# Joe Biden's in **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 25, 2019, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042 "2019-04-25T16:13:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 26
**Author:** ![Ronald\_Raygun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c67d28/32.png) [@Ronald\_Raygun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_Raygun)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/501 "2019-06-22T21:00:44Z")
> [@Ronald\_Raygun](#): > > That being said, if Biden loses the primary or the election, it won’t be due to his handsiness. It will be due to comments like his recent “Nothing will fundamentally change”, which he said to wealthy donors. Yes, the context was that he may need to raise taxes, but that doing so won’t significantly impact the living standards of the rich – but this is going to get spun every which way. It’s his “47% of the people” comment. LOL. I feel like a ghost. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/502 "2019-06-22T21:14:30Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > This is the second time that Biden has been victimized by an out-of-context quote from the frothing batshit insane wing of the party. Pardon me, but the source of this quote is a Washington Post reporter. It’s possible that Wiegel got it wrong, but your accusation is FALSE. ---
**Author:** ![UnwittingAmericans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d9b06d/32.png) [@UnwittingAmericans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwittingAmericans)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/503 "2019-06-22T21:37:58Z")
You can leave it fully in context in a transcript and people will still grab it because they are either unable to understand what was being said in a conversational manner, or intentionally ignoring it. That just how it is now. There’s nothing you can do about it. This would be the annotated version: “I mean, we may not want to demonize anybody who has made money,” he said. “The truth of the matter is, you all, you all know, you all know in your gut what has to be done _**[raise your taxes]**_. We can disagree in the margins but the truth of the matter is it’s all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one’s _**[None of your’s]**_ standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change." _**[the second part of that sentence is merely a repetition of the first part]**_ So: You’re gonna have your taxes raised The point of which should not be to punish you, but to address income inequality, with is a real threat (referred to elsewhere in the remarks) You and I both know you can afford it NOT: Don’t worry, we’re not gonna touch you ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/504 "2019-06-22T21:55:06Z")
> [@Boycott](#): > > [https://twitter.com/GovHowardDean/status/1141354582456590336](https://twitter.com/GovHowardDean/status/1141354582456590336) > > _“This is an out of context quote. I read the transcript. Biden was talking about raising taxes on the wealthy by taking their trump tax breaks away. The sentence quoted was to donors he told to their face would pay more. I’m neutral in this race but I will call out cheap shots”_ Wiegel mentioned that: > [@](#): > > But telling rich donors that his agenda won’t shake things up too much — _even in context of saying he wants to prevent unrest by raising their taxes a little_ — could hurt. Italics mine. So he provided the very context that Gov. Dean said was missing. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/505 "2019-06-22T22:09:26Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Wiegel mentioned that: Italics mine. So he provided the very context that Gov. Dean said was missing. Uh, huh. Biden says he wants to roll back the Trump tax cuts and you think the takeaway should be that he told rich guys not to worry about it. ---
**Author:** ![UnwittingAmericans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d9b06d/32.png) [@UnwittingAmericans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwittingAmericans)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/506 "2019-06-22T22:10:38Z")
Wiegel’s OK, but he only put the context in a sub-tweet. That’s what wanting to have a hot take on Twitter does to you. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/507 "2019-06-22T22:45:56Z")
> [@Boycott](#): > > … Beto mitigates that by live streaming most of his events and uploading footage onto Facebook. ALL the Democrats should be doing that. If they don’t they’re just asking to be misrepresented. > [@UnwittingAmericans](#): > > Wiegel’s OK, but he only put the context in a sub-tweet. That’s what wanting to have a hot take on Twitter does to you. Exactly right. People trying to earn a living may care about having a reputation for integrity, but they care about re-tweets more. Re-tweets (and similar social-media scoring features) are the metric by which they live. > [@DSeid](#): > > It’s sad that some, including some here, are so willing to jump on spreading these out of context crap cheap shots. Such is the path to Trump winning, not by his smears but by smears from within the tent. > > The fact that others running (and their operatives) are trying to get to the top by smearing Biden, rather than by convincing those of us who are saying Biden now but not married to the idea that they have what it takes to take down Trump even more solidly and even maybe have some coat tails, is … unfortunate. It is not the way to win us over. It is the way to disgust more on the process and decrease turnout when we need it. Yes to all this. The one and two-percent scoring presidential candidates are desperate for air time, and they know that they won’t get it by announcing they have a new plan for dealing with pharmaceutical prices. _They will get that airtime by making it known they’re going to trash-talk a fellow-Democrat._ And so, many of them are doing it. They may try to couch it in ‘this is about values’ and other high-minded excuses, but it’s about getting those minutes on TV. And so they pile on the front runner—who is duly weakened by the attacks. The really sad thing is that this is another example of that tragic lesson of history: authoritarians (and would-be authoritarians) gain power due to the help they receive from their opponents—who are providing that help completely unintentionally. Human nature and its inevitable incentives lead the opposition to weaken itself, giving the despot invaluable aid. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/508 "2019-06-22T22:56:58Z")
I don’t like Biden, but this “nothing will fundamentally change” distortion is total fucking bullshit. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/509 "2019-06-22T23:00:49Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I don’t like Biden, but this “nothing will fundamentally change” distortion is total fucking bullshit. :mad: I feel the same (on both counts). Biden’s competitors, or some of them, anyway, are showing signs of being willing to be deliberately misleading for personal gain. Bad sign. Bad look. Bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/510 "2019-06-22T23:07:40Z")
> [@Ronald\_Raygun](#): > > LOL. I feel like … Huh. Any one else just feel a chill? Weird. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/511 "2019-06-23T02:05:23Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Pardon me, but the source of this quote is a Washington Post reporter. It’s possible that Wiegel got it wrong, but your accusation is FALSE. The fact that he’s a Washington Post reporter means…not a fucking thing, mate. Yes, I suppose I am gracious enough to excuse you. You’re excused – excused first of all for copy/pasting the words of a journalist who was fucking stupid enough to vote and publicly support and advocate or the candidacy of Ralph Fucking Nader, the guy who basically helped give us 8 years of Bush, 8 years of war on terror, who gave us Iraq, Dick Cheney, and a Recession. > **[Who's Getting Your Vote?](https://reason.com/2008/10/29/whos-getting-your-vote-2/)** > > reason's 2008 presidential poll > [@](#): > > Who did you vote for in 2004 and 2000? Last time, it was that guy from Massachusetts who hated the troops and lied about his Vietnam service in a French accent. In 2000 I not only voted for Ralph Nader but served as an electoral college elector for him in the state of Delaware. “Well like yah, but we got Obama after that! Fight the power!” :rolleyes: That’s how these fucking egg-heads think. These fucking blow-up-the-system with Ralph Nader, Jill Stein, Bernie Sanders, and Oprah? Who next - Stone Cold Steve Austin? But wait, it gets better: he registered Republican so he could vote for…Ron Paul (everyone’s favorite conspiracy theorist, Gold Standard, anti-semite, and racist). Yes, you’re excused for copy/pasting words of an anarcho, nihilist hack who deliberately - yes, deliberately - misconstrued statements because he doesn’t like the man who phrased them and **doesn’t trust people who read his bullshit enough to let them make their own decisions**. He is the very fucking personification…of **FAKE NEWS**. And the fact that the Washington Post hired him back after firing him once before is their own fucking credibility problem. You’re excused. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/512 "2019-06-23T02:25:38Z")
Weigel voted for Ralph Nader AND Ron Paul?!? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/513 "2019-06-23T02:54:57Z")
To go back to what I mentioned before, if the Washington Post wants to continue to be viewed as the same kind of objective, without fear or favor news outlet, it should drop Weigel immediately. It never should have hired him to begin with. Otherwise, they’re fake news. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/514 "2019-06-23T08:58:04Z")
> [@Boycott](#): > > If this was Bernie Sanders this footage would be viral all over Social Media. It’s Biden though so after two months it has fewer than 500 views. > > It took me 5 minutes to find this video on youtube so why have paid researchers who can find letters from the 1970s not shared this. Vetting involves sharing the good and the bad. And this from Biden was damn excellent. > > [https://youtu.be/nEJ8bRnk\_QE](https://youtu.be/nEJ8bRnk_QE) Thanks for posting this! I think Biden should use it in his campaign ads.(\*) Has the “Biden, Trump? Same-same!” contingent commented on this video? (\* - Or not. One thing the video makes clear is that Biden was once a much younger man.) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/515 "2019-06-23T10:40:25Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > The fact that he’s a Washington Post reporter means…not a fucking thing, mate. Well yes it does. It means I didn’t get this quote “from the frothing batshit insane wing of the party,” in your words. I got it from a news reporter at one of the more reliable news outlets. > [@](#): > > Yes, I suppose I am gracious enough to excuse you. You’re excused – excused first of all for copy/pasting the words of a journalist who was fucking stupid enough to vote and publicly support and advocate or the candidacy of Ralph Fucking Nader So a guy was an elector for Nader when he’d just turned 19, and apparently for you, that is what defines him 19 years later. I think that says WAY more about you than it does about him. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/516 "2019-06-23T10:55:43Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Weigel voted for Ralph Nader AND Ron Paul?!? :smack: Whatever he was at 19, he seems to have been since then a mixture of [libertarian and moderate Republican](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Weigel) from the days when there were moderate Republicans. It’s clear that **asahi** ’s implication that he’s one of those too-liberal-to-vote-Democratic types is total bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/517 "2019-06-23T11:43:25Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Thanks for posting this! I think Biden should use it in his campaign ads.(\*) > > Has the “Biden, Trump? Same-same!” contingent commented on this video? > > (\* - Or not. One thing the video makes clear is that Biden was once a much younger man.) The “Biden, Trump? Same-same!” contingent haven’t watched the video clearly. That’s a shame not only because they are ignoring/avoiding his good acts, but this one actually led to direct action. Per the description: > [@](#): > > Shortly after this meeting the US Senate passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. A set of sanctions with provisions accelerating the dismantling of the regime. Ronald Reagan vetoed it but his veto was overridden by Congress - the first and only time in the 20th Century a Presidential veto was overridden. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/518 "2019-06-23T12:01:10Z")
[quote=“RTFirefly, post:515, topic:833042”] Well yes it does. It means I didn’t get this quote “from the frothing batshit insane wing of the party,” in your words. \*\* I got it from a news reporter \*\*at one of the more reliable news outlets. You got it from a person’s twitter feed, okay? That’s where you got it from. And the twitter feed belongs to someone with a history of fringe politics and accusations of biased reporting. > [@RTFirefly](#): > > So a guy was an elector for Nader when he’d just turned 19, and apparently for you, that is what defines him 19 years later. If he weren’t wildly distorting the message of more mainstream candidates, I would be willing to put his past behind him. But when he irresponsibly truncates quotes and doesn’t correct himself even when people on his feed corrected him…then that’s on him. > [@RTFirefly](#): > > I think that says WAY more about you than it does about him. Stop falling for left wing activist hack jobs. It’s not so hard. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/519 "2019-06-23T12:16:15Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Whatever he was at 19, he seems to have been since then a mixture of [libertarian and moderate Republican](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Weigel) from the days when there were moderate Republicans. > > It’s clear that **asahi** ’s implication that he’s one of those too-liberal-to-vote-Democratic types is total bullshit. Let’s see, he wrote for Slate, and he wrote about “Progressive Rock”. Then when he rejoins the Post later, he gets into another controversy over tweeting a photo of an empty arena _before_ a Trump event and then posts it insinuating that the event was a dud. Nah, he doesn’t have bias or credibility problems.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042/520 "2019-06-23T14:11:20Z")
[quote=“asahi, post:518, topic:833042”] > [@RTFirefly](#): > > Well yes it does. It means I didn’t get this quote “from the frothing batshit insane wing of the party,” in your words. \*\* I got it from a news reporter \*\*at one of the more reliable news outlets. > > You got it from a person’s twitter feed, okay? That’s where you got it from. And the person is a reporter for the Washington Post. > [@](#): > > And the twitter feed belongs to someone with a history of fringe politics and accusations of biased reporting. Please summarize that history. Show the substance behind these words you’ve been throwing around. > [@](#): > > Stop falling for left wing activist hack jobs. It’s not so hard. Don’t worry, I’m not falling for anything you say. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042.md?page=25) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-bidens-in/833042.md?page=27)