It was my first election and while it’s not strictly speaking true, what is true is that his Secretary of the Interior was involved in a criminal conspiracy to steal a third of the Naval Oil Reserve and at the time Japan, while a strategic rival, was not yet considered hostile and was one of our best Petroleum markets. A little thing we called Teapot Dome.
Anyway it’s not something I’d necessarily expect you to know. His name was Albert Fall and I can instantly think of half a dozen puns and a Beatles parody and they’re all screamingly funny, trust me, but if I told them to you I would expect only incomprehension or, from particularly specialized and devoted followers of Clio, “How long have you been sleeping under that tree Rip?”
Now this is not about Joe Biden’s age. As far as I’m concerned he’s a stripling, still wet behind the ears, barely half my age, but I’ve learned my Harding jokes are no longer topical.
To put the most charitable spin on it Biden was at a Town Hall when a College Student asked him, “How do you explain the performance in Iowa and why should voters believe that you can win the national election?” He gave her a non-answer and then said, “Iowa’s a caucus. Have you ever been to a caucus?” When she replied yes (which was true) Joe disbelieved her and said “No, you haven’t. You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier.”
Again, the charitable spin is that Biden was making a joke by quoting a line from an obscure John Wayne movie. Nobody seems to know which movie but it’s supposedly a misquote and John Wayne made a lot of movies which compli8cates things.
Now as you might imagine Biden is getting called out for Racism (A Twofer, Blacks and Indians!) and Misogyny and they’re both pretty true but perhaps not in this case.
I think he just forgot she was born in 1999 and John Wayne had already been dead for 20 years. Heck, John Wayne Gacy had been dead for 5.
In any event, I’ve done politics and been a politician- right out front there asking for your vote. Insulting them is not calculated to win their support.
I’m talking about “Iowa’s a caucus. Have you ever been to a caucus?”
WTF Joe? To imply she’s ignorant? And then to disbelieve her lived experience, whether jokingly or not?
Joe, the Butt Ignorant one here is you. You can think what you want, but no politician worthy of the name insults voters in public. Even the ones that like you will not like how you treat other people.
This is why he is a loser and will lose again. I just hope it’s in the Primary. He is the most unelectable candidate in the field. The most Corporatist, the most Gaffe Prone, the most Gropy, the most Racist, the most Misogynous. His campaign is unorganized and events unenthusiastic.
He will get beaten like a drum and the Democratic Establishment will bear complete and full responsibility.
Biden, Warren battle for third place in New Hampshire
By Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Matt Viser, and Felicia Sonmez, Washington Post
February 9, 2020
Two days before voters head to the polls, Biden advisers were already eager to move on, hoping the former vice president would do better with Nevada and South Carolina’s more diverse electorate. But there are growing concerns, even inside his campaign, that financial resources are being strained ahead of an upcoming stretch that will only get more expensive as the race shifts into a national campaign.
Biden in recent days has retooled his stump speech, focusing on the stories of those he has met on the trail, and growing emotional as he speaks about the 2015 death of his oldest son, Beau.
But at times, he struggled to connect with voters. On Sunday morning, at an oceanside ballroom here, Madison Moore took the microphone and warned the former vice president that the question she was about to ask was going to be a bit mean.
“How do you explain the performance in Iowa and why should voters believe that you can win the national election?” asked the 21-year-old student at Mercer University in Georgia.
Biden said it was legitimate question, but then turned the spotlight back on her, asking: “Iowa’s a caucus. Have you ever been to a caucus?”
When she indicated yes, he rebuked her: “No, you haven’t. You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier.”
The phrase was an allusion to a line in a John Wayne movie that Biden had used before. Even so, Moore said she was shaken and flummoxed at his reaction. Biden went on to say that the caucus posed challenges to his campaign, and he conceded that they were less prepared.
“I congratulate Pete, I congratulate Bernie,” he said. “They were really well organized. Better than we were in Iowa.
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