Joe Biden Omission Watch: Iowa Schools Do Better Due to Less Minorities

Photo of Scott Whitlock.
By Scott Whitlock (Bio | Archive)
August 25, 2008 - 12:05 ET

Now that Barack Obama has chosen Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate, will liberals in the media question the Delaware senator about a Washington Post interview from October 2007 in which he cited low minority population as a reason Iowa schools are performing better than those in Washington D.C.?

Biden asserted in the October 25, 2007 article, "There's less than one percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than four of five percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you're dealing with." [Emphasis added]

The Post reexamined the quote in a generally positive editorial that ran on Sunday. The paper took pains to note that in 2007, "The Biden campaign quickly issued a statement asserting that the candidate was referring to socioeconomic status, not racial differences." The editorial proceeded to simply chide Biden for being too free with his comments.

But would a Republican such as Mike Huckabee receive the benefit of the doubt? For that matter, would the GOP's nominee, John McCain, be given a free ride over a similarly incendiary remark? At the very least, now that Biden is the Democratic Party's vice presidential candidate, he should be pressured in interviews this week and beyond to offer more clarity to the remark.

Here is an excerpt from the Post's August 24 editorial:

With a knack for self-defeating and insensitive verbosity, Mr. Biden at times has been his own worst enemy. It has been said that, having been lampooned for this filibustering, he became more disciplined. Perhaps, but we saw a glimpse of the old Biden when he met with The Post's editorial board during his short-lived presidential campaign. Asked about failing schools, Mr. Biden seemed to suggest that one reason so many of the District's schools fail is the city's large minority population and contrasted D.C. schools with those in Iowa. "There's less than 1 percent of the population in Iowa that is African American," Mr. Biden said. "There is probably less than 4 or 5 percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you're dealing with." The Biden campaign quickly issued a statement asserting that the candidate was referring to socioeconomic status, not racial differences. The lesson we took was not to think that Mr. Biden is a racist -- we don't -- but to worry about his tendency to speak too much before he thinks enough.

On a related note, the MRC's Ken Shepherd pointed out that Newsweek editor Jonathan Alter claimed in a August 23 column that "no one ever accused Biden of being a racist." As Mr. Shepherd pointed out, this is despite instances such as Biden's insulting comments about Indian Americans working at Dunkin' Donuts.

—Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center.


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The msm of all venues are

August 25, 2008 - 12:18 ET by bigtimer

The msm of all venues are now going to spin with sweetness everything the very same leftists were outraged about back when he spoke these words...regardless if what he said was true...they did not like it then, now it's A-OK...

Oh the hypocrisy....newsflash....most people can see right through all of this, try as they might.

...and of course the msm would be screaming with headlines if any of this were reversed with anyone with an 'R' behind their name.

The msm is in and will continue to be in desperation mode as Barack America keeps sinking as time goes on....I for one am enjoying all of this. 

"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh

This quote is a prime

August 25, 2008 - 12:20 ET by Chris Norman

This quote is a prime candidate for the "If a Republican Said That... Hall of Fame".

McNotObama '08

without a doubt

August 25, 2008 - 13:51 ET by mbuel

The media loves to portray the conversation that way!

Have any of you guys thought, that... if the media were TRULY unbiased, and TRULY not trying to get the lefties elected every cycle what the national landscape would look like?  My bet is that MOST people vote left because of the media.

Well, many people who watch

August 25, 2008 - 16:02 ET by Chris Norman

Well, less liberal bias in the media would cause many people who watch the news to have a more accurate view of (among other things) -

1) the condition of the country and the world

2) what the major parties propose and the consequences

3)the differences between candidates

- to base their votes on.

So, yes, the landscape would be different without the liberal bias of the media warping peoples perceptions.

McNotObama '08

More proof...

August 25, 2008 - 12:23 ET by unkeeaf

Is there any doubt what the MSM would do to a Republican that said this?

NONE!

 

MSM = PR firm for the Democrat Party

Paging Mr. Lott......Mr.

August 25, 2008 - 12:28 ET by oldArmy

Paging Mr. Lott......Mr. Trent Lott..... 

Not Dunkin' Donuts or 7-11...

August 25, 2008 - 12:47 ET by

For all intents and purposes, it's the Kwik-E-Mart on the corner of Biden's street. The proprietor's name is Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. Gosh, what's the big deal? He's just stating the facts. Newly minted Indian-Americans do the jobs most Americans don't want to do. How many of you are willing to run a Dunkin' Donuts or a 7-11, 24/7 and deal with the likes of what you see in the mirror? Blacks used to pick cotton. It's a fact. I'm sure if I was quoted by the MSM, I'd be labeled a racist since I'm a conservative Republican. Now, we're calling Biden a racist for his quoting of a fact since he's a dimobat. Point the fingers, lay the blame...can't we all just get along? Gotta go, Apu is having a sale on slurpees since he lost power a day ago...

Ubercon

Well heck yeah! He's right.

August 25, 2008 - 12:57 ET by c5then

Look how poor Mexican schools do, and they are almost 100% minorities. By contrast the Japenese schools do very very well, because they have almost no minorities.

See, it all makes perfect sense...

 

The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.

The truth about Iowa test scores.

August 25, 2008 - 12:58 ET by nkviking75

Biden had it wrong.  We Iowans are just smarter than y'all.  ;-)

When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.

nkv, From watching "The

August 25, 2008 - 16:04 ET by Chris Norman

nkv,

From watching "The Music Man", I knew y'all were "stubborn". :) 

McNotObama '08

good for the goose.....

August 25, 2008 - 13:20 ET by soosan

My son is nearly speechless about the Biden pick - he's been  chuckling about the Prez's miscues for years, and now the Dem VP choice has a similar "problem".  I am thoroughly enjoying his discomfort as the web reveals the extent and nature of the Biden gaffes. He is also uncomfortable trying to explain to me how a 35 year Washington insider represents "change". 

 This is turning into a good day. 

 

Testing - 1 - 2 - 3 Testing

August 25, 2008 - 14:36 ET by pocomoco

It is more than obvious that much arm-twisting of Obama took place to name Biden as his VP.

I base this on the fact that Biden appears not to have  been ‘vetted’ at all.

‘Vetting’ a candidate is supposed to find any skeletons that may be lurking in his or her past.

Biden not only has skeletons but has whole bodies of public utterances over many years, any one of which should disqualify as VP.

There is something here that doesn’t pass the smell test.

Hey, Joe!  It's not who's

August 25, 2008 - 14:39 ET by Hunter12

Hey, Joe!  It's not who's attending the schools, it's who's running them.  When you create a standard for education and make the school children adhere to it, they succeed.  Color or race can be shown to have no bearing on how well the average student can do.  The schools making all the excuses and adopting a feel good first attitude towards learning are the ones that fail.  DC has it's successes and Iowa has it's failures.

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."  - Sir Winston Churchill

Don't fix your sights on the wrong target

August 25, 2008 - 17:23 ET by Galvanic

Going directly after Biden isn't the answer; he's the stalking horse.  The message still has to hit and stick to Obama.

The way to handle his minorities/schools quote is through an ad that runs like this:

OPEN:  Picture of smiling Joe.  Begin scrolling the quote from the WashPost editiorial as a Narrator reads it aloud.

SHIFT:  Replace with photo of Barack Obama with puzzled expression. 

NARRATOR:  "Senator Obama, how can Senator Biden be so wrong?"

He has a lot of history

August 25, 2008 - 21:32 ET by AtTheWaterCooler

I've put togeather a post http://www.jeremiahf... of information posted across the internet and there is considerable information out there. ... I've just added an excerpt from this article

Biden

August 25, 2008 - 23:29 ET by Cool Arrow

Let's not be too hard on Biden.

He spends a lot of time in Washington DC. If he says DC kids are stupid because they're black, and Obama picks him to be VP, who are we to disagree with that assessment? <sarc>

tks RD

I ♣ my seal

Biden takes ownership

August 26, 2008 - 00:38 ET by Cool Arrow

OK, Biden's remark was just his way of taking ownership of a problem he's spent the last 36 years in Washington implementing and exacerbating.

"(I)f one didn't know better, one would think that Washington's predominantly
black public school system was being run by the grand dragon of the Ku Klux
Klan, hell-bent on a mission to sabotage black academic excellence. Instead,
it's a system being run by blacks for blacks. As such, it means generation after
generation of blacks will not be able to academically measure up. Calls for
racial quotas and preferences will exist in perpetuity. And, in a world of
increasing technology, many blacks are condemned to near uselessness in the job
market." -- Walter Williams

The Democrats have made a concerted effort to dismantle the Black family structure since they implemented the"War On Accountability" under LBJ.

If I were to give my grown kids a monthly stipend sufficient to allow them a subsistence lifestyle, I suspect their development as contributing members of society and sense of individual self worth would be severely shunted.

Mr Ranger tells the tourists "Don't feed the bears" because he doesn't want the bears reduced to beggars or have them turn violent when there is confusion as to their "entitlement"

The phenomenon happens across all racial lines. "The soft bigotry of low expectations" has created an American population that is 30% illiterate. (Rio Linda note: illiterate means "can't read and understand")

That's exactly what Biden was referring to, but it's been his baby for the last 36 years. And the baby ain't growing up, it's just getting bigger.

I ♣ my seal