Dump Biden to save Obama?
We’ll get to the local electoral politics of the day shortly. But in the meantime, John Fund hits on something today that I somehow missed last week: an apparent movement to have Hillary Clinton replace Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket in 2012.
Writing on The Wall Street Journal’s website, Fund notes:
Former Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder, his state’s first African-American governor, touched off the controversy. Writing at Politico.com last week, Mr. Wilder argued that Mr. Biden’s tenure has been undistinguished and chock full of “too many YouTube moments.” He charged that Mr. Biden “has continued to undermine what little confidence the public may have had in him.”
By way of contrast, Mr. Wilder says that Hillary Clinton has excelled in her role. “Clinton has been nothing but a team player who has earned good marks since being asked to serve as secretary of state.” Having Mrs. Clinton join the 2012 ticket, he said, would revive the Democratic Party and reestablish the party’s working-class voters who found her appealing during the 2012 primaries against Mr. Obama.
Pundits jumped on Mr. Wilder’s comments and expressed near-universal approval. On his syndicated national show, Chris Matthews of MSNBC assembled a panel to discuss the Wilder intervention. Howard Fineman of Newsweek, a longtime Hillary watcher, said Mrs. Clinton would accept a place on the 2012 ticket “in a second.” John Heilemann, a reporter New York magazine, said the major obstacle would be to “figure out a way for Biden to slide aside happily” and suggested that Mr. Biden replace Mrs. Clinton as Secretary of State.
Along the way, Mr. Heilemann outlined why President Obama just might want to have a steadier hand at his side for his re-election campaign: “The Republican attack on Obama is going to revolve around ‘too liberal,’ but also ‘too incompetent.’ . . . They’re going to say, ‘Look, you hired this guy. He was too young for this job. He didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t have the experience, and look what’s happened.’”
So, let me get this straight: For eight years, Democrats complained that Dick Cheney was too powerful a vice president and ran the show for George W. Bush. Now we have a (Democratic) vice president whom the public doesn’t take very seriously, and that’s supposed to be the reason for President Obama’s very serious problems?
And not only that, but the answer is to take someone “who has earned good marks” out of the Cabinet — a place where, let’s be honest, “good marks” have not been the norm for this administration — and put her in a position that, as the left told us ad nauseum during the Bush years, is not supposed to be all that important?
And not only that, but the answer is furthermore to take the gaffe-prone Biden and put him in the role of chief diplomat?
And this is supposed to be a way to convince the American public that the Obama adminstration is becoming more, not less, competent??
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
83 comments Add your comment
CJ
August 10th, 2010
10:36 am
I’m sorry, but people who want to install John “anything for a buck” Boehner in as Speaker of the House, Joe “BP, I apologize” Barton as head of the House energy committee, and Paul “I have a plan to balance the budget in 50 years” Ryan in charge of the House budget committee are in no position to assess competence.
Curious observer
August 10th, 2010
10:45 am
The Democrats and Republicans are about “form” over “substance” and clearly do not care what the thinkers in the US have to say. The two parties are too busy pandering to the uninformed and uneducated as both move toward a one world government and an end to the United States as the dominant country in the world.
Why would the party leaders pursue such a course? Because the leaders see themselves as the ultimate decision makers and in control of the world rather than simply the United States. As David Rockefeller so cavalierly answered a question on his support for Socialism, “I will be one of the few with money”.
Grumpy
August 10th, 2010
10:45 am
A 50 year plan > no plan
Curious observer
August 10th, 2010
10:59 am
CJ,
As opposed to the current Speaker, an embarrassment beyond belief, who only has the job due to enriching her husband from her Congressional seat and then amassing a campaign war chest to divide amongst the Democrats by virtue (or lack thereof) of her family connections and the others to whom she has doled taxpayer money?
I guess balancing the budget at any time flies right in the face of you good Liberals who actually believe a person, family or government can spend their way to prosperity. As Pete Stark, another California, Congressional, loon almost the equal of Pelosi, so eloquently sneered, “Deficits don’t matter”.
Amazing how you Libs are still blaming Bush for the deficits when his last two budgets were under a Democrat controlled Congress and the spending was supported by Obama and Biden. Bush was no hero for me but you Liberals have yet to take responsibility for any of the problems created by the spending and drive toward Socialism of this President.
Perhaps had CJ been one of the GM and Chrysler car dealers who were closed because they were not Democrats, CJ would not be so happy with the pretenders in the WH and Congress. Let these crooks steal something from you CJ and then stand by their side and defend the indefensible.
Curious observer
August 10th, 2010
11:01 am
To assume this POTUS and Congress have the best interests of the American people at heart is pure folly.
gop canard
August 10th, 2010
11:16 am
Look another canary in a coal mine!
The American People
August 10th, 2010
11:34 am
Down with Dems in 2K10 and then down with the Community Organizer in 2K12.
Whacks Eloquent
August 10th, 2010
11:49 am
People will not question the intelligence of President Obama’s quotes so long as he has his version of Dan Quayle. Joe Biden will remain on the ticket, not that it will help the end result. The outcome of election 2012 will be based solely on Obama’s merit and actions, or lack thereof.
Matti
August 10th, 2010
11:51 am
Why would a darn good Secretary of State leave a position in which she excels to further subject herself to the ridicule and vitriol of the hateful electorate? What, we haven’t heard enough about her “cankles,” her shrill voice/laugh, her style of dress, and *gasp* her failure to divorce a philandering husband? (Forgiveness and holding the marriage together ARE the Christian things to do, after all. How DARE she?) Please… The Republicans WISH she’d get back on the ticket so they could start their yammering about what a “Real Woman” is all over again. Spare us.
Obama “saves” himself if and when he decides to stop pandering to the Party of “We vote NO, no matter what concessions you make.” His centrist, let’s-all-play-nice wishful thinking is diluting what he could and should be accomplishing, in my opinion. He should have reached across the ailse for exactly six months, and after getting his fingers bitten off, said, “Eff all y’all, we’re moving forward without you.”
washedup
August 10th, 2010
11:53 am
Good comments, Curious Observer. Is David Rockefeller still the “king maker”?
CJ
August 10th, 2010
11:54 am
Curious Observer: “Perhaps had CJ been one of the GM and Chrysler car dealers who were closed because they were not Democrats,…”
Wow. Such idiocy from the likes of Grand Forks would be par for the course. But coming from C.O., it’s downright disturbing.
Car dealers closed because they weren’t Democrats? The level of gullibility is through the roof.
No More Progressives!
August 10th, 2010
11:55 am
Dump Biden to save Obama?
I’d rather not. That would mean that Queen Nancy the Perfect would become VP. I like BozoJoe for now. Plus he’s amusing; the French are laughing hysterically.
retiredds
August 10th, 2010
11:59 am
Curious observer, as the Obama administration attempts to cut the budget deficit the most howling will come from Republicans in the House and Senate. The main reason is that any tax increases on the wealthy will affect them directly and they don’t want to pay their share nor really do anything that would remotely come close to balancing budgets. When was the last time there was a balanced budget under a Republican President? Might have to go allllllll the way baaaaaack to Eisenhower.
No More Progressives!
August 10th, 2010
12:00 pm
Matti
August 10th, 2010
11:51 am
Why would a darn good Secretary of State leave a position in which she excels to further subject herself to the ridicule and vitriol of the hateful electorate?
Question: How do you measure a “darn good Secretary of State?” By her travel expenses? By how many foreign dignitaries she insults? By her frequent flier miles?
King Barry wants her to stay in her position; when she’s in Pakistan mumbling something about the Taliban, she’s not home campaigning.
the why
August 10th, 2010
12:04 pm
It’s the move to make if you want to position a successor to Obama in 2016, but at the rate he’s going Obama fatigue will rank right up there with Bush fatigue, and it won’t come close to giving Hillary a bump.
No More Progressives!
August 10th, 2010
12:05 pm
Post Script: I say dump CJ & save this blog. Man are you boring.
Matti
August 10th, 2010
12:17 pm
No More Progressives!,
Why would I be foolish enough to think that someone who names himself thusly on a blog and delivers more insults than observation is actually interested in having a meaningful discourse? No thanks.
wallbanger
August 10th, 2010
12:18 pm
Biden is not the cause of Obama’s decrease in popularity, and his removal from the ticket won’t save Obama. Obama seems to be entirely tone deaf to the will of the people, and is continuing to push his community organizer role as President–he wants to raise his people out of poverty, even though it means pushing people who work for a living into relative poverty. He will be happy when we are equally poor. The problem with that is, the working poor will stop working too if they are only living equal with the non-working poor. Then we are third world. Impeach Obama and maybe the Democrats have a chance. They ought to impeach him themselves.
No More Progressives!
August 10th, 2010
12:22 pm
Matti
August 10th, 2010
12:17 pm
No More Progressives!,
Why would I be foolish enough to think that someone who names himself thusly on a blog and delivers more insults than observation is actually interested in having a meaningful discourse? No thanks.
Meaningful discourse? With liberals & progressives?
When pigs fly.
Kamchak
August 10th, 2010
12:22 pm
…an apparent movement to have Hillary Clinton replace Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket in 2012.
I’m sure that is what Republicans want, but I don’t see it happening.
It would be akin to shooting themselves in the foot like McSame did with Caribou Barbie.
candide
August 10th, 2010
12:26 pm
DUMP OBAMA, SAVE AMERICA.
Jefferson
August 10th, 2010
12:32 pm
This is only the 1st term, calm down, enjoy the ride.
both sides of the coin
August 10th, 2010
12:32 pm
“Meaningful discourse? With liberals & progressives?
When pigs fly.”
Not like conservatives. In fact a conservative like Larry Craig can start up a meaningful discourse even in a public restroom.
retiredds
August 10th, 2010
1:12 pm
Kyle, I know this is off subject but do you care to comment on the the Republican Winter Vacation Act resolution that Rep. Tom Price of GA is going to introduce soon? Is this another gimmick to keep the political base stoked?
Curious Observer
August 10th, 2010
1:17 pm
I have had this moniker for many years. Believe me, the name-jacker who has made remarks on this blog today is not the Curious Observer.
CJ
August 10th, 2010
1:22 pm
C.O. @1:17,
Whew. Very relieved.
Kyle Wingfield
August 10th, 2010
1:29 pm
Ah, not exactly, Curious Observer @ 1:17. The other C.O. on here today has used that moniker many times before on this blog, not just today.
However, I do agree that two people using the same handle — or someone using multiple handles (cough, cough) — gets confusing, and I wish people would stick to a single, unique handle.
Horrible Horrace
August 10th, 2010
1:38 pm
Doug Wilder sounds like a bigot. To place the blame of obama being an upstart loser at the feet of Biden is assinine. Further, doing the old bait and switch with The HildaBeast only makes Obama to look more like a fool.
Biden isnt the problem.
The HildaBeast isnt the problem.
Obama and his inexperience is the problem and a diversionary switch-a-roo may do more harm than good.
LMAO…The Dems are sinking fast!!
True American
August 10th, 2010
1:54 pm
You conservatives can not be this stupid, 19 mos in office to clean up after a man who did nothing for 8 years, this guy you dumb conservatives crying about high gas prices are, trucking were complaining.
Obama has done more for this country in 18 mos then clinton and bush put togather.
If he were a white guy you would be praising him as the nex JFK.
People around the world love this guy but good old bigots in the USA, continue to bad mouth him, you people make me ashamed of my country.
Kyle Wingfield
August 10th, 2010
2:03 pm
True American: Perhaps you’d like to explain why you consider Doug Wilder, Chris Matthews and Howard Fineman to be conservatives?
Kyle the zinger maker
August 10th, 2010
2:06 pm
“And not only that, but the answer is furthermore to take the gaffe-prone Biden and put him in the role of chief diplomat?”
Best line of the article.
Ian
August 10th, 2010
2:09 pm
Why in the world would Hillary even want tie herself to someone seen as too liberal and incompetent? As a black, male democrat, I supported Hillary Clinton for President from Day One. I always said Obama was too liberal and too inexperienced. However, the media fawned all over him and trashed Hillary. “She’s a bitch”. This is an on-air quote from CNN contributor Alex Castallnos during the 2008 primary campaign.
I truly believe Obama will be a one-term president. For the good of the party (and the nation), he should step aside and open up the 2012 Democratic presidential nomination. If it is won by Hillary Clinton, so be it. If it is won by another competent, electable, moderate Democrat, so be it. However, Obama will not win–he has run out of Kool-Aid!
Glenn
August 10th, 2010
2:14 pm
Why would Hillary take a demotion ? Obama had every opportunity to run with a centrist . There were Evan Bayh’s out there for him . If the republicans would have had a legitimate shot at the presidency maybe he would have been smart enough to have leveled his ticket . He wasn’t & he will probably be one term . As far as moving Hillary to VP , would that do anything more than signal desperation ? I like Hillary as secretary of state . IMO he got that one right .
Intown
August 10th, 2010
2:14 pm
Sounds like a trial balloon to the punditry class (authorized by whom?). I wouldn’t read too much into it Kyle.
Maybe not a one termer
August 10th, 2010
2:20 pm
Worst case scenario who are you going to support: a Muslim sympathizer who wants a “one world socialist vision” or a former beauty queen singing “Onward Christian Soldiers” in the White House, nuclear launch codes in hand, while First Dude tools around the Oval Office in a snowmobile shouting “It’s Armageddon Baby!”
Port O'John
August 10th, 2010
2:27 pm
Party politics is an IQ test. If you believe that either the GOP or democrats care about ordinary Americans, you failed.
And that goes double for opinion writers — whether left or right wing.
Drifter
August 10th, 2010
2:46 pm
The only thing that can save Obama in 2012 is a thriving economy and if that’s going to happen, it needs to start soon. Mrs. Clinton is way too smart to jump on a sinking ship…that will not happen.
CJ
August 10th, 2010
2:59 pm
Sorry to change the subject, but there’s an election runoff today, and one of the candidates is endorsed by the seemingly ubiquitous, serial adulterer, disgraced former Speaker, and presidential wannabe Newt Gingrich.
Since the so-called liberal media, AJC included, treats Gingrich’s every tweet like the voice of God, it would be nice if the media would consider the following article that came out today in Esquire: http://www.esquire.com/features/newt-gingrich-0910
Here’s an excerpt–
[Newt] asked [his second wife, Marianne,] to just tolerate the affair, an offer she refused.
He’d just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he’d given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values.
The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, ‘How do you give that speech and do what you’re doing?’
‘It doesn’t matter what I do,’ he answered. ‘People need to hear what I have to say. There’s no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn’t matter what I live.’”
This Esquire article only reinforces what some of us already know…conservative (so-called) leaders are laughing at their base for buying into their never ending stream of b.s.
Rafe Hollister
August 10th, 2010
3:01 pm
True American: What has Barry done for America. No matter who you compare him to don’t say he has done more for America than …. All I know he has done to America has prolonged this Recession needlessly with all his new regulations and programs and his outlandish foolish spending.
Now as to Hillary. No way would Hillary run as VP. Obama is fantasing that he can keep her from running against him by offering her the VP. Hillary will wait until about Jul 11 and all of a sudden start vocalizing her doubts about this Obamanation. She will say the economy has sucked since Bill and the foreign policy of Barry has been a joke, and therefore I’m running against him and his inept administration. I believe this will be what happens.
Ayn Rant
August 10th, 2010
3:06 pm
Wilder’s suggestion was a personal opinion, not an attempt to convince anyone that the Obama administration is more or less competent. So, why make a mountain out of a molehill?
Biden seems an amiable dunce at times. He provides a “common touch” to a heavily cerebral administration. Talking too much, and misspeaking on occasion, are common traits of elderly people who have broad and deep experience in life. Cut him a bit of slack; after all, he has the most boring job in the world. His only Constitutional function is to preside over a bunch of devious, venal old windbags.
Why must every word from the mouth of a public figure be construed as a skirmish in Democrat vs. Republican politics? Is it possible that people can become so engrossed in petty party politics that they forget all about real life?
retiredds
August 10th, 2010
3:08 pm
Drifter, I don’t think that a thriving economy is the only measure of this President. But to your point, yes, it would help his polls if the economy were to recover faster. But you have to remember where we came from and just how long does it take to turn around the US economy. There are a number of economists who have been talking about the drag of the States’ economies on the recovery. Think of it this way: if the federal government spends one trillion dollars to stimulate the economy and the states in aggregate cut one trillion dollars from their collective budgets the net result is zero. That is a simplistic explanation but that is what is happening. Look at GA, the unemployment rate remains stuck at 10+ percent and in the Atlanta metro area income is down 3 times the national average (AJC article, page A9, this morning). So what more can the president do if the states are going the opposite way? It is sort of like two rowers in the boat rowing in the opposite direction, no headway made.
joe
August 10th, 2010
3:10 pm
I’m not worried about the VP of BO in 2012…as long as BO is on the ticket for Pres…he will lose to just about any GOP candidate. However, if BO ends up being replaced on the ticket by Hillary, then I’ll be a bit worried…but that is unlikely…so looking forward to BO losing in 2012!!!
Horrible Horrace
August 10th, 2010
3:17 pm
“If he were a white guy you would be praising him as the nex JFK.”
After the cuban missle crisis JFK was a liability. Butt worry not. Your boy barry is going strait into the toilet and doing it all on his own now. Praise be to Barry the Big Kahuna, The Grand PooBah, The Biggest Loser.
The only thing better than a Republican win is a democrapper loss and loose you will. Now be gracious losers all you libtards!
Obummer
August 10th, 2010
3:24 pm
MSNBC, Newsweek, New York magazine…no agenda there! Please not another round of Hillary for Prez….planted questioners at press conferences, ducking machine gun fire, etc.
Horrible Horrace
August 10th, 2010
3:29 pm
This dump Biden for The HildaBeast is quite the hilarious trial balloon but even more so it shows just how desparate the Dems are and how badly they must be anticipating an ole fashioned ASS-kicking.
AH HAHAHAHAAA!!!!
Mr. Dithers
August 10th, 2010
3:32 pm
John Heilmann is a reporter, not a policy maker or a member of the Obama administration, so his “suggestion” that Biden become SOS is just that, a suggestion. It carries no weight in this discussion, and to jump on it is just silly.
I continue to love the fact that the same folks on this blog and others who complain that “Obama is tone-deaf to the will of the American people” celebrated our prior POTUS for his stubborn determination to ignore the will of the people and be the Decider based on what his gut told him to do. Priceless.
retiredds
August 10th, 2010
3:34 pm
I was around when Truman beat Dewey. There was even a national newspaper that declared Dewey the winner. November is several months away. We’ll see if there is a trouncing. If so, so be it. If not, then maybe you will have to wait another 8-12 years for the Republican nirvana.
JF McNamara
August 10th, 2010
3:53 pm
You need to get out more. His average approval rating is in line with all Presidents since Roosevelt and he’s still way ahead of Reagan at this point.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/116479/barack-obama-presidential-job-approval.aspx
He doesn’t need saving, because no one up North is going to support the Republicans in a Presidential election and the Northern states and California, thankfully, run this country. I know that’s not stoke your faith Republican radio is saying, but the Republicans have alienated just about every minority group and are seen as a group of visceral, mean spirited people so they may not even bring Texas or Florida. They’ll win the South and nothing else.
The leading Republican candidate at this point is a person who it took 5 years and 4 colleges to get a journalism degree and couldn’t handle her job as Governor so she quit early to be what she is qualified to be, a journalist. She couldn’t even handle an interview with Katie Couric as a Vice Presidential candidate, and the glare will be 100X brighter on her as a candidate.
Obama could run with blind and deaf monkey at this point and win. The voters understand he’s had a tough job and he’s done a reasonable job. It’s just the hard core folks right wingers who don’t. That’s cool to think, but its not reality.
The reality is most voters don’t listen to Republican radio, read Breibart, and watch Fox News all night. They’ve been lied to about health care and remember, had their unemployment held hostage and remember, were lied to about that wars by Republicans and remember, and understand all the trouble we are in now is because of 8 years of Republican rule. There’s no real way to spin that, and that’s the problem.
Sick of Dems
August 10th, 2010
3:54 pm
EVEN BETTER DUMP OBAMA COMPLETELY..
No More Progressives!
August 10th, 2010
3:57 pm
True American
August 10th, 2010
1:54 pm
Obama has done more for this country in 18 mos then clinton and bush put togather.
#1 accomplishment is______________________
#2 accomplishment is______________________
#3 accomplishment is______________________
All blanks.
Try again.