Biden’s words come back to haunt–Romney’s will do the same
It never ceases to amaze me how politicians can say something at one point in their career or campaign and later act as if they didn’t mean or possibly didn’t say it. We have seen politicians reversing their positions and trying to cover their tracks like never before. Some may consider this article an attempt to push Mike Huckabee towards the number two spot on the Republican ticket and while that isn’t necessarily the case, I would like point something out. At least Huckabee doesn’t have to go around trying to cover his tracks and change what he has said. With Mike Huckabee, what you see is what you get.
Now that we have learned Senator Joe Biden will be Barack Obama’s running mate, it didn’t take John McCain’s campaign long to come out with their first ad about the finally completed Democratic ticket. The ad featured Joe Biden’s own words, In one of the Democratic debates, early on in the campaign, Biden was asked by George Stephanopoulos about a statement he had made earlier. The exchange between the two men went like this.
George Stephanopoulos: “You were asked, “Is he ready?” You said, ‘I think he can be ready but right now, I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.’”
Joe Biden: “I think that I stand by the statement.”
With all due respect, this is something you can’t have both ways. I mean, do we really believe that in a space of a year, Barack Obama has gained enough experience in Joe Biden’s eyes to be ready to lead our country? No way did that happen and if that isn’t enough, there is more.
Joe Biden has another statement he needs to retract as well. He has already went on the attack against John McCain, but evidently, he hasn’t always felt this way about his fellow Senator.
Joe Biden: “I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off.”
Someone needs to remind Senator Biden that this is not Typing 101, where he can take white out, erase his words out, and type back over them like nothing happened.
Let’s fast forward to next weekend, August 30, 2008. That is the likely day for John McCain to announce his choice to be his Vice-Presidential running mate. Groups like the Club for Growth and the Republican establishment have been trying to push Mitt Romney down his throat. Romney himself has been campaigning for the VP slot since he dropped out of the race and endorsed McCain. Everyone seems to have forgotten the vicious rhetoric the two candidates launched at each other during the primaries.
For example, Romney had this to say about McCain and his charges about the Iraqi withdrawal timetable:
Mitt Romney: “Well, he’s lying. he’s dishonest. He’s being dishonest in that regard,”
He also had this to say when asked about John McCain’s statement about his understanding of the economy.
John McCain: “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.”
Mitt Romney: “No one needs to give me a briefing on the economy. I won’t need to choose a vice president that understands the economy because I know the economy,”
It’s hard to imagine how the McCain campaign could spin their way out of that one. If you want more fuel for the fire, just go to YouTube and check out all the debate videos that have been uploaded, showing just how much these two men dislike each other.
I am no political expert, but let me give John McCain a piece of advice. I am not going to say you have to choose Mike Huckabee as your running mate, but you need to choose someone like him, whether it’s Tim Pawlenty or someone else. One thing for sure, if you want to throw this election into the lap of the most liberal Democrat we’ve seen in a long time, go ahead and choose Mitt Romney as your running mate. It will be one sure way of making sure Barack Obama is the next President of the United States.
That’s my take!
Larry
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Larry,
I think educated people understand that there are attacks during the primaries. The footage of Hillary and Joe is much more damning than the footage of Romney. Reagan picked his arch nemesis and won quite handily.
You really think Obama’s people had not looked at Biden’s comments during the primary?? LOL.
They looked and then decided he was still the best choice! Voters (except a few Hucksters like you) understand that during the primaries candidates are trying to draw distinctions between themselves and the other candidates. You think there wasn’t a battle bewteen Reagan and Bush? Kennedy and Johnson? LOL. Look at the NASTY campaign Bush jr ran against McCain in 2000 (one of the worst ever!). And afterwards, McCain supported Bush. It is only petty, mean spirited and vindictive people like Huckabee and his supporters that still are attacking a fellow republican AFTER the primary. Simply pathetic.
You can call Huckabee and his supporters names, if you want, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that Mitt Romney was the main attack dog during the Republican primaries. I am not being petty, mean spirited, or vindictive when I say choosing Romney will almost surely throw this election to Obama. There will be no way to go back and smooth over what he has said about his fellow Republicans. To put it bluntly, he is the one that started it, not us.
I like this blog, The author makes a really good point. I Found Romney very slimey during the primaries. I would not vote for that ticket. The DNC would have fun looping the sound byte of Romney calling McCain dishonest. Believe me that is much worse, then anything Biden said about Obama. There are some people McCain could pick that would be acceptable. Huckabee would probably make the most sense. Romney is still spending money trying to get on this ticket., He has bought all of talk radio. He is an irrational choice. Other then his ability to deliver Michigan. Which Michigan can probably gotten with out Mitt anyway. He out spent Huckabee 6/1 and Huckabee still ended up with more delegates. I dont believe McCain will pick either of these two. McCain will probably pick a female. http://www.mccanes.com
Too funny. “Don’t mormons believe Jesus and the Devil are brothers (snicker, snicker)” started it. Good grief. It was not just Romney supporters who got up it arms, EVERYONE but Huckabee supporters recognized what a low-blow Huck had attempted. Krauthammer called it “Un-American.” That it was started it! In return, Romney simply went after Huckabee’s POLITICAL RECORD during the primary campaign(imagine that)!
As far as the election, I laugh at how Huckabee supporters just don’t understand why everyone else (the McCain campaign, Bush administration, Rove, MSM and all the pundits from both parties who say Romney is probably the best pick) can’t see that Romney “tanks the ticket.” Yeah, thats right, you guys are the unbiased observers and the other guys are too stupid to understand politics. LOL!
And, you may want to look up the definitions of petty, vindictive, etc. You have just admitted that the reson you continue to attack a fellow Republican AFTER the primary is beacuse “he is the one who (you believe) started it.” nanny, nannny.
Finally, I do take pleasure and amusement from the fact that while I don’t believe Romney gets picked, he is widely regarded as the best pick for McCain and Huckabee appears from all accounts not to have even made the LONG list. And you guys are left simply trying to tear down another republican and saying to yourself, “I just don’t understand.”
I think some people forget that it was George Bush Sr.that made the popular Democrat mantra describing Reagan’s Economic policy as Voodoo economics. But if you want to defeat your opponent in the primary you either pull out the no holds barred campaign or risk doing a Bill Richardson, play for second fiddle and lose anyway.
Great blog Larry, I could agree with you more. Slick Willy will sink the ticket, you have to ignore people like Brian who have been drinking the poisonous Romney Kool-aid. The only reason that the dems want Romney is because they know he will sink the GOP hopes of keeping the white house, every poll shows this to be the truth. Rombots know this to be the case so they go around calling every American that doesn’t support Romney a bigot, all to gain a sympathy vote. Unfortunately for them it has backfired.
Despite the Dems and the allied main stream media’s desperation to see Romney as McCain’s Veep, Mitt is clearly out, with (1) Obama doubling down on the class warfare theme (McCain’s 7 houses) and (2) McCain doubling down with ads showing the hypocrisy of Biden attacking Obama in the primaries — Romney did way more than that contra McCain.
This leaves only Govs Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty. Pro-abortion Ridge and Dem-Lieberman were never real considerations, despite relentless media goading. Pawlenty’s lackluster TV performances, coupled with Palin pizzazz, the primacy of oil drilling and the ticked off women/Hillary voters, does now portend a McCain/Palin checkmate on the Dems. This is so albeit the Dems and liberal media dare not mention Palin’s name, that is, everyone but…..
And if there’s any question as to Palin being uniquely positioned and able to more than nullify Biden in debate, see the excellent discussion at palinforvp.blogspot.com
Team McCain, well done!!!
Brian,
To start with, if you would be so kind to check out the context of Huckabee’s remarks, you would find that he was asking a question of the reporter doing the interview. Over several hours of conversation, Huckabee and the reporter discussed several things, among them religion. Huckabee told the reporter he didn’t want to discuss Romney’s religion; he said, “I don’t want to go there”. He asked the reporter a simple question about the Mormon religion and that one question made the article. The reporter didn’t bother publishing the fact that Huckabee said he didn’t want to discuss Romney’s religion.
Secondly, I am not trying to tear Mitt Romney down, but I do question his being a viable candidate for VP. The reason a lot of people, including the Republican establishment, want Romney as VP is because they can control him. Huckabee is a different matter altogether, simply because he is his own man.
Thirdly, I am sick of seeing Mike Huckabee being held to a higher standard than the other candidates. If he had pulled the stunts Mitt Romney has pulled, changing position on every issue under the sun, he would have been politically crucified. As it was, every idle word he said was twisted around, every decision he made while Governor of Arkansas was questioned, the results not withstanding. The Club for Growth repeatedly attacked him for raising taxes and refused to look at the situation the state was in. Simply put, the establishment doesn’t like him because he is his own man, but the Republican people do happen to like him because they have found him to be a man who they can trust.
Honestly, I never meant for this article to be a defense of Mike Huckabee, but I really get tired of hearing him put down the road by people who really haven’t a clue what kind of man he is.
http://www.romneyonmccain.blogspot.com
In Romney’s own words…
This is exactly what the Dems and the MSM would show, constantly.
As a bonus, they’ll also make this nutcase out to be Multiple-Choice Romney’s own Willie Horton. http://www.danieltavaresjr.blogspot.com
Romney, himself stated that Huckabee would make a fine President.
ROMNEY: “We need to make sure that we have a strong person who can take the baton from President Bush, and Gov. Huckabee is certainly one of those individuals. He’d make a fine president”
Source: http://www.swtimes.com/articles/2007/12/11/week_in_review/news/sunday/news04.txt