# Who Writes Joe Biden's Speeches? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 15, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623 "2012-08-15T23:46:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/1 "2012-08-15T23:46:41Z")
I mean, he does use a teleprompter-is somebody watching what this dope is mouthing? Joe (apparently) thinks that Virginia includes NC; he also thinks that the present century is the 20th. I also liked his remarks about how the Republicans are gonna “put y’all back in chains”. Is Biden ad-libbing, or are these gaffes in his written speeches? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/2 "2012-08-15T23:58:05Z")
Is their any genre of faux political outrage so pathetic as the “fixate on mild slip of the tongue” genre? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/3 "2012-08-16T00:00:38Z")
A link would be helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/4 "2012-08-16T00:05:43Z")
Never mind. Found it. (Although it seems the right wing is taking the lead in breaking this story.) The OP forgot Biden’s other gaffe, where he referred to Congressman Ryan as Governor Ryan. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/5 "2012-08-16T00:15:01Z")
Biden is well known for what one commenter called “shooting off his big Irish piehole.” In fact, I now think of him as Vice President Piehole. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/6 "2012-08-16T00:52:33Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Is their any genre of faux political outrage so pathetic as the “fixate on mild slip of the tongue” genre? I’ll thank you to wear a flag pin when you say that. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/7 "2012-08-16T14:17:55Z")
More grist for the 24-hour mill. No one will be talking about this after the Sunday talk shows this week. It was a stupid slip of the tongue, something Biden is famous for. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/8 "2012-08-16T14:23:39Z")
This is much ado about nothing, and yes, I think stuff like this is Biden improvising. The stuff in response to Romney’s comments was definitely scripted, but the “offending” statement likely wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/9 "2012-08-16T14:49:24Z")
Yes, Biden has an unfortunate habit of talking faster than he thinks, and it can be embarassing. So is the right really pushing the “facts” that he actually believes North Carolina is part of Virginia, and he doesn’t know what century it is? Pretty pathetic. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/10 "2012-08-16T15:22:35Z")
I’m reminded of Biden’s presidential campaign in [1988](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_biden#1988), when he was forced to withdraw from the race when it became evident that he _did_ have a speechwriter – unfortunately, that (uncredited) writer was Welsh politician Neil Kinnock. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/11 "2012-08-16T16:56:02Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Yes, Biden has an unfortunate habit of talking faster than he thinks, and it can be embarassing. > > So is the right really pushing the “facts” that he actually believes North Carolina is part of Virginia, and he doesn’t know what century it is? Pretty pathetic. The talking points have been distributed, **Wheelz**. Biden had the audacity to actually accurately describe what the 1% want to do to the rest of us and Fox News and the Republican talking heads instantly went into fauxtrage overdrive. Sarah Palin said that Biden should be dropped. SARAH PALIN! Concern trolling is the new Republican campaign strategy. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/12 "2012-08-16T16:59:04Z")
The Obama campaign should probably send Romney’s people a thank-you card for wasting their energy on stuff like this. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/13 "2012-08-16T17:07:52Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Sarah Palin said that Biden should be dropped. SARAH PALIN! “Tonight’s report will focus on the issue of a Vice President dragging down a campaign. Our guest is Sarah Palin.” “I’m glad to be here to talk about Joe Biden.” “As you viewers can see, she doesn’t get it.” ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/14 "2012-08-16T17:39:44Z")
It doesn’t even seem that the Republicans are trying very hard anymore. Their big “official” campaign talking point is an obvious lie that every legitimate journalist calls them on. Their fallback is to send out John Sununu and some African-American woman who just shout over the journalists and call them names. It’s embarrassing. And then there is stuff like this with Biden. Rush Limbaugh would have rejected this as too stupid to air in 2008, but here it featured prominently in 2012. Do they really think that talk-radio points of the day are going to help them, or have they already given up? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/15 "2012-08-16T18:21:41Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I’m reminded of Biden’s presidential campaign in [1988](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_biden#1988), when he was forced to withdraw from the race when it became evident that he _did_ have a speechwriter – unfortunately, that (uncredited) writer was Welsh politician Neil Kinnock. Actually if I recall correctly what actually happened was that Biden routinely quoted a statement by Kinnock in his campaign speeches. Once this became a regular part of his standard stump speech, there were a few instances when he didn’t explicitly credit Kinnock in the speech. But at that point people who had been listening to Biden would have known that he was referencing something by Kinnock. ---
**Author:** ![JQPublic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@JQPublic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JQPublic)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/16 "2012-08-16T18:47:11Z")
Doesn’t it scare any of you that this guy is one heart beat away from being president? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/17 "2012-08-16T18:51:31Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Actually if I recall correctly what actually happened was that Biden routinely quoted a statement by Kinnock in his campaign speeches. Once this became a regular part of his standard stump speech, there were a few instances when he didn’t explicitly credit Kinnock in the speech. But at that point people who had been listening to Biden would have known that he was referencing something by Kinnock. My memory’s a bit fuzzy on it, but based on the Wikipedia entry, it sounds like, yes, that was the case, but in at least one speech (a video of which was apparently sent to the press by the Dukakis campaign), Biden also apparently modified the context of the Kinnock “quote” to make it sound like it was referring to himself and his wife. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/18 "2012-08-16T18:53:41Z")
> [@JQPublic](#): > > Doesn’t it scare any of you that this guy is one heart beat away from being president? Not in the slightest. Why would it? It’s not like a significant portion of the President’s duties utterly rely on an ability to extemporize to the press. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/19 "2012-08-16T18:54:23Z")
> [@JQPublic](#): > > Doesn’t it scare any of you that this guy is one heart beat away from being president? No. How’d you feel about Bible Spice last time? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623/20 "2012-08-16T18:56:04Z")
> [@JQPublic](#): > > Doesn’t it scare any of you that this guy is one heart beat away from being president? Not particularly. The guy makes a lot of flubs when speaking, but there’s no evidence that he’s particularly dumb or holds beliefs that could be damaging to the nation. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-writes-joe-bidens-speeches/631623.md?page=2)