It’s like a Python sketch.
Why would it matter? Because it would mean the difference between honestly owning his own views, or reversing himself or trying to evade the question somehow in the hope of winning some extra votes (which may or may not actually work.)
As to what you’ve said about some people never voting Democrat in a million years, honestly, when I was watching all the clips of Biden speak, I thought, “wow, this guy is very smart, articulate, seems extremely capable, and genuinely likable as well. It’s too bad he’s so anti-gun and supports that stupid “assault weapons” ban. If he only agreed with my views on that one issue, I would vote for this guy with great pleasure.” (I feel the same way about Obama.)
I wish the pro-gun side didn’t have to rely on a talentless unqualified hack like Sarah Palin to be their ambassador to the American public. I wish there was someone well-spoken, articulate, clever and intelligent to present the pro-gun view and the absurdity of the assault weapons ban to people. But unfortunately, there isn’t.
There are such things as single-issue voters. I know several people - young people, like me - who seriously would vote for Obama if it weren’t for the anti-gun business. Instead they throw their support behind the lost cause of Libertarianism, which has no chance of accomplishing anything. (there are a lot of people who smoke pot, support gay marriage, are socially liberal, and also love guns.) The stereotype of Bubba with a beer gut and pickup truck is just that, a stupid stereotype.
I can understand why people who intensely dislike the ‘music’ of the AWB would want to exercise their Second Amendment rights on them, but it seems kinda outdated and trivial for a debate topic.
You give and you take. You’re a one-issue voter. Of course, it’s all up to you how you vote, but I think it’s a tad silly. Compromise a little bit, willya? It’s not like all guns are illegal.
Well, I can’t compromise. Yeah it’s not like “all guns are illegal.” But Biden and friends support legislation that would make the guns that I like illegal. And why? Because of how they look, not having anything to do with their function or their statistical usage in actual crimes (next to none) but because they have things like bayonet lugs (when was the last time a bayonet was ever used to kill someone? The fucking Civil War?) folding stocks, pistol grips, things that look scary because you see them in stupid mindless action movies a lot, but in real life have nothing to do with how dangerous, or likely to be used in a crime, a gun is.
For me, supporting something so unbelievably illogical is just as stupid as supporting the teaching of creationism in the classroom, and telling students that the world is 6000 years old and that dinosaurs and humans co-existed together. It’s equally idiotic, equally groundless, equally lacking in any kind of logic and reason, and equally reliant upon people’s stupid, superstitious, knee-jerk emotional beliefs. And I KNOW that there are Dopers here who would sooner cut off their own dick than ever vote for anyone who advocated “intelligent” design, even if they agreed with everything else that candidate stood for. They wouldn’t compromise on their issue, and I’m not going to compromise on mine.
Or if he does look, what kind of look. I think real eye contact may even be more likely to totally set him off.
I respect your one-issue stance, but harping on Biden or Obama because they don’t break your way is just silly. Consider that there are folks who are one-issue the other way, and perhaps the candidates stand to gain little by accepting your view. Are those people irrational? Maybe. But they are much more likely to be part of the Democratic base than people who are strongly anti the AWB.
If all you care about is the marshmallow center, you don’t get to complain about having to eat the turd.
I’d be quite surprised if Biden tried to run from the AWB. He never has before; why would he now?
I doubt guns will even come up. They just aren’t that important to most voters.
Absolutely that. But that would be true 20 points up or down. What we don’t want to do is coast.
Argent, single issue voters like you just aren’t that common. Most people have a broader range of things to worry about.
McCain looks less and less presidential every day. He came off very poorly in what ever they aired last night from Iowa I think.
All his flag waving patriotic shit is the last thing people want to hear now.
Accusations of mistreatment by the media are incredibly silly coming from him too. 8 years ago I would have voted for him. I wonder at that now.
And Argent Towers sidetracks yet another thread …
Guns are coming up because of a large (and misleading at best) ad buy by the NRA. While they have never been huge fans of McCain, they feel that he’s better than Obama.
Meanwhile Biden is dismissive of those who think that an Obama administration would try to make strict gun control a focus.
The AWB was, minimally, poorly written as it apparently did an awful job defining “assault weapons”. Biden (and Obama) would no doubt be quite comfortable defending the intent of the legislation in any case. He is indeed comfortable with the idea that cities should be able to define “reasonable regulation” differently than rural communities do.
In reality Obama is at least as understanding of the pro-gun POV as any Democrat has ever been if not more so. And with the issues that will be facing him as President (assuming he wins) gun control is not something that he will waste any political capital on. No chance of it. The economy. Managing the huge deficit that he will inherit. Health care reform. The inter-related goals of decreased carbon emissions and decreased energy dependence. Redeployment of troops from Iraq to Afganistan and hopefully soon to home. Restoring America as a respected leader in the world. Dealing with terror threats in a rational way. Privacy rights. Investing in education… all these and more are high on the agenda. Gun issues? Aren’t even on the list other than an item to stay as far away from as possible.
I’m voting for Obama. I voted for Kerry in 2004.
Don’t you make me come over there and set up a No True Rifleman argument. 
I think that “them Democrats gonna take your guns” has jumped the shark for all but the most willfully obtuse and those that pander to them.
Face facts; the numbers just aren’t there for any substantial change in gun laws any time soon, anyway. The only places where any such legislation has any traction at all is in desperately gun-violence-blighted localities, and the overlap of people who are indifferent at best (I’m being very charitable here) to these communities and folks who oppose any regulation of guns is strong.
Biden’s been talking pro-gun recently. Remember his ‘Beretta’ misspeak that John Stewart picked up on?
(And yes, I know perfectly well Beretta makes very nice shotguns, there’s two in the family.)
I absolutely agree with you, Argent, on both of these issues.
FWIW, I was also a single issue voter for many years: if you were for gun control, I voted against you.
On the other hand, I am hoping that with the recent Supreme Court decision, the issue is more-or-less settled. I have heard that if McCain gets elected, the court will shift more to the right, and if Obama is elected, the court will likely stay pretty much the same.
More importantly, though, I think that the Republicans have seriously screwed things up in recent years. The Republicans were supposed to be for smaller government and fiscal responsibility, but the Iraq debacle has bankrupted the country, decimated our military capability, and dramatically lowered our standing on the world stage, to say the least.
I am also very unhappy with the crazy religious right nutjobs’ takeover of the Republican party and the ridiculous concern with conservative social issues (e.g. gay marriage, flag-burning, prayer in schools, and teaching creationism in schools), not to mention the rejection of anthropogenic global warming, and the weakening of environmental regulations.
All in all, while I still agree with you, Argent, regarding the whole gun-control issue, I am a more nuanced voter now.
For the current election, McCain’s selection of the incompetent Palin as the VP-nominee sealed the deal for me. I’m voting for Obama.
P.S. It also appears that the Democrats seem to be backing off of some of the more extreme gun-control measures that they were pushing in years past.
Maybe they have finally realized that Americans generally support the Second Amendment, and that an extreme left-wing gun control stance makes them lose elections.
Who in the hell are you to make a judgment like that? This is one of the least focused discussions currently going in Great Debates, it’s totally all-over-the-place, and it’s already been “sidetracked” a million times. So go back to the peanut gallery, and stay there.
Some good points being made by all the above posters. Interesting. I’m glad Biden appreciates a good shotgun because Beretta makes the best of them (though I’d probably be too afraid of getting it scratched up to actually take it hunting!) But I hope Biden isn’t a “Fudd,” i.e. someone who owns guns for “sporting” use, but doesn’t respect the right of others to own “non-sporting” weapons like “evil-looking” “assault weapons.” (Maybe Biden realizes that more crimes are committed with shotguns than with “assault weapons,” but I tend to doubt it.)
Since I think Obama and Biden have a good chance of winning the election, and since I support most of their politics, I’m going to hope that their “support” of the AWB is just pandering to their base and not actually indicative of a possible renewal of that horrible thing under their administration. If it doesn’t happen, well, that’s great and I’ll be able to add more evil guns to my collection. If it does - well, you can expect to hear a lot of “I told you so” from me! This is why it’s great to be a pessimist. Either way, you win.
Let’s change this phrase a little to “It’s not like all books are illegal”.
What happens when a politician even asks about removing a book from a libraries circulation? A million and a half pit threads, that’s what. Nearly universal condemnation here.
Lots of people posted in those threads that they would never vote for a book banner. Why the double standard? Books AND guns are protected in the Bill of Rights.