In an abbreviated edition of Sunday's NBC Nightly News (shorted by golf in the EST/CST), the network still found time to tout as newsworthy how Vice President-elect Joe Biden will chair a “White House Task Force on Working Families.” With “Focus on the Middle Class” on screen below a picture of Biden, anchor Lester Holt, referring to ABC's This Week, asserted Biden had “revealed” his function: “In an interview that aired today, the Vice President-elect, Joe Biden, revealed his role as the new administration's point man on the middle class.” (This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos summarized the interview on Sunday's World News, yet didn't mention the middle class angle.)
NBC reporter John Yang affirmed that “making good on a central theme of the campaign,” Biden “laid down a bold political yardstick for economic policy.” Viewers then heard a fairly pedestrian clip of Biden on ABC: “Is the middle class no longer being left behind? We'll look at everything from college affordability to after-school programs, the things that affect people's daily lives.” Yang then heralded, with “front and center” enlarged on screen from the press release: “Biden will head a cabinet-level task force making sure middle class and working families are 'front and center.'” How reassuring.
From the Sunday, December 21 NBC Nightly News:
LESTER HOLT: In an interview that aired today, the Vice President-elect, Joe Biden, revealed his role as the new administration's point man on the middle class. NBC's John Yang has that story.JOHN YANG: Making good on a central theme of the campaign, Vice President-elect Biden laid down a bold political yardstick for economic policy.
JOE BIDEN ON ABC's THIS WEEK: Is the middle class no longer being left behind? We'll look at everything from college affordability to after-school programs, the things that affect people's daily lives.
YANG: Biden will head a cabinet-level task force making sure middle class and working families are “front and center.” And as the economic outlook gets gloomier, the Obama team has raised its already ambitious goal for a stimulus package: Three million new jobs over the next two years....
After naming an economic team heavy on academics, with today's announcement Mr. Obama may be trying to reassure average Americans that they're not forgotten....
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
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Comments Policy
What puffery
December 22, 2008 - 04:20 ET by Warner Todd HustonJeezz, what puffery. This is just an effort to find something for this dolt to do so that he'll keep his hands out of anything important.
Obama needs to keep this doofus occupied so that he won't get in the way. Unlike some past VPs, but more like most of them, Biden is utterly useless. But, worse, he is a gaffe machine that will severely try Obama's patience if Biden is in the middle of anything important. He will be such an embarrassment.
Me too
December 22, 2008 - 07:47 ET by 10ksnookerBiden will put his plugs before anything else ...
He's already done enough
December 22, 2008 - 08:07 ET by motherbeltHe's already done enough screwing up!
Obama talks about coal, and Biden goes around saying NO COAL!
"Is the middle class no
December 22, 2008 - 04:38 ET by Mean Gene Dr. Love"Is the middle class no longer being left behind?"
What does he mean when he asks that? Is he asking the question to imply that the middle class should be left behind?
I must be taking stupid pills or something, but I thought by definition, the "middle class" can't be left behind... the middle class is the largest portion of our society and as a result makes a very large "average" of the population. Individuals within the middle class can certainly make poor decisions or have tragic circumstances that make them as individuals "fall behind," but we don't need a governmental "task force" to baby-sit the middle class.
"We'll look at everything from college affordability to after-school programs, the things that affect people's daily lives."
After-school programs like say... The Hitler Youth maybe?
I want someone to explain to me how this policy is not a nanny-state type of scheme and why they think the middle class (or any other class) needs to be taken care of by government programs?
"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life." --Robert A. Heinlein, "Beyond This Horizon," 1942
"Is the middle class no
December 22, 2008 - 06:40 ET by motherbelt"Is the middle class no longer being left behind?"
What does he mean when he asks that? Is he asking the question to imply that the middle class should be left behind?
No, he's implying that the middle class has been left behind, until now.
Isn't that an original idea? Wow. An administration that wants to improve things for the middle class. No one ever thought of pushing that idea before! Most new guys come in saying We're going to take care of the poor; the rich can take care of themeselves, and you middle class people.....suck it up; you get nothing!
I want someone to explain to me how this policy is not a nanny-state
type of scheme and why they think the middle class (or any other class)
needs to be taken care of by government programs? -
Sorry, that won't be me. It IS a nanny-state scheme. Barack Obama said that people want to know "how government is going to help them in their daily lives."
Well, Barry and Joe have all the answers. What they don't mention though, when talking about things like college tuition and such is that, just like in a family, privileges and goodies are linked to chores. You don't do your chores, you don't get your allowance. And their "chores" come in the form of "voluntary" community service.
Yada,Yada,Yada, How about
December 22, 2008 - 07:00 ET by billbYada,Yada,Yada, How about price controls on college tuition! Don't wait for a response from Bidunce on that one.
Middle-class Pointman
December 22, 2008 - 07:12 ET by TexndocWell, he does think every person working in Dunkin' Donuts has an Indian accent, and Joe isn't afraid to say that on microphone. I think he's perfect.
The focus
December 22, 2008 - 08:53 ET by littlemissmuffinThe focus on the middle class will be how to tax them more without them figuring it out.
A gaffe a day.....that's the Biden way.
Remembering little Caylee Anthony (2005-2008). May justice be served.
Hey Chuck!
December 22, 2008 - 08:57 ET by ScarletStand up, Chuck! Come on, Chuck, stand up!
Moron. How can anyone possibly take this man seriously?
If he were a conservative...
December 22, 2008 - 09:15 ET by unkeeafIf he were a conservative, he would have been destroyed by the media back in 88 when he plagiarized the campaign speech. Since he is a liberal, they have covered for this dolt and brought him along to further prominence.
The media and hard left are as much the enemy to this country as any hardened terrorist. One wants to make us glow and the other wants to tear the country down and rebuild it in the image of the Soviet Union.
I'm not sure which is worse.
MSM = PR firm for the Democrat Party
of course
December 22, 2008 - 09:19 ET by candanceNothing says middle class like getting your son a cushy job at a hedge fund.
I'm a typical white person.
Biden
December 22, 2008 - 09:37 ET by jaywlThis is nothing more than Obama putting Biden in a cubbyhole somewhere and telling him to concentrate on "the World" for awhile and report back when called. Surely Biden knows that if Obama valued him he would have been assigned a very specific duty, such overseer of the coming public works projects or something in his realm of expertise as self-advertised in foreign affairs.
Amusing smack down by the current VP
December 22, 2008 - 09:44 ET by Prester JohnIn a blunt, unapologetic interview on "FOX News Sunday," Cheney fired back at Biden for declaring in October that "Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history."
"He also said that all the powers and responsibilities of the executive branch are laid out in Article I of the Constitution," Cheney said in a interview that was conducted on Friday. "Well, they're not. Article I of the Constitution is the one on the legislative branch."
"Joe's been chairman of the Judiciary Committee, a member of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate for 36 years, teaches constitutional law back in Delaware, and can't keep straight which article of the Constitution provides for the legislature and which provides for the executive. So I think I'd write that off as campaign rhetoric. I don't take it seriously."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/21/cheney-mocks-biden-defends-rumsfeld-fox-news-sunday-interview/
KO
December 22, 2008 - 10:11 ET by HockeyKidI loved that smackdown. Biden's ushering in the return of the "vice president who?" framework, and he's following one of the most visible, effective and important VPs the country has ever known. It'll work well for Joe, as long as he can avoid asking the deceased to say a few words at state funerals.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Excuse me, but is the media
December 22, 2008 - 10:19 ET by KillgraveExcuse me, but is the media even bothering defining exactly what "middle class" means?
To me, someone isn't "middle class" if they're not paying income tax, and are getting thousands of dollars in government assistance (which the Obamaoids want to give many thousands MORE).
But that's just me.
Exactly K, Biden is going
December 22, 2008 - 11:03 ET by dscottExactly K, Biden is going to make the middle class a dependency just like they did with the poor. It's all about getting 50% plus one vote to believe they have a financial interest in getting something from the Treasury and they (Democrats) as Santa Claus are handing out money/benes for free. Who turns down free money? NEVER mind the money isn't for free because it came from stealth taxes levied by the very politicians which robbed them in the first place, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.
From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
...The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
Lord Woodhouselee
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, starving the poor one gallon of ethanol at a time. Fill your tank with E85 and cull a village.
It's actually amusing to
December 22, 2008 - 10:29 ET by RR GOPIt's actually amusing to watch the MSM and assorted Obama Drones on the internet forcing themselves to say how wonderful Biden is simply because their God picked him. Barry could have picked Mike Dukakis and they'd be like, "Oh, wonderful pick. Dear Leader's wisdom is beyond profound!"
Biden-if one needed a pic of the quintessential oily politician, any of Sen. Biden would do. Every time I see this guy I can't help but to think that one's wife or young daughters would not be safe around him. Maybe an unfair judgement, but that always comes to mind. Oh, and probably getting really drunk at a party and slapping you hard on your back when he slurs a dirty joke forcing you to choke on the alcohol aroma exuding from his mouth as he laughs, and just before goosing your wife. OK, I'm being mean here and I'm sure it's not true..but, I can't get that image out of my mind.
One of the 24% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 89% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.
Me too
December 22, 2008 - 10:36 ET by MillerTimeWarpI see the same thing everytime his face appears. Reminds me of all those slick co-workers, in their 50s - with a motorcycle in their garage. A motorcycle that's been started once, but polished dozens of times. All show, no go.