# Biden Getting Ready To Step Aside? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 10, 2008, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023 "2008-09-10T23:39:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/101 "2008-09-24T14:13:52Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Whereas Biden, of course, was a masterstroke. You’re right! He should have picked a small state Democratic govenor who no one has ever heard of whose only previous experience was in small town local politics. Obama/Baldacci - 08! ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/102 "2008-09-24T14:19:09Z")
[Is Palin really helping?](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/23/AR2008092303667_pf.html) > [@](#): > > Over the past two weeks, the percentage of independents with favorable views of Palin dropped from 60 percent to 48 percent. Among independent women, the decline was particularly sharp, going from 65 percent to 43 percent. Her favorable rating among whites without college degrees remained largely steady, but among those with college degrees, it dropped nearly 20 percentage points. Obama is now leading McCain by 9 points in in the WaPo/ABC poll out this morning and his [RCP average](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html) is now trending higher than it was before the conventions. McCain’s convention bounce is gone, and the bloom is off the Palin rose for good. Obviously, the economic crisis is hurting McCain, but he did himself no favors by stunt casting a running mate for cynically calculated political purposes rather than useful qualifications. If he’d taken Romney, he’d at least have somebody who could go out and talk to the press about the crisis instead of having to hide Palin from anybody with a microphone. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/103 "2008-09-24T14:26:37Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Whereas Biden, of course, was a masterstroke. Biden was a mature and responsible choice. He’s also still a net political asset. No one is going to change their vote because Bidn has an occasional disagreement with Obama. Palin disagrees with McCain on a few things too, you know. ANWR and Global Warming, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/104 "2008-09-24T14:41:22Z")
It’s not just the disagreements. Biden flops about more than a dying fish. > [@](#): > > Biden, a Delaware senator, declared last week the federal government should not have floated the American International Group an $85 billion lifeline. > > Obama said the feds had no choice and hit John McCain for opposing the AIG rescue one day, then backing it the next. > > Tuesday, Obama had to deal with fallout from Biden doing a similar dipsy-doodle, first denouncing then agreeing with McCain. > In a CBS interview Monday, Biden called one of his own campaign ads “terrible” for mocking McCain’s lack of e-mail ability. Biden later said it was okay. [Link](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/09/23/2008-09-23_barack_obama_tells_running_mate_joe_bide.html?print=1&page=all) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/105 "2008-09-24T14:50:20Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > It’s not just the disagreements. Biden flops about more than a dying fish. > > [Link](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/09/23/2008-09-23_barack_obama_tells_running_mate_joe_bide.html?print=1&page=all) There’s no flip flops there. just disagreements. Who gives a shit? Read the polls, dude. Nobody cares abiut this stuff. They’re more converned about their homes, their jobs, their 401K’s and the price of gas. No one is going to base their vote on what Joe Biden thought of a pefectly fair political ad. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/106 "2008-09-24T15:01:38Z")
Look **Sam** , The problem is that it isn’t a ridiculous argument. Either you give him credit for being a Senator, or you give him credit for what he’s been doing that nullifies his experience as Senator. When you argue that he started running for President only two years after being Senator, you’re in effect saying he has two years experience in the Senate. I can buy that only if you also give him credit for doing what he’s been doing. What you guys are suggesting is that after he started running for President, his experience is the same as if he were to sit at home watching TV. You can’t have it both ways, man. > [@](#): > > Look, I know this is a ‘talking point’ for your side, but it’s asinine. Obama’s qualified to be president because… he’s running for President. That means everyone who runs for president is qualified, right? A presidential campaign is nothing like real executive experience. Not everyone who runs for President is qualified by the fact that they are running. I’d say that Obama passed this threshold somewhere in March when shit really got ugly. Up until then I’d say that you might have a point. You can’t compare Obama’s campaign with Mike Gravel. Obama’s built something enormous, which I think is even more attractive. He didn’t just take over some organization, he BUILT it. > [@](#): > > For one thing, he’s got campaign managers to do the heavy lifting for him. President’s don’t have aides? What are you talking about. The President has more people to do heavy lifting for him than any other position in the world! > [@](#): > > For another, it’s a very different thing to be the head of a group that has one goal in mind - pleasing you and helping you achieve what you want - and running a Presidency where you’re surrounded by enemies and people with their own axes to grind, and you have to find a way to work with the other side of the aisle while not pissing off your own constituents. Man, I just can’t even address how wrong you are about this stuff. Obama’s campaign appears to be an easy one to run only because he’s too damn smart to let it be otherwise. You need to go and research what went on in Hillary’s campaign. It was nothing short of constant back-stabbing after she lost Iowa. Remember Mark Penn and those guys? Mark Penn is the definition of a guy with his own axe to grind. Obama happens to know how to get past that bullshit. You don’t think being the leader of a campaign organization with thousands of employees ( and even more volunteers ) spread across every single state is not executive experience? At the end of this he’ll have executive experience on the order of what Sarah Palin has from that alone. Sarah Palin doesn’t get credit because she jumped in the race. John McCain does. What I think is really telling is you guys are really forcing the issue with her, saying that she has more experience than Obama. But luckily the people aren’t buying it. Palin’s approval ratings are going down, down, down. I think Obama’s victory is very telling of how good he is. I think it’s so hilarious how you guys on the right say that he’d be so horrible in X, Y, and Z when the fact of the matter is that he’s already a scary good politician. He’s beating McCain despite being black in a country where racism still matters. > [@](#): > > Then there was the fact that Obama was totally caught off-guard by the Palin pick, even though Republicans have been pushing her for almost a year, and she’s been on McCain’s shortlist for 8 months. He had no advance planning in place for her pick, and let McCain and Palin grab the spotlight and race ahead of him in the polls. If he didn’t have the media carrying water for him, he could have been finished right there. No, Obama most likely heard of it and dismissed it as too reckless and irresponsible for someone of John McCain’s integrity. I would have done the same. Palin isn’t exactly turning out to be helping either. She may be a hit the places she goes, but she’s not winning over any votes that McCain really needs. > [@](#): > > Then there’s that 50-state strategy. Which is now no longer a 50 state strategy because he realized that he stretched himself to thin. I don’t see how this is a negative. So should he have not tried to open up any states at all? Should he continue to work on every single state instead of the select few he thinks he can flip? The 50 state strategy isn’t a failure just because he won’t win EVERY state. I think it’s a pretty good strategy as it has yielded VA and NC and CO and possibly NV as new “swing states.” The point is that if Obama wins the Kerry states plus NM, which is very likely unless some shit goes bad, he’ll have a choice of five or so states to flip over instead of the usual Ohio or Florida. I think the 50 state strategy has worked EXACTLY as planned. > [@](#): > > And how about that Obama faux-presidential seal? That sure was a good plan. And the greek columns and the 70,000 seat stadium, all which played into the narrative of him being all hat and no cattle. > > The result of all this is that Democratic insiders are grumbling about him taking an easy ‘gimme’ election for Democrats and screwing it up so badly that he’ll have to fight tooth and nail to win against a 70 year old Senator and a woman from Alaska. I don’t really know what you’re talking about here at the end. Just because a bunch of chicken littles like to fret and run around (Republicans certainly have more discipline in their ranks) doesn’t mean that Obama A) gives a shit or B) listens to them. You want to know how Obama’s going to win this? I’ll tell you how and it all goes back to his history as a [sneer] _community organizer_ [/sneer]. What is Obama focusing on? Is he focusing on BS campaign back and forth? Maybe, but guess what his army of paid workers and volunteers is doing? They are out there registering voters. The advantage Democrats have in some states now is staggering. This is what’s going to win him the election. He uses his inspirational BS to motivate people to go and work for him. They register voters. That is why he’s going to win, _my friends_. This is why I get so angry in these threads, btw. It’s because people on the right simply can’t admit that Obama has ever done anything competent in his life ever. Why does it have to be so all or nothing with you guys? Aren’t we at the SDMB? Shouldn’t the call to fight ignorance take first priority? For the record, I think McCain (and especially before he ran for Presidency this time) isn’t a bad choice. I don’t really think he should be President in light of the options we have this time around, but I don’t argue that he’s fundamentally disqualified for some reason or another. I think his pick of Palin was probably a necessary gamble (his campaign was going nowhere) which looks to not be paying off. The right-wing love her, but he’s really turning off independents with his selection of her. So that’s it for now. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/107 "2008-09-24T15:04:47Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > There’s no flip flops there. just disagreements. Who gives a shit? Read the polls, dude. Nobody cares abiut this stuff. They’re more converned about their homes, their jobs, their 401K’s and the price of gas. No one is going to base their vote on what Joe Biden thought of a pefectly fair political ad. If nobody cares about this stuff, why all the posts from you about McClean/Palin disagreements/flipflops/gaffes? That’s a little puzzling. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/108 "2008-09-24T15:14:30Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > If nobody cares about this stuff, why all the posts from you about McClean/Palin disagreements/flipflops/gaffes? That’s a little puzzling. All _what_ posts from me about that stuff? ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/109 "2008-09-24T15:19:08Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > All _what_ posts from me about that stuff? You have to be kidding. OK, I’ll be back with some. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/110 "2008-09-24T15:21:01Z")
Is anyone even trying to answer the OP anymore? Shouldn’t someone just start a new thread? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/111 "2008-09-24T15:32:07Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > You have to be kidding. OK, I’ll be back with some. I think I’ll be waiting a while. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/112 "2008-09-24T15:50:45Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Whereas Biden, of course, was a masterstroke. Boring and predictable, actually. I was hoping for something more interesting, but instead we get a guy who was on short lists from the start. I just hope we see some of the Biden-as-attack-dog everyone was expecting, rather than the ‘seems like missing in action’ guy we’ve been getting. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/113 "2008-09-24T16:18:52Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I think I’ll be waiting a while. Actually you’re right. Only two posts could qualify out of your last 750, and they’re pretty mild at that. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10190482#post10190482](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10190482#post10190482) [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10219399#post10219399](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10219399#post10219399) I owe you an apology. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/114 "2008-09-24T16:24:57Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Actually you’re right. Only two posts could qualify out of your last 750, and they’re pretty mild at that. > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10190482#post10190482](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10190482#post10190482) > > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10219399#post10219399](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10219399#post10219399) > > I owe you an apology. Accepted. I’m a pretty hyperbolic and opinionated poster, so I can see why you would have made that assumption. I generally don’t sweat small shit like that, though – at least not on offense. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/115 "2008-09-24T17:19:11Z")
This thread is dead. There are 40 some days to the election. Nothing will happen. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/116 "2008-09-24T17:54:28Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > This thread is dead. There are 40 some days to the election. Nothing will happen. … at least, as to dumping Biden, I presume you mean? A _whole lot_ could happen in the campaign itself, of course. Or have I been whooshed? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/117 "2008-09-24T17:58:59Z")
Maybe now that it’s come out that he ALSO supported the Bridge to Nowhere™ he’ll step down, ehe? 😛 -XT ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/118 "2008-09-24T18:14:48Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Maybe now that it’s come out that he ALSO supported the Bridge to Nowhere™ he’ll step down, ehe? Did he lie through his teeth about it like Palin has? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/119 "2008-09-24T18:16:42Z")
Don’t know…my guess is that only he could answer that question. Anyone else attempting to do so would be putting a partisan spin on things…such as you just did. I just thought it was amusing, that’s all. BTW, I don’t REALLY think he’s going to quit…I was just saying that tongue in cheek. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023/120 "2008-09-24T18:25:35Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Don’t know…my guess is that only he could answer that question. I don’t think you understood the question. Let me clarify. Sarah Palin stood up at the Republican Convention and claimed that she said “thanks but no thanks to the Bridge to Nowhere,” and that she never accepted any earmarks as Governor of Alaska. Both of those statements were lies. Has Joe Biden ever publicly DENIED having supported (albeit indirectly) the BTN? Incidentally, Biden voted for a larger funding bill which contained the BTN earmark, but he did not support it champion that earmark specifically. Palin very specifically sought money for it, only stpped when it became a politocal liability and never returned the money. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biden-getting-ready-to-step-aside/463023.md?page=7)