Eagleton Watch: September 23, 2008
First, last night, Joe says Obama’s anti-McCain ad is terrible, via Drudge, via AP:
Asked about the negative tone of the campaign, and this ad in particular, during an interview broadcast Monday by the “CBS Evening News,” Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, said he disapproved of it.
“I thought that was terrible, by the way,” Biden said.
Asked why it was done, he said: “I didn’t know we did it and if I had anything to do with it, we’d have never done it.”
Bill Burton later came out and said that Biden never saw the ad in question and was blindsided by the question. How likely is that?
Next, Biden opposes new energy plants in the U.S. via Ben Smith at Politico:
Some great rope line video from Joe Biden’s recent Ohio swing, where he was asked by an anti-pollution campaigner about clean coal — a controversial approach in Democratic circles for which Obama has voiced support, particularly during the Kentucky primary.
Biden’s apparent answer: He supports clean coal for China, but not for the United States.
“No coal plants here in America,” he said. “Build them, if they’re going to build them, over there. Make them clean.”
The answer seems to play into John McCain’s case that Obama has been saying “no” to new sources of energy.
Lastly, here is Obama noting that Joe’s loose lips are at it again when he was originally against the AIG bailout. via Jake Tapper at ABC:
“What has been clear during this entire past ten days is John McCain has not had clarity and a grasp on the situation,” Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told NBC’s Matt Lauer in an interview that ran this morning.
auer was talking about how Obama hit Sen. McCain for flip-flopping on the AIG bailout — saying he opposed it one day then announce he supported it the next day.
But, as Lauer pointed out, scarcely three minutes after McCain said he opposed the AIG bailout last week, “in an interview with Meredith Vieira, Joe Biden, your running mate was asked the exact same question, ‘should the federal government bailout AIG?’ And he said, ‘No, the federal government should not bailout AIG.’” (As we noted at the time.) “And I think that in that situation,” Obama said, “I think Joe should have waited as well.”
“But it’s the kind of thing that drives people crazy about politics,” Lauer said. “It sounds like you were trying to score some political points against John McCain using his words, when your own running mate had used very similar words.”
Will numbnuts throw Biden under the bus? I hope not. Besides the political benefits to us of having a Joe Biden on the ticket, I have really grown to like him. He seems to be honest and doesn’t really care what anyone thinks of him, much like our current president. I don’t agree with JB’s policies or his efforts to suppress conservative judges, but I would love to get a beer with him. Especially if he does this.
- Frank
