# Obama attacking Biden ?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [December 17, 2019, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977 "2019-12-17T03:43:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2019, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/21 "2019-12-17T15:42:25Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> Or, maybe, just maybe, just for the shits and giggles, try thinking for yourself.
> **[Sheeple](https://xkcd.com/610/)**
>
> Hey, what are the odds -- five Ayn Rand fans on the same train! Must be going to a convention.
---
### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2019, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/22 "2019-12-17T16:30:01Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> Or, maybe, just maybe, just for the shits and giggles, try thinking for yourself.
“…and I’ll know you aren’t thinking for yourself if you don’t reach the exact same conclusion I did.”
---
### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/23 "2019-12-17T19:06:48Z")
> [@Gyrate](#):
>
> “…and I’ll know you aren’t thinking for yourself if you don’t reach the exact same conclusion I did.”
Hey, I’m a rebel who doesn’t listen to what other people say! The beer I drink and the truck I drive prove that!
---
### Author:  [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2019, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/24 "2019-12-18T10:29:29Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> Or, maybe, just maybe, just for the shits and giggles, try thinking for yourself.
So when you said “don’t listen to the media” you didn’t mean I should somehow absorb news of the world telepathically? Like, I should form my own opinions is what you meant? Heavy stuff, dude.
---
### Author:  [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2019, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/25 "2019-12-18T12:05:53Z")
An important thing to remember about Barack Obama is that as good an orator as he is, not everything he says has any real meaning for him. It’s just something he says that sounds good and this is one example. He is in no way serious about the implications of his statement.
---
### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2019, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/26 "2019-12-18T12:22:32Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#):
>
> Nah, in the circles that Obama travels in it’s just kind of expected that you’ll mention the inferiority of men and superiority of women from time to time.
This post made my eyes roll like a slot machine.
---
### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2019, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/27 "2019-12-18T12:32:42Z")
> [@bengangmo](#):
>
> Obama was giving a speech in Malaysia…
> Could he have been referencing Mahatiar?
> The comments were made in Singapore…
> Could he have been referencing the legacy style politics and paternalism of the Singapore political environment?
This.
Americans need to learn that it’s not always about _them_.
Spend five minutes reading about the political history of Malaysia (and Singapore, and Indonesia where Obama once lived, and even China WRT Hong Kong) over the past forty years or so, then come back to this thread.
---
### Author:  [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2019, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/28 "2019-12-18T12:37:36Z")
> [@Grrr](#):
>
> This post made my eyes roll like a slot machine.
This type of facile rhetoric was even something Reagan employed. It did not actually imply a real worldvview in his case either.
---
### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2019, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/29 "2019-12-18T12:51:27Z")
> [@adaher](#):
>
> An important thing to remember about Barack Obama is that as good an orator as he is, not everything he says has any real meaning for him. It’s just something he says that sounds good and this is one example. He is in no way serious about the implications of his statement.
Ooo, do another mindreading trick! What’s he thinking about now? Is it Dijon mustard?
Despite concerted efforts by some to denigrate Obama’s greatest strength - his rhetorical ability - he remains someone who chooses his words carefully in pretty much every occasion in which he is using prepared remarks, as this was. Given the actual context of the excerpted phrase, the “implications of the statement” are fairly straightforward as **xenophon41** has already indicated. The inferences some prefer to draw instead…well, there’s nothing to be done about that.
---
### Author:  [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2019, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/30 "2019-12-18T12:54:36Z")
He does choose his words carefully… to ingratiate himself to his audience. He’s a career politician. His words are designed to make it sounds like he’s saying something without actually committing himself to anything. If they do have actual meaning, then that actual meaning should be explained. If you don’t know what that meaning is, then it’s a toss off remark that wasn’t meant to be taken seriously.
---
### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2019, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/31 "2019-12-18T13:49:23Z")
> [@adaher](#):
>
> He does choose his words carefully… to ingratiate himself to his audience. He’s a career politician. His words are designed to make it sounds like he’s saying something without actually committing himself to anything. If they do have actual meaning, then that actual meaning should be explained. If you don’t know what that meaning is, then it’s a toss off remark that wasn’t meant to be taken seriously.
There’s nothing left for him to aspire to, politically. Is your personal hatred for this man really so deep that you think he’s purposefully dishonest _even when there’s no possible political benefit for him_?
This is just ridiculous. You should recognize that your personal feelings about Obama render you totally incapable of analyzing his actions with anything approaching objectivity.
---
### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2019, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/32 "2019-12-18T14:28:36Z")
> [@Xema](#):
>
> [This BBC article](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50805822) reports Obama’s comments while in Singapore.
>
> Among them was this:
>
> It’s hard to avoid a sense that this is aimed at Biden.
My immediate reaction was to relate this to the Greta Thunberg situation
---
### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2019, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/33 "2019-12-18T14:54:36Z")
If he were asked, I am sure he would say that he didn’t mean _those_ old men. He meant “there are good people on both sides”.
And of course he’s right. Many of the problems of the world are because old men won’t get out of the way. But not, in his view, Biden or Sanders, because they’re men and they’re old and they aren’t getting out of the way, but that isn’t causing any problem. They’re not what he meant.
Regards,
Shodan
---
### Author:  [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2019, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/34 "2019-12-18T14:55:55Z")
Yes, yes. Everyone is a two faced hypocrite. Thanks.
---
### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/35 "2019-12-18T15:21:35Z")
> [@CarnalK](#):
>
> So when you said “don’t listen to the media” you didn’t mean I should somehow absorb news of the world telepathically? Like, I should form my own opinions is what you meant? Heavy stuff, dude.
You’re point is correct. I should have said “stop doing what the media, etc. tells you to do. Listen to what they say with skepticism and make up your own mind.”
---
### Author:  [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977/36 "2019-12-18T19:55:13Z")
Read recently the two of them had a lengthy conversation at Elijah Cumming’s funeral service.
Anyway with John Kerry endorsing + other alumni of the last administration it does seem folks who have been in power are gathering around Biden now.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-attacking-biden/844977.md?page=1)