[ Why don't the Palin haters pick on Biden's blatant stupidity,
and dishonesty, and academic record, and admitted cheating... ]
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...-takes-obama-off-message/?feat=home_headlines
Biden's gaffes undercut Obama
Verbal miscue on Russia spurs damage control
By Jon Ward (Contact) | Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The Obama White House's vaunted message machine has been thrown off-track with increasing regularity by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., whose five verbal missteps in the past three months have created obstacles at home and abroad.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was forced Sunday to correct publicly Mr. Biden's characterization of Russia as a crumbling country, a description that infuriated Russian officials and contradicted President Obama's efforts to "reset" relations with the world power.
"This isn't likely to help convince the Russians we really want to work with them on the foreign-policy issues that matter to us," said Toby Gati, a former top adviser on Russia to President Clinton, from Moscow.
On Sunday, Mrs. Clinton made clear that the United States sees Russia as "a great power" after Mr. Biden, during a visit to the former Soviet republic of Georgia, said that Russia has "a shrinking population base."
"They have a withering economy," the vice president said. "They have a banking sector and structure that is not likely to be able to withstand the next 15 years."
Comments from Mr. Biden have become an increasing distraction for Mr. Obama.
The vice president has said that he did not want his family traveling on public transportation because of the swine flu, that the administration knows that some of the $787 billion in economic stimulus dollars are going to be "wasted" and that Mr. Obama and his advisers "misread the economy." He also implied that the United States would not stop Israel from attacking Iran if the Jewish state felt Tehran was an "existential threat."
Russian newspapers put Mr. Biden's recent gaffe on their front pages Monday, with at least one paper editorializing that the vice president's remarks show that the Obama administration is no different than the Bush administration, according to the Associated Press.
"You also see, what's his name, a fellow pretending to be vice president, whose principal job apparently [is] to make his predecessor, Dick Cheney, to look good," said Dmitri Simes, president of the Nixon Center, which promotes a realist foreign policy and was initially supportive of Mr. Obama's overtures to Moscow.
and dishonesty, and academic record, and admitted cheating... ]
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...-takes-obama-off-message/?feat=home_headlines
Biden's gaffes undercut Obama
Verbal miscue on Russia spurs damage control
By Jon Ward (Contact) | Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The Obama White House's vaunted message machine has been thrown off-track with increasing regularity by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., whose five verbal missteps in the past three months have created obstacles at home and abroad.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was forced Sunday to correct publicly Mr. Biden's characterization of Russia as a crumbling country, a description that infuriated Russian officials and contradicted President Obama's efforts to "reset" relations with the world power.
"This isn't likely to help convince the Russians we really want to work with them on the foreign-policy issues that matter to us," said Toby Gati, a former top adviser on Russia to President Clinton, from Moscow.
On Sunday, Mrs. Clinton made clear that the United States sees Russia as "a great power" after Mr. Biden, during a visit to the former Soviet republic of Georgia, said that Russia has "a shrinking population base."
"They have a withering economy," the vice president said. "They have a banking sector and structure that is not likely to be able to withstand the next 15 years."
Comments from Mr. Biden have become an increasing distraction for Mr. Obama.
The vice president has said that he did not want his family traveling on public transportation because of the swine flu, that the administration knows that some of the $787 billion in economic stimulus dollars are going to be "wasted" and that Mr. Obama and his advisers "misread the economy." He also implied that the United States would not stop Israel from attacking Iran if the Jewish state felt Tehran was an "existential threat."
Russian newspapers put Mr. Biden's recent gaffe on their front pages Monday, with at least one paper editorializing that the vice president's remarks show that the Obama administration is no different than the Bush administration, according to the Associated Press.
"You also see, what's his name, a fellow pretending to be vice president, whose principal job apparently [is] to make his predecessor, Dick Cheney, to look good," said Dmitri Simes, president of the Nixon Center, which promotes a realist foreign policy and was initially supportive of Mr. Obama's overtures to Moscow.
