Biden bashing.

[No Elephants]

From Secretary of Defense Gates to Chris Matthews to Stewart and Colbert, random Biden bashing is rampant. I take this as further evidence that the fix is in for 2016. Not that I needed more evidence. Pundits and others, Republican and Democrat, have been pushing Hillary 2016 since before Obama got re-elected. But, Biden bashing seems to be de rigeur these days among those pundits and others. Guess we can't afford to have Hillary's inevitability overruled twice. So, no one is taking any chances.

When asked, during an interview, if he thought that Hillary Clinton would make a good President, Gates said yes. The follow up was the same question about Biden. With a smile playing around his lips, Gates allowed as how, "If I am going to be even handed, I have to say "yes." Snicker snicker.


Of course, Gates had written in his book that Biden has been wrong on every foreign policy issue for the last forty years. When asked about that on another occasion, Biden graciously complimented Gates in general, but said that he (Biden) had often disagreed with Gates over the years about foreign policy and he (Biden) was proud of his positions. (I, too, am proud to have disagreed with what appear to have been Gates's positions, but I'm not running for President.)


Commenting on the Republican response to the SOTU, Chris Matthews remarked that it contributed nothing new, adding grauitously out of nowhere, "It's like Biden, when he makes a speech, after everyone else has spoken. Nothing new."

Stewart, who records his show before the SOTU is given, even though the show airs after the SOTU, mentioned in his pretend reporting on that night's SOTU that Biden's farts {during the SOTU} had been surprising in quantity and volume, or some such. Not even clever, which is surprising for Stewart. I don't even recall Colbert's swipes.


I hope poor ole Biden has fastened his seat belt. It looks like a bumpy ride.

Me? I don't think I can vote for either Biden or Hillary, but I don't like being told it's Hillary.

[Enthusiast]

1. The fix is in.

Just like in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012. This should be obvious by now.

[No Elephants]

2. In 2008, I was under

the delusion illusion that we had a real primary battle going. Then again, I thought Obama was very different from Hillary.


Kids, huh?

[Enthusiast]

3. We shouldn't feel bad. We were taken in by an elaborate ruse.

I suspect many of the people engaged in formulating the plan were ex-intelligence people. You know the ones, they had a lot of practice when they overthrew many of the left leaning banana republics. Problem is, it is ongoing.

[No Elephants]

4. Thing is, people were pointing things out to me at the time. Also, I was noticing things

myself, but I would rationalize them away. The one thing I had trouble with that I could not rationalize away was his statement that we had taken "our eye off the ball in Afghanistan" to invade Iraq. Even I knew that was code for rekindling Afghanistan. And even I knew there was no ball in Afghanistan (or Iraq) and never had been. But, I told myself that was one thing. A horrible thing, to be sure, but someone else would be worse.

Other things I noticed, I deluded myself that he did not mean them. He was only saying them because he knew he had to, in order to get elected. Once in office, he'd be great. How I told myself that deceiving America in order to get elected President--bait and switch fraud--was an okay thing for a Presidential candidate to do is beyond me.

That is so far out of my character. I am not saying that I've never been deceptive. But I never thought that deceit was an okay thing, even when I did it myself for some relatively unimportant matter. For me to have used that as an excuse for a Presidential candidate? I cannot imagine what got into me. Desperation, I guess. I was so desperate for a change from Bushco.

Aaarggghhhh. Never again.

[Enthusiast]

5. We were engaged in some creative wishful thinking.

It was the Bush revulsion effect. Little did we know......

[No Elephants]

6. You are, as always, very kind.

I was also still very much clueless. I had never heard of the DLC. I thought the Democratic Party of 2008 was still the Democratic Party of my parents.

Joining DU (which I did after Obama won the primary) was what began opening my eyes. Many of the posters from whom I learned then don't seem to post much anymore, though. But, I still learn things from you and from my lurks at DU3.

I wish knowledge were power in this case. However, apart from my own voting, I have no clue what to do about the problems about which I learn.

[Enthusiast]

7. Most of us were naive.

And so disgusted with the Bush abuse of power, not the least of which was that he didn't even win the damned election. It was little wonder that we were so vulnerable.