, “Murder will continue to rise, rape will continue to rise, all crimes will continue to rise,” if the jobs bill isn’t passed.
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To read another Top Ten article by Human Events, click here.