Biden: Beyond the Tipping Point

» Biden Unbound: Lays Into Clinton, Obama, Edwards (Jason Horowitz)

Well, if nothing else, Biden may yet promise to make the 2008 campaign interesting.

On Hillary:

“From the part of Hillary’s proposal, the part that really baffles me is, ‘We’re going to teach the Iraqis a lesson.’ We’re not going to equip them? O.K. Cap our troops and withdraw support from the Iraqis? That’s a real good idea.”

On Obama:

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.”

But—and the “but” was clearly inevitable—he doubts whether American voters are going to elect “a one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate,” and added: “I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.”

On Edwards:

“I don’t think John Edwards knows what the heck he is talking about,” Mr. Biden said, when asked about Mr. Edwards’ advocacy of the immediate withdrawal of about 40,000 American troops from Iraq.

“John Edwards wants you and all the Democrats to think, ‘I want us out of there,’ but when you come back and you say, ‘O.K., John’”—here, the word “John” became an accusatory, mocking refrain—“‘what about the chaos that will ensue? Do we have any interest, John, left in the region?’ Well, John will have to answer yes or no. If he says yes, what are they? What are those interests, John? How do you protect those interests, John, if you are completely withdrawn? Are you withdrawn from the region, John? Are you withdrawn from Iraq, John? In what period? So all this stuff is like so much Fluffernutter out there. So for me, what I think you have to do is have a strategic notion. And they may have it—they are just smart enough not to enunciate it.”

And this bit of unintended comic journalism ...

On a recent weekday afternoon, he was discussing his rivals over a bowl of tomato soup in the corner of a diner in Delaware, about a 15-minute drive from his Senate office. He wore a red cardigan and blue shirt, periodically raising his raspy voice over the sound of loudspeakers summoning customers to pick up their sandwiches. He had showed up carrying a Mead notebook filled with handwritten talking points, but once he’d gotten started, he closed the book and pushed it aside.

Give the man credit for this much: he relies on handwritten talking points instead of the cut & paste variety that so many others tend to sing along to.

Biden's own plan for partitioning Iraq comes under fire from Wes Clark and Richard Perle. It should also be noted that while Biden blasts his opponents for not entering "this debate" until they ran for President, it could also be argued that Biden himself did not publicly enter this debate until he thought he had a shot at being John Kerry's Secretary of State. Prior to then, he was more than content to lay low and register his complaints from within the hushed sanctuary of the Bush administration. Not that the approach doesn't hold some merit ... just that Biden may not be at his most credible when hammering others for their own bloviation.

... except with regard to Edwards. In which case, I think he's nailed it.

One further point of credit for Biden, though. The article notes his disagreement with the likes of Blair and Musharraf over the key to fixing Iraq being the repaing of Israel and Palestine. They see it as such, Biden doesn't. Biden is dead right here, of course. If we were to wave a magic wand and make as many Palestinians and Israelis shake hands in the Rose Garden, the jihadist critique of the west would simple shift to some other grievance as a focal point.

Somewhat tangential sidenote: Caught Jarhead on HBO last night. One thing stood out the most: the number 575,000 ... as in, the number of US troops stationed in Operation Desert Storm. It's a curious number since now, one of the arguments made for the intransigence in placing more troops in Iraq is that we simply don't have significant numbers of battle-ready troops beyond the 140,000 or so already in Iraq. Likewise, we cannot possibly find the 5-10,000 to end genocide in Darfur, deal with North Korea on our own strength, or even fight a two-front war in the Middle East. If the United States military were so dilapidated in this post Bush/Cheney-"Help is on the way" era, then you'd think that would be the biggest crime of the century. Fortunately for them, I suppose, managerial incompetence is a crime that most of our Republican friends seem too willing to turn a blind eye towards.

UPDATE 2.0: Even Kevin Drum is puzzled by Obama's recent "Get out of Iraq Free" card ...

I realize that in one sense this is all meaningless since George Bush will veto legislation of any kind that mandates an end to the war, whether it includes a funding cutoff or not. Still, I can't help but get the feeling that this bill is carefully crafted to sound a lot more agressive than it really is. If Obama is serious about getting us out of Iraq, why not include the one thing that everyone agrees is a bulletproof way of accomplishing his goal?

As you may recall, I had the same complaint about his healthcare speech last week. I hope this isn't a trend. Walter Mondale managed to crush Gary Hart pretty thoroughly in 1984 with his slogan "Where's the Beef," and I wonder if Obama is opening himself up to the same kind of attack this year. I'm starting to get a little antsy on this score.

POSTSCRIPT: The more I think about Obama's war legislation, the more I'm genuinely puzzled by it. Am I missing something obvious? Help me out.

The Biden article notes that Obama's bill came in after the interview. That's a shame. As much as I genuinely like Obama and hold out hope that he may show some sign of the greatness that seems desired of him ... he's opening himself up to what I'll label fluffery with the his rush to the Presidency.