Biden Disappoints

I'm an American who's lived most of my adult life outside the U.S. and I have a vote and intend to vote Democrat, but I wanted to hear from Joe Biden his "measure of the man" (McCain).
I didn't.
Here's what a I witnessed:

-- a six-minute Steven Spielberg tribute to the military. (I thought I was watching the Republican National Convention). Frankly, it brands the Dems as caring but McCain is the Super-Veteran of super-vets.

-- The anticipatory bounce that VP nominee Joe Biden's speech was supposed to deliver was that he knew Obama and McCain and was going to differentiate the two in terms of the character, and positive characteristics, so people like me could determine who would be the better CEO and Commander in Chief. Didn't happen.

Biden dropped the ball. He didn't tell potential voters why Obama was a superior choice over McCain. He didn't tell is why McCain was flawed. He did not tell us why Obama was the better leader. He did not spoon-feed to us Democratic believers why McCain was the wrong guy to live in the White House. Instead, we heard Biden-speak about his Irish rags-to-riches narrative and his support of Obama that was strictly agenda-driven, self-interested and partisan.

Joe Biden did not explain why he proposed McCain as a good running-mate for John Kerry in 2004 and why he disagrees now. Why McCain isn't appropriate now and why, apart from Joe's self-interest, Obama is superior.

For a scrappy Irishman, Biden verbalized the type of praise for McCain that is propelling McCain forward, as a national hero, into the biggest job in the world that he may not have the intellect/understand of holding. Biden did not destroy McCain. He may know why he supports Obama instead of his buddy McCain but he did not explain that tonight. He did not let us into his intel or insights or whatever.

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Here's what Biden said that did not resonate with me as a liberal-minded voter: -- His late daddy got knocked down and said get up. How has Obama demonstrated this?
-- John McCain and George Bush are close. So?
-- McCain "doesn't get it" and Barack Obama "gets its." Code? Examples?
-- McCain is my friend "personal courage and heroism still amazes but I proudly disagree with his [point of view]" No details.

Here's where he got interesting:
-- "John agrees 95% with Bush [economic program]" "it's not change it's more of the same"
-- "That's not change it's more of the same"
-- "More than a good soldier, [you must be] required to be a good leader"
-- "McCain said "no time lines to drawn down, stay indefinitely" then had changed his mind.

Biden gives great smile but not gnash.

For more Huffington Post coverage of the Democratic National Convention, visit our Politics @ the DNC page, our Democratic Convention Big News Page, and our HuffPost bloggers' Twitter feed, live from Denver.

Comments

[Diane Francis - Huffpost Blogger]

Biden did not address the fundamental issue as to why he supported McCain as Kerry's running-mate in 2004 and why his judgment was incorrect then, as it also was regarding the invasion of Iraq?

He knows both these guys well, and I don't, and he did not share any insights that would make me more comfortable with Obama and, conversely, uncomfortable with McCain.

[LizM]

I would have to agree that Senator Biden did not make the distinction between Obama and McCain as well as he should and could have.

I also think that you make a very good point about the failure to address what happened in the intervening time that would make Biden travel from pushing Kerry to ask McCain to be his running mate, in 2004, to the place where realizing America's promise is dependent upon the recognition that none of us can afford another minute of what President Bush and Senator McCain are offering.

However, I'd be willing to bet the farm...unless, of course, it's in Iowa!...that, over the period of the next several weeks, those distinctions and insights will be made very clear and will provide that level of comfort with Obama and Biden that voters will require to, in the privacy of the voting booth, make the choice that will provide the best hope there is set this country back on track.

I do have to say, though, that I don't think I have ever seen a convention like this - from start to finish - that has so captured the imagination of so many people - Democrat, Republican, and Independent alike. Heck, truth be known - I'm just happy as a lark that Senator Biden may finally be in a position to implement the Biden strategy for reversing US policy in Iraq and substantially limit the number of Canadians dying in Afghanistan.

[altohone]

Hi Liz.

Looking forward to working with you!

Same team... whodathunk?

[LizM]

What do you say we re-visit this again...after the veep debate...I don't mind telling everyone that I am absolutely salivating at the prospects...if you know what I mean!

[SethBLiNK]

Did you ever see the movie LA Story? Steve Martin plays a weatherman in LA and he wants to take a long weekend, so he pre-records his weather report because let's face it, the weather in LA is pretty predictable. However, that weekend it rains and he gets fired.

Your article reminds me of that movie. Obviously you wrote it before the speech was delivered.

[jsarets]

Yeah, I'm going to have to join the others wondering if we watched the same speech. I think you must have turned the channel before he got to the "John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right." section. Or maybe the cable news channel cut away from the speech to have a panel discussion about Ayers or podium backdrops or which pundits have more balls than Hillary Clinton or whatever it is that they talk about on cable news.

[TexGator]

Could you please post video of the speech you watched last night? Apparently something was wrong with my tv because it messed up the transmission and showed me a speech where Biden tore McCain apart while effectively making the case for Obama. Either that or C-Span was intentionally trying to mislead me so that I will vote Obama. Yeah I'm sure that's what it was...

[frustratedinohio]

Enough Kool-Aid and you hear what you want.

[Freesia2]

My first thought was that you were an upset Hillary supporter. But then I read through your bio and see articles you've written where you were clearly displeased with certain Clinton maneuvers during the primaries.

Hmmmm......I don't know Ms. Francis. There were points where Biden pointed out differences that made them sound like not only polar opposites in policy, but like they lived on opposite poles. The contrast couldn't have been clearer.

Would you like to borrow my tv? :-) :-)

[nippersdad]

What speech did you watch? The one I saw affirmed the "War On Terror"tm meme in its' entirety.

It conflated the Taliban and Al Qaeda. and promised an escalation of the Afghanistan debacle given their election.

It hinted at an invasion of Pakistan at a time of political instability and unparallelled distrust of American motivations in that nation (Good Job!)

It baited the Russian Bear by overlooking our own overreach in central asia and essentially telling them to back down from defending their own sphere of influence. Aren't we are all interested in a revival of that wonderfully cheap and enlightening cold war?

It ignored the causative Neo-liberal economic policies Biden has been supporting for thirty years which engendered the kitchen table issues so touchingly described in his lights by the train tracks discursion.

It gave some embarrassingly sloppy, wet kisses to a bunch of evangelicals who will never vote for them anyway. By the end I was quite sure that I was about to be baptized by total immersion.

And, last but by no means least, it glorified our own nationalistic sense of militarism and exceptionalism at the expense of what those very qualities have done to our national psyche, international prestige and financial outlook over the last eight years.

All in all, it was the speech that I would have expected from John McCain's running mate, not his so called opposition.

[MrWinky]

What speech did you hear? Did you miss the last part where he talked about all the instances in which Obama was right and McCain was wrong? The crowd was actually chanting "Wrong!" when it got to him pointing out all the issues in which McCain made the wrong call and Obama made the right one.

There are so many trolls out there who are determined to write that the Dems are not up to the job and did not deliver. Granted, that has happened so much in the past, but the rags to riches part of the story was only like the first five minutes of the speech, the rest was doing exactly what you claim was lacking.

I really have to question your motivation in this, b/c it was pretty apparent that Biden did exactly what you wished to have heard.

[nippersdad]

Y'know, I heard the right vs. wrong part too, but what was missing was any real change in direction from extant policies on the part of their candidacy.

Are we getting out of Afghanistan? No; we are going to compound the error and perhaps also take it into Pakistan.

Are we going to get out of Iraq? Sure! We need those batle troops for Afghanistan and Georgia and Pakistan and.......but; no, we will be leaving those hundred thousand mercenaries....and those manning the fifty permanent bases....and those "military advisors"....and those manning world's largest embassy......and, this is funny, we are hoping to get them to pay for it with their oil money! Yay! Where have we heard that before?

Are we going to cease and desist from encroaching on the Russian sphere of influence? No; we are potentially going to continue to bait them until we have another cold war in the name of "holding THEM accountable for THEIR actions.

I could go on and on in this vein. I was hoping to see a Democratic Convention. Given the DLC centric viewpoint of those on offer, clearly those hopes were in vain.

[Patrick McCabe]

'He didn't tell is why McCain was flawed.'

Above is a typo from one of your opinions. Corrected it should be "us" instead of "is". Biden's style was clear if you can understand that McCain vs Obama was an intelligent analogy of their contrasts in policy and judgements. If that argument was NOT ad hominem enough? You need to listen to McCain's campaign ads that are intent on the character assasination of Obama.

Joe Biden builds an honest case (as a lawyer would) by proven facts to make his point. McCain's campaign just takes a simple sentence and deliberately twists the context of its meaning to create their argument. That is just a lower case way of distortion and unethical manipulation. It is used to an advantage sadly. But Barack and Biden will make their case to the American people not by fear, but ,by counting on the electorate to know the difference between truth and propaganda.

I get from your article it is too vanilla for your taste. You will be happier in November, and you will love Joe Biden...he has a different brand that will succeed....he is genuine and authentic.

[donkat]

I don't think we heard the same speech....

[TheRebel82]

Are you kidding me? Biden was SOLID last night! You must be a Hillary dead ender!

[matthew 270808]

Actually why is Obama better?

I think his tax plan gets about $700 more for the average worker. What difference is that? 1 percent? Has he even said he'd completely roll back all Bush's changes? He seems to be aiming to be more of the same but a bit better. Same foreign policy (move troops to Afghanistan) but Obama is a bit cleverer. Still wants to fight two major wars while having tax cuts though. Fundamentally... it's like they are arguing which way to steer round the iceberg instead of ordering the lifeboats to be launched. America needs fundamental change and Obama just isn't there.

[wm1066]

The Democratic Convention has been great so far, great speeches,tearful moments. But if you only got Network coverage you missed that and if you watched PBS you missed alot too. C-Span had it unedited and no pundit talkover. Tammy Duckworth had a great speech that wasn't covered.
And I think Biden had a great speech! Trying to say other wise is just spitting into the wind.

[SamiNJ]

"Biden dropped the ball. He didn't tell potential voters why Obama was a superior choice over McCain. He didn't tell is why McCain was flawed. He did not tell us why Obama was the better leader. He did not spoon-feed to us Democratic believers why McCain was the wrong guy to live in the White House. Instead, we heard Biden-speak about his Irish rags-to-riches narrative and his support of Obama that was strictly agenda-driven, self-interested and partisan."

What version of his speech did I watch to which you clearly were not privy? Did you sleep through the four or five different instances where McCain has been disastrous in foreign policy and Obama was right. He brought up that it was not only Bush who wanted to push for war with Iraq but so shortly after 9/11 McCain himself said "next up Baghdad!" .... and John McCain said only three years ago, "Afghanistan-we don"t read about it anymore because it"s succeeded!"... and the timeline now accepted because that is what Iraq wants.... and diplomacy is appeasement until we want to talk to iran which is now occuring..... what on Earth did you watch? or what did you expect? You sound from the articel above like you blacked out or tuned out after he went through his backgournd and growing up story.... short attention span theater ??

[JaMar]

Which speech were you watching, exactly? Now Mark Warner's speech... I'll give you that one. It was, among other things: boring, self-involved, and worst of all... weak. His deer-in-headlights delivery and refusal to take on any of the problems the Rupublicans are directly responsible for is exactly what the Dems DIDN'T need in a keynote speech. And who cares about his cell-phone fortune, anyway?

Biden, on the other hand, showed some flashed of fury while maintaining his composure, introduced us to his remarkable family, and soundly denounced the direction George (John) McCain would lead this nation.

I desperately agee that the Democrats need to take the glove off (if not now... when?????), but you should give Joe some credit. If his first speech as VP is any indication, we've at least got a running-mate who has some fight in him.

[jrthompson]

I also listened carefully. I was moved to tears, clapping, and fist shaking. I thought Biden was fantastic! Not sure what you were looking for but I thought he delivered and then some!!!!

[bronceye]

I feel that Obama's campaign is trying to prove that slander and character assasination are not proper tools to use in a campaign. They are trying to use debate and common sense. Will it work? Probably not. Especially when yourself and the innumerable bobbleheads keep saying that he MUST go after "red meat". These conversations condone and encourage negative campaigning by suggesting that we must have it. It makes for space in your columns and time slots but it degrades the election process and, ultimately, our civilization. You journalists demand the travesty of gutter politics to justify your ideas. It was pledged by both camps to be an honorable campaign. Now. mcane won't even define honorable. What are the drones to think when they hear that politicians have to tear each other up to be good Americans. We need to redefine our process and if Barack can do it by being an intelligent gentleman we will all be better off.