Stumbling out of the gate
Sen. Joe Biden is off…and running. Who hasn’t heard this story by now?
Backpedaling furiously, Sen. Joe Biden said he really meant to say “fresh” instead of “clean” in describing Democratic presidential rival Sen. Barack Obama.
That’s how the story begins. Most of the mainstream media are treating it sort of tongue-in-cheek. But Biden set that pace right out of the gate, on the day he declared he’s in the race for the presidency.
Appearing on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” late Wednesday, Biden said: “Look, the other part of this thing that got me in trouble is using the word clean. I should have said fresh. What I meant was that he’s got new ideas, he’s a new guy on the block … ”
But then Biden trailed off as he stared into Stewart’s deadpan face. “It’s not working, right?” the Delaware senator asked to much laughter from the show’s audience.
In an interview published Wednesday in the New York Observer, the same day he officially entered the presidential race, Biden described Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
That didn’t go over well with Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and other African-American leaders. And the more Biden talks, the more trouble he is getting himself into.
It’s the second presidential bid for the talkative Biden, who pursued the White House in 1988, but withdrew from the race after allegations that his speeches contained passages from speeches given by a British political leader.
Look, politicians are using new means available these days to make their announcements, trying to send a message through the means and media they use. Two leading Democrats declared their presidential candidacies on their websites.
But, Comedy Central….?
