He's so articulate!
I'm a little late to this Biden gaffe -- at least it's assumed to be a gaffe.
Biden's candidacy: DOA.
Obviously, we know what he's trying to say: that Obama's a great public speaker, that he doesn't have a record for shenanigans (despite the real estate kerfuffle the Chicago press tried to whip up late last year, which really never got any traction outside of that city)...I'm not quite clear what Biden meant by "mainstream;" I guess, that Obama isn't Jesse Jackson. But the senator from CapitalOne just came off sounding like my father who, though he'd deny a racist bone exists in his body, has an annoying tendency to refer to attractive black women as "handsome" and any black whom he can actually understand, usually in a post-game interview, as "surprisingly articulate."
That's part of what makes Obama's candidacy so tricky for his opponents. Obviously, they would prefer not to talk about his days as a community organizer or his early and ongoing opposition to the war in Iraq, so they'd prefer to talk about what a tough candidate he is because of his physical and oratorical gifts. That dismisses his qualifications and considerable achievements while at the same time makes him seem like little more than a baby-faced, "articulate" Ken doll. But in doing so they run the risk of gaffes like Biden's, falling into the trap of reverse-stereotypes that people have gotten pretty good at recognizing.
Biden and Clinton certainly don't want to talk about this, the No More Friedmans Act of 2007.
Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
Biden's candidacy: DOA.
Obviously, we know what he's trying to say: that Obama's a great public speaker, that he doesn't have a record for shenanigans (despite the real estate kerfuffle the Chicago press tried to whip up late last year, which really never got any traction outside of that city)...I'm not quite clear what Biden meant by "mainstream;" I guess, that Obama isn't Jesse Jackson. But the senator from CapitalOne just came off sounding like my father who, though he'd deny a racist bone exists in his body, has an annoying tendency to refer to attractive black women as "handsome" and any black whom he can actually understand, usually in a post-game interview, as "surprisingly articulate."
That's part of what makes Obama's candidacy so tricky for his opponents. Obviously, they would prefer not to talk about his days as a community organizer or his early and ongoing opposition to the war in Iraq, so they'd prefer to talk about what a tough candidate he is because of his physical and oratorical gifts. That dismisses his qualifications and considerable achievements while at the same time makes him seem like little more than a baby-faced, "articulate" Ken doll. But in doing so they run the risk of gaffes like Biden's, falling into the trap of reverse-stereotypes that people have gotten pretty good at recognizing.
Biden and Clinton certainly don't want to talk about this, the No More Friedmans Act of 2007.
posted by John at 4:39 PM
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