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Posts Tagged ‘Joe Biden’
May 29th, 2015 at 8:47 am
Is Global Warming Really the World’s Biggest Threat?
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Timothy Lee, CFIF’s Senior Vice President of Legal and Public Affairs, discusses why global warming is not the world’s greatest threat, why Vice President Joe Biden was wrong on his 2010 prediction about Iraq proving to be one of the greatest achievements of the Obama administration, and why former President George W. Bush is not to blame for ISIS.

Listen to the interview here.

September 18th, 2014 at 1:41 pm
Gates: Obama’s ISIS Strategy Is “Unattainable”

Intentionally or not, President Barack Obama’s current strategy for defeating and destroying ISIS is “unattainable,” says his first Defense Secretary, Robert Gates.

“…there will be boots on the ground if there’s to be any hope of success in the strategy. And I think that by continuing to repeat that [there won’t be troops on the ground], the president in effect traps himself,” Gates said on CBS This Morning.

“I’m also concerned that the goal has been stated as ‘degrade and destroy’ or ‘degrade and defeat’ ISIS,” because it sets an “unattainable” goal.

Gates is speaking from experience. As Defense Secretary for both Obama and George W. Bush, he saw the United States military inflict “some terrible blows” against al Qaeda – including the killing of Osama bin Laden. But even after 13 years of warfare, al Qaeda hasn’t been destroyed or completely defeated.

Ironically, Gates indicated that the bluster of Joe Biden may come closer to the mark. In a speech earlier this month in New Hampshire, the vice president said that ISIS terrorists should know that the United States “will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice…”

Meting out some measure of justice – be it death on the battlefield or convictions for war crimes – to specific ISIS members is a realistic goal, if ground troops are used.

The confusing aspect about Obama’s current ISIS policy is that it is both too little (no ground forces) and too much (complete destruction). Untethered from reality, it’s a strategy that looks like it is set up to fail.

H/T: Weekly Standard

September 6th, 2013 at 6:58 pm
Let’s Cool it with the “Chicken Hawk” Nonsense
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I sometimes find the best way to settle your views on an issue is not to read the opinion of those you admire, but rather those whom you despise. Even my favorite thinkers go astray sometimes. The hacks are slightly more consistent.

One of the kings of errancy is the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, who spends today’s column trying to act as a moral backstop for President Obama in regard to Syria. It’s a throwaway remark early in the piece, however, that gets my hackles up:

At Wednesday’s hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I thought for a moment that [Secretary of State John] Kerry was going to blow. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., launched into a self-righteous soliloquy about Benghazi, the IRS, the National Security Agency and what he portrayed as Kerry’s longtime aversion to using military force.

Kerry, you may recall, is a highly decorated Vietnam combat veteran. Duncan is an armchair warrior.

A few quick thoughts:

    — I’ll grant you that Duncan comes off as a blowhard in his questioning of Kerry. Hearings on the possibility of war are about as serious a task as a member of Congress faces and his insistence on turning it into a glorified campaign ad are both misplaced and unimpressive. He comes off like a guy trying to sell you insurance at a funeral. That being said, non sequitur droning constitutes about 90 percent of all congressional questioning. You know who used to be the king of that? John Kerry. So forgive me if I can’t muster sympathy when he’s on the receiving end of the same kind of firehose-intensity stream of inanity he spent over two and a half decades dispensing.

    — I’ve never understood why, in a nation that from its inception has insisted upon civilian control over the military, we try to settle policy arguments by determining who’s the closest approximation of Leonidas. You know who else was an “armchair warrior”? Franklin Roosevelt, who prosecuted World War II and never served in the military. Abraham Lincoln spent three months in the Illinois State Militia.

    And Mr. Robinson should be careful about tying credibility on foreign affairs to time in uniform. Barack Obama didn’t serve. Neither did Joe Biden. And neither did Eugene Robinson, who spends the rest of this column telling us how we should think about Syria.

    Liberals spent the last decade mocking conservative “chicken hawks” who had never served in the military but advocated for American intervention overseas. It was a bogus argument then and it’d be bogus (if not satisfying) to turn it back on them now. If we’re going to debate ideas, let’s do it on the merits, not according to the resumés of the people advancing them.

    June 13th, 2013 at 12:16 pm
    VP Biden Endorses Sens. Cruz and Paul as True Conservatives

    If U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY) ever need a Democratic endorsement of their conservative bona fides, they couldn’t do better than Vice President Joe Biden’s comment the other day at a Massachusetts fundraiser.

    Speaking off-the-cuff, Biden told the audience that “the last thing in the world we need now is someone who will go down to the United States Senate and support Ted Cruz, support the new senator from Kentucky,” meaning Rand Paul.

    Apparently, the Senators were the two most cited reasons given when Biden pressed Republicans in the chamber to support his and President Barack Obama’s push for stricter gun control laws.

    Biden was surprised. “I actually said, ‘Are you kidding?’ These are two freshmen.”

    Better yet, call them ‘reformers with results.’

    One of the disappointments for many conservatives is to watch a Republican politician talk a good game, but then get co-opted into shirking principles in deference to the process and the allure of power in Washington, D.C.

    If Cruz and Paul have been able to stiffen the spines of their Republican colleagues, then it sounds like the GOP caucus is getting more conservative as a result of their presence.

    That’s quite a feat for two freshmen.

    Just ask Joe Biden.

    H/T: Washington Examiner

    October 30th, 2012 at 8:54 pm
    If Electoral Tie, Would Biden Pick Ryan as Replacement?

    If the Electoral College deadlocks at 269-269, Vice President Biden, in his role as President of the U.S. Senate, would get to decide the rules for picking the VP.  (The House would pick the President.)

    Roll Call paints the picture:

    One of the foremost experts on Senate rules said he sees no evidence of expedited procedures to avert a filibuster of that process.

    “I have read the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, and I don’t see anything that requires the Senate to vote without debate on choosing a vice president,” former Senate Parliamentarian Robert B. Dove said. “Therefore, I don’t see what would stop Senators from speaking about who is going to be the vice president and, in effect, forcing a cloture vote.”

    While the parliamentarian advises the presiding officer on procedural questions, Dove said, the responsibility to rule rests with the occupant of the chair. In the event of an Electoral College tie, that would be Biden (in his capacity of president of the Senate, until Jan. 20). Dove notes that Democratic Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey disregarded the parliamentarian’s guidance with some regularity.

    Something tells me Good Ole’ Joe isn’t the kind to let a little conflict of interest get in the way of his hold on power.

    October 26th, 2012 at 6:24 pm
    Latest Reason Biden Needs to Retire

    Here’s what the Vice President of the United States said at a campaign rally in Wisconsin:

    “But you can’t erase what you’ve already done, they’ve voted to extend tax cuts for the very wealthy, giving a $500 trillion dollar tax-cut to 120,000 families.”

    Remember, America, if reelected, Good Ole’ Joe is a heartbeat away from saying things like this from the Oval Office!

    H/T: Fox News

    October 12th, 2012 at 1:18 am
    Ryan’s Best Line of the Night

    “I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don’t come out of your mouth the right way.”

    True and well delivered.  The crowd loved it too.

    October 4th, 2012 at 9:57 pm
    Biden Trying to Replace Ryan on GOP Ticket?

    If headlines earn a vice presidential candidate’s stripes, then Joe Biden may merit consideration as Mitt Romney’s most effective attack dog.

    A few days ago Biden said the middle class has been “buried” during President Barack Obama’s economic stewardship.  Today, Obama’s self-immolating Vice President confirmed Mitt Romney’s charge that the Democratic incumbent would raise taxes if reelected:

    Biden said Romney and other Republicans often say `Obama and Biden want to raise taxes by a trillion dollars.’ Guess what? Yes, we do in one regard: We want to let that trillion dollar tax cut expire so the middle class doesn’t have to bear the burden of all that money going to the super-wealthy. That’s not a tax raise. That’s called fairness where I come from.”

    It’s true Biden is gaffe-prone, but these kinds of statements are too true to be unintentional.

    Watch yourself, Paul Ryan – Good Ole’ Joe is gunning for your job!

    H/T: Fox News

    September 7th, 2012 at 2:17 pm
    Ryan’s Democratic Stand-In on Challenges of Prepping Biden

    Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told Roll Call what the biggest challenge is while preparing Vice President Joe Biden to debate Paul Ryan:

    “I sit next to Paul Ryan in the Budget Committee day in and day out,” he said on his preparation for the role.”So, I know how he presents the Republican case.

    “He presents a plan that’s bad for the country with a smile, so I think the challenge is dealing with presentation of the plan, explaining why the plan is bad for the country,” he added.

    With all due respect to Rep. Van Hollen, his biggest challenge is helping Joe Biden explain how ripping out more than $700 million from Medicare to pay for ObamaCare is a better policy than Ryan’s idea to convert future Medicare benefits into a fiscally sustainable premium support voucher.

    It would take all of Bill Clinton’s rhetorical sleight-of-hand to pull off that feat.  Instead, Van Hollen is working with the gaffe-prone Biden.

    Good luck overcoming that handicap, Congressman.  You’ll need it.

    August 17th, 2012 at 8:27 am
    Biden Gets Debating Partner, But Will It Help?

    Politico reports that Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) will play the part of Paul Ryan as Vice President Joe Biden prepares for his one and only debate with the Wisconsin Republican.

    While Van Hollen – the politically savvy ranking Democrat on Ryan’s House Budget Committee – will no doubt do a fine job, I’m more than a bit surprised to learn that Biden even prepares for such things like a debate.  The good ole’ Joe we’ve come to know – “They’ll put ya’ll back in chains!” – just doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who thinks much before he speaks.

    My guess is that won’t change even with all the time and money spent on coaches, policy briefs, and poll-tested responses.  Joe is who he is: an emotive liberal who shoots from the lip.  His advantage, of course, is that everyone has incredibly low expectations for him; especially now that he’s going up against Paul Ryan, the universally acclaimed number one intellectual public official in the Republican Party.

    If Ryan hammers Biden or makes him look out of touch, well, we expect that.  But if Biden gets Ryan flustered or slides in a good line (even if it’s a non sequitur), then the media will declare him the upset winner.

    My guess is that Ryan plays it straight and banks on Biden making an unforced error before confirming the widespread hunch that Biden is out of his depth.  Biden’s history makes that a safe bet.

    July 10th, 2012 at 5:53 pm
    Chart: Timing of VP Picks, 1980 – 2008

    Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner posted an interesting chart showing the timing of vice presidential picks from 1980 to 2008.  Notice a trend?

    Photo -

    Except for John Kerry’s selection of John Edwards nearly three weeks before the 2004 Democratic Convention, all the others picks occurred within a week of or at the respective party’s convention.

    As Klein notes, as of today we’re 7 weeks / 49 days away from the Republican Convention in Tampa, so it’s probably waaaaaay too early to expect Quin (Bobby Jindal) or Troy (Jon Kyl) to collect the CFIF office pool money.

    For what it’s worth, I’d like a Romney-Christie ticket just to see Chris Christie go after Joe Biden during their debate, play the attack dog on the campaign trail, and land the rhetorical blows on the Obama Administration that Mitt Romney can’t seem to muster.

    Of course, those reasons – coupled with Christie’s propensity to be baited into a confrontation – are probably the same reasons Romney won’t pick him.

    But if history is any guide, there’s still time for Mitt to get warm to the idea.

    May 29th, 2012 at 9:38 am
    Ramirez Cartoon: Who is More Qualified to be President?
    Posted by Print

    Below is one of the latest cartoons from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

    View more of Michael Ramirez’s cartoons on CFIF’s website here.

    April 26th, 2012 at 11:56 am
    Biden on Foreign Policy; Lindsay Lohan on Self-Control

    Really, Mr. Veep? Really?!?

    March 30th, 2012 at 1:24 pm
    Being Joe Biden

    How’s this for honesty from America’s Vice President:

    Vice President Joe Biden offered a frank assessment of his career in remarks at a Democratic fundraiser in Chicago last night, according to the Washington Examiner.

    Said Biden: “I never had an interest in being a mayor ’cause that’s a real job. You have to produce. That’s why I was able to be a senator for 36 years.”

    H/T: Political Wire

    March 26th, 2012 at 1:53 pm
    Etch-a-Sketch vs. More Flexibility

    In just a few days two presidential campaigns may have coined the slogans we’ll all be hearing ad nauseum this fall.

    Last week, a top Mitt Romney advisor likened his boss to an Etch-a-Sketch, able to be shaken and reset while moving from the primaries to the general election.  Over the weekend, President Barack Obama told his Russian counterpart that “This is my last election.  After my election I have more flexibility.”

    Each statement betrays a fundamental suspicion about each candidate.  Romney has no core principles.  Obama’s will emerge only after he’s insulated from facing voters again.  The comments feed the narrative that both men will say anything to get elected.

    If Romney is the GOP nominee, Jennifer Rubin already has proposed talking points attacking the ‘more flexibility’ president. (E.g. “He says he’ll only raise taxes on the rich, but after the election he’ll have ‘more flexibility.'”)

    We can also assume more comments like Vice President Joe Biden’s that Romney won’t be allowed to be all things to all people.

    Unless Rick Santorum can turn his 22 point win in last Saturday’s Louisiana caucuses into a Wisconsin win tomorrow, we may be in for an Etch-a-Sketch vs. More Flexibility campaign.

    January 27th, 2012 at 3:25 pm
    Now Biden’s Solyndra Goes Belly Up

    During a visit to Solyndra’s Fremont, CA, headquarters President Barack Obama infamously proclaimed “we can see the positive impacts [of Recovery Act stimulus money] right here at Solyndra.”  A year later, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy.  Less noticed was Vice President Joe Biden’s equally presumptuous statement last year that Indiana-based EnerDel – a maker of government subsidized batteries for electric cars – was the “start” to reorienting “the way Americans power their lives.”   As of yesterday, exactly one year after Biden uttered those words, the latest green energy fiasco declared bankruptcy.

    For those keeping score, that’s Solyndra costing $535 million, EnerDel $118 million, with more failures to follow.  Had enough, America?

    November 11th, 2011 at 8:01 pm
    Biden Chiseling Secret Service for Rent While They Protect Him

    If you’ve ever wondered how career politicians make money while in office, here’s an answer to file away with “marry a lobbyist” and “have a trust fund.”

    The Washington Times confirms that even after six months of bad press, Vice President Joe Biden will continue to charge rent from the Secret Service for the agents who live on his Delaware property to protect his life.  The Times notes that Secret Service officials can’t recall another public official charging rent from his protectors – essentially a double tax on taxpayers who’ve been subsidizing Biden’s lifestyle since he was elected to the Senate 36 years ago at the age of 31.

    The amount of rent Biden will receive from the Secret Service next year – $26,400 or $2,200 a month – is a pittance compared to the trillions being wasted by the Obama Administration on its assorted boondoggles.  But it’s the way this transaction looks to have occurred that should really irk taxpayers.  From the Times report:

    According to Mr. Biden’s office, the cottage had been occupied by Mr. Biden’s mother, Jean Biden, who died in 2010 at 92.

    After her death, Mr. Biden asked the Secret Service about renting the property, but the agency declined and a private tenant whose identity has not been disclosed moved in. When that tenant moved out, however, the Secret Service reconsidered, approached Mr. Biden about renting the property and moved in, paying the same $2,200 per-month rate charged to the previous occupant.

    Hard to believe that the Secret Service suddenly had a change of heart about granting Biden’s wish to make money off of a service offered to him by a generous nation and dedicated personnel.  Instead, it looks like the mystery tenant was just a stand-in to establish a rental price that Biden could claim was fair market value when he cajoled the Secret Service into accepting his offer.

    What’s next; Biden charging AMTRAK for the privilege of ferrying him between D.C. and Delaware?

    October 21st, 2011 at 7:07 pm
    “Occupiers” Quiet on Biden, Protest Cantor

    Three days, two speeches, one important difference.

    When Vice President Joe Biden spoke at the University of Pennsylvania on Wednesday, he said that opponents of the president’s jobs bill were okay that, as a result of blocking the bill, “murder will continue to rise, rape will continue to rise, all crimes will continue to rise.” Nary a peep was heard from the Occupy Philadelphia crowd.

    By contrast, just the mere mention that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) would speak at Penn today brought on threats from Occupy Philadelphia to disrupt his speech.  Cantor rightly canceled his appearance at the last minute in order to avoid the kind of heckling for which liberal activists are notorious.

    Biden argued that federal spending on state union members would somehow reduce murders and rapes.  Cantor was expected to speak on how to ease income inequalities.  If anyone needed more proof who these hooligans support and why, here it is.

    August 22nd, 2011 at 9:43 pm
    The Moral Superfluousness of Joe Biden
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    Vice President Biden was at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, yesterday for an address on U.S.–Chinese relations. Looking over his remarks, one gets to thinking that the Taiwan Strait is nowhere near as dangerous a space as the distance between Biden and a hot microphone.

    Biden, remember, is a scholar of everything, prone to confusing the ridiculous with the sublime, and loquacious in inverse correlation to his erudition. So it should come as no surprise that the Vice President felt free to weigh in on the dynamics of Chinese society. The particular angle he chose, however, may surprise. From the remarks:

    You have no safety net.  Your policy has been one which I fully understand — I’m not second-guessing — of one child per family.  The result being that you’re in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people.  Not sustainable.

    Leave it to Biden, the court jester of an administration that has shown no regard whatsoever for fiscal prudence, to reduce what has been called “the biggest single holocaust in human history” to an accounting problem.

    In that conceit, Biden is not so different from the Communist Chinese who created the one-child policy. Their rationale, after all, was to reduce the burden on Chinese society that would stem from population growth. In essence, it is a tyranny of the living over the unborn — an ideal that could not be further removed from the Declaration of Independence’s promise of rights given by God. In China, the most basic right of all — the right to life, which has pride of place in the Declaration’s enumeration — is a function of one’s perceived worth to society.

    That, Mr. Vice President, is worth ‘second-guessing’. As for your glib dismissal of the moral stain imposed by China’s macabre exercise in totalitarianism? “Not sustainable.”

    August 16th, 2011 at 9:40 pm
    $20 Million Obama “Green Jobs” Program Creates Work for 14 in Seattle
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    In the Obama era, the news on any given day seems seems like a real-time seminar on the disutility of Keynesian economics and “green energy” faddishness. The latest such entry comes from KOMO-TV news in Seattle, which reports the following:

    Last year, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced the city had won a coveted $20 million federal grant to invest in weatherization. The unglamorous work of insulating crawl spaces and attics had emerged as a silver bullet in a bleak economy – able to create jobs and shrink carbon footprint – and the announcement came with great fanfare.

    McGinn had joined Vice President Joe Biden in the White House to make it. It came on the eve of Earth Day. It had heady goals: creating 2,000 living-wage jobs in Seattle and retrofitting 2,000 homes in poorer neighborhoods.

    But more than a year later, Seattle’s numbers are lackluster. As of last week, only three homes had been retrofitted and just 14 new jobs have emerged from the program.

    Fourteen jobs instead of 2,000. That means the Administration’s estimates were off by 99.3%. Since this president is so fond of telling us how much he respects the private sector, how about a few analogies from the real world?

    — A baseball player with this level of accuracy would be hitting .007

    — A financial adviser with this level of accuracy would have invested $250,000 and ended up with $1,750.

    — A doctor with this level of accuracy who saw 850 patients a year would misdiagnose 844 of them.

    If you had that baseball player, you’d cut him. If you had that financial adviser, you’d fire him. And if you had that doctor, you’d find a new physician and probably report the old one for malpractice. If you had this president …