Time's Carney Joining Team Obama As Biden Gaffe Goalie?

Time's Carney Joining Team Obama As Biden Gaffe Goalie?

By Ken Shepherd (Bio | Archive)
December 16, 2008 - 16:26 ET

Jay Carney, photo via Time.com Was Time magazine's Jay Carney hired by the Obama transition as Joe Biden's director of communications in order to keep a tight lid on the Beltway's greatest gaffe machine?

Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz reports, you decide:

Time magazine's Jay Carney, who said over the summer that Joseph R. Biden Jr. is "incredibly prone to say the wrong thing," will soon be in charge of ensuring that doesn't happen again.

[...]

In July, before Barack Obama picked the senator from Delaware as his running mate, Carney said on MSNBC that "Biden may be the answer" because of his foreign policy credentials. The "downside," Carney said, is that Biden has said the wrong thing "throughout his career. . . . He's smart, but he speaks -- shoots from the hip and sometimes says just wrong thing at the wrong time."

[...]

Early last year, when Biden was a presidential candidate, Carney defended him during a flap over his remark that Obama was "the first mainstream African American" candidate who was "clean" and "articulate." Carney said on "Hardball" that "what Biden was saying, and this is Biden's fault for not being clear in what he was saying in this interview, is that there hasn't been a candidate, a viable African American candidate with all those qualities in one . . . who is mainstream."

Jay Carney profile photo from Time.com.

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waiting for this gaffe

December 16, 2008 - 16:38 ET by Mica the Magnificent

MSM: Vice-president Biden, what is the plan in the Obama administration for the homeless in our country?

Biden: Well, if we throw out all those flying saucers and dispose of the little green men-bodies we've stored in secret warehouses all over the country for the last century, we'd be able to turn them into apartments. Really. Hello? Why is everyone sitting there looking stunned?

Homeless?

December 16, 2008 - 17:15 ET by Prester John

What homeless?

We only have homeless when there's a Republican in the White House.

PJ, ROFLMAO!

December 16, 2008 - 19:19 ET by choselife3x

They aren't homeless anymore, they are 'domicile challenged'. Get with the program now, everybody lockstep and MARCH!

In order to be pro-choice, one must first be born. Ah, the irony.

Translator

December 16, 2008 - 16:59 ET by totalkaosdave

TotalKaosDave

I see it more as a TRANSLATOR or INTERPRETER. When Biden speaks, it will be sort of muted (like at the UN) and we will hear the voice of Jay Carney translating...

boy, this guy will have

December 16, 2008 - 17:00 ET by thebutlerdidit

his work cut out for him. He actually thinks he can keep ol Loose Lips from making a faux pas? Then he must plan on muzzling him. I don't want Joe muzzled. He is the only chance we have of finding out what is really going on in the country. We all know if they plan anything big, Joe won't be able to keep a secret.

The flag they run up the pole

December 16, 2008 - 21:28 ET by KC Mulville

That's hilarious. They'll run Biden out to explain a new policy, and wait for the public reaction. Then, if the public erupts against it, they'll have Carney come out and "re-phrase" whatever Biden said.

Poor Biden. He used to chair powerful Senate committees. Now he's a canary in someone else's coal mine, wearing floopy shoes and a bright red nose.

Thank you KC

December 16, 2008 - 21:55 ET by cocodrie

Thank you KC

Doesn't matter what Biden says..

December 16, 2008 - 17:20 ET by Gary Hall

Doesn't matter what Biden says.. the MSM will not vet it.

Biden claimed (and note, this devisive stuff in an election year about the economic crisis):

..they [Bush] have devastated the middle class. We, for the first time since the 1920's - 1 % of the American people make 21% of all the income in America. That wasn't the way before George Bush became president.

Let's look at this great misrepresentation in two ways. First, the MSM stood on it's heels and cheered , when in June, 2005, NY Times economic writer David Kay Johnston wrote a piece attacking the Bush tax cuts, but they got it all wrong. The article, Richest Are Leaving Even the Rich Far Behind, used data illustrating how the rich got richer during the Clinton years. The media ran with the bizarre view that it was all about Bush.

Now. Biden said specifically, "first time since the 1920's - 1 % of the American people make 21% of all the income.."

Well, technically he may be right - but it's a sales job. From 1993 to 2000 the top 1%'s income rose from 13.79% to 20.81% (almost 21%) of all the income. Enter Bush. By 2003, the top 1%'s share had dropped to 16.77%. Latest data I have does show that by 2006, it's up to 22.06%.

So under Clinton, this horrible thing increased by a large amount; while under Bush it's managed in 7 years to pop up a point.

Millions of voters hear the devisive lie by Biden, and crew, and see that the entire MSM supports the lie as fact. Elections are shapped.

Biden doesn't need help on staff. He's already got thousands of journalists looking out for him, and watching his back.

very true, Gary,

December 16, 2008 - 17:29 ET by thebutlerdidit

it really doesn't matter what he says, no one will cover it. If they do cover it, it will be in that same old "Joe is a straight from the hip shooter." Instead of, "Joe is a nut who has no idea what he is talking about." I don't know how they plan on keeping him completely quiet, unless it will be by hiding him, then have him speak on prompter, then take no questions. He can't go for years w/o saying something stupid. Just depends on who he says it to, and where. Some things the MSM won''t be able to hide.