Joe Biden

When the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks preview Vice President Joe Biden’s 2012 Democratic National Convention speech, will they fill their programs with a montage of the mental mistakes that have plagued him over the years? If recent coverage is any indication, they will choose to bypass Biden’s bumbling.

While the Big Three networks were quick to make fun of GOP vice presidential selections in the past from Dan Quayle to Sarah Palin for their campaign trail stumbles, they’ve either downplayed or completely ignored Biden’s most embarrassing and offensive moments. From insensitively telling a wheelchair-bound state senator to “Stand up!” to not recognizing how many letters there are in the word “jobs,” the media have let Biden get away with gaffes that would have gotten GOP VP picks pilloried. (Video compilation after the jump)

ABC reporter Arlette Saenz reported for The Note on Joe Biden’s speech Sunday in the Green Bay area, including this statement: "In Afghanistan, we have lost 1,980 fallen angels as of yesterday, and I’m precise because every single one of those lives deserves to be recognized. Wrong: The U.S. death toll in Afghanistan at the end of August was 2,101.

Biden somehow subtracted from the Defense Department count, ignoring three civilian casualties and 118 soldiers who died in other countries after medical evacuation. Did they not deserve to be recognized?

Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan is a Catholic – but not a good enough Catholic in the eyes of the media. Writers, bloggers, and talking heads have hammered Ryan for his supposed “dissent” from Catholic teaching.

Journalists have falsely claimed that the bishops “rebuked” Ryan and called his budget “un-Christian.” Writers who usually scorn the Church and its hierarchy fretted that the bishops found Ryan’s budget “uncompassionate.”

When it comes to dispensing the casual lie, few leftists in media rival Rachel Maddow.

Most recent example -- Maddow claiming on her MSNBC show Aug. 22 that Republicans wanted to shut down the federal government in April 2011 to stop taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading abortion chain. (video after page break) --

"These are two of the most moronic statements I have ever heard," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell, himself a practicing Catholic, complained after watching video of MSNBC host Martin Bashir and MSNBC contributor Jimmy Williams attacking Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as championing an "unbiblical" budget that doesn't comport to Catholic social teaching.

"Consider that one of these morons is saying that Paul Ryan's budget is unbiblical?! I mean, what book of the Bible dealt with Paul Ryan's budget?" the Media Research Center founder asked on the August 23 "Media Mash" segment, going on to note that seeing as that the Catholic Church is suing the Obama administration over the religious liberty-infringing contraception mandate, it's laughable to suggest that Joe Biden is a better Catholic. [watch the full segment below the page break]

There’s no denying that what Rep. Todd Akin said was completely inappropriate, but for it to receive four times more coverage than the Vice President of the United States’ indefensibly racist gaffe is unconscionable. Todd Akin is a congressman. Joe Biden is one heartbeat from being the leader of the Free World. Once again, the media’s double standard is exposed for all to see.

If Ronald Reagan was the "Teflon President," then Joe Biden is the "Teflon Blowhard." He’s spent his entire career with his foot firmly lodged in his mouth, uttering an endless stream of impossibly stupid, vulgar, and insensitive things. And yet the media fall all over themselves to make excuses for blustery "Old Uncle Joe."

A week after giving relatively light coverage to Joe Biden's "chains" smear, the broadcast networks eagerly dove into the Todd Akin controversy, giving over four times more coverage to an uproar involving a statewide (conservative) politician than a controversy involving a national (liberal) politician. NBC, CBS and ABC's evening and morning shows have devoted an astonishing 88 minutes (or 40 segments) of coverage to Congressman Akin's "legitimate rape" remark. Over a similar three day period, the networks allowed a scant 19 minutes (or ten segments) to a racially charged gaffe by the Vice President of the United States.

CBS This Morning reporter Norah O'Donnell on Tuesday pronounced, "If Akin is still running for the United States Senate, everybody is going to be asking about Akin, abortion rights, women's rights, etc., during the Republican convention." CBS journalists certainly did their best to make sure "everybody" would be talking about the Republican. The network hyped the story the most, pushing the controversy for 13 segments and 37 minutes.

The Media Research Center is out with its latest edition of Notable Quotables, our bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous quotes in the liberal media. There's no subtlety in the latest batch of quotes, as liberal journalists greeted newly-minted GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan by screeching about how he will supposedly “slash” the federal budget, slamming him as a “zombie-eyed granny starver” who would “rain misery upon the heads of millions of Americans.” Meanwhile, MSNBC ramped up the hysteria about a potential repeal of ObamaCare, insisting that if Mitt Romney is elected, “a lot of people will die.”

Some of the choicest quotes and videos are after the jump; read the entire issue at MRC.org, or sign up for automatic e-mail delivery every two weeks.

"The other reason I think Biden’s gaffes aren't that damaging to the president is because the media is so playing a part in this campaign. I think this is going to be the worst media bias we’ve seen since the 1992 election. We can bring back those old bumper stickers. It was 'Annoy the Media - Vote Bush.' Now it’s 'Annoy the Media – Vote Romney.'”

So said conservative author Ann Coulter on Sunday's Fox & Friends Weekend (video follows with transcript and commentary):

After some of the recent Obama-loving/Romney-bashing Newsweek covers, the one hitting newsstands Monday is guaranteed to turn some heads.

Under the picture of our dear leader are the words, "Hit the Road, Barack: Why We Need a New President."

Following in former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's footsteps, the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan on Sunday made a strong comment about the media's handling of Vice President Joe Biden's recent miscues.

Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, Noonan said, "If it had been a Republican vice presidential candidate who had made those gaffes...the subject today of the panel would be how stupid is this person, can this person possibly govern?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said something on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday that is such a metaphysical certitude it should be an embarrassment for all so-called journalists across the fruited plain.

"If [Joe Biden] were a Republican, if Sarah Palin made that level of mistakes, Dick Cheney, he'd be plastered all over the media" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Satire or not satire? You be the judge.

When you read the title of Jonathan Bernstein's Salon article, "Joe Biden: The 'practically perfect' vice president," you figure he must be joking. However, when you begin reading his story you can see that Bernstein was serious...or was he? Your humble correspondent considers himself to be a good judge of the often fine dividing line between satire and seriousness but in this case I am not so sure. The following paragraph in defense of Biden seems to start out seriously but was Bernstein pulling our legs at the end?

Paul Ryan is radically anti-woman, anti-senior citizen, and if he and Mitt Romney are elected and ObamaCare is repealed, people will die! That, in a nutshell, is the liberal media's spin about Gov. Romney's pick of the Wisconsin Republican as his running mate, with the latter claim being made recently by MSNBC political analyst Jonathan Alter, formerly of Newsweek.

"That sleazeball did exactly accuse Romney of murder!" NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell exclaimed on the August 16 Hannity program, adding that by Alter's logic, it would be the majority of Americans who voted for Romney's presidency who would be complicit in "murder." "Where is that talk... where is the discussion of civility? Where are those high-minded people talking about civility now?" the Media Research Center founder asked. [watch the full "Media Mash" segment in the video embedded below]

It might seem like a bad time for a reporter to marvel over Joe Biden’s political gifts, after the load of gaffes this week, but not for Politico reporter Jonathan Martin. He wrote a story headlined “Mission Impossible: Managing Joe Biden.” But he meant that to be positive.

Just days after slamming Paul Ryan’s background driving the Wienermobile and “slinging cheap margaritas,” Martin began the story in awe of Biden’s campaign prowess:

The controversy surrounding Vice President Joe Biden’s offensive claim that Republicans want to enslave black Americans has become such a concern to the Obama White House that the veep’s staff have resorted to trying to directly censor the news coverage about him.

In what is widely believed to be an unprecedented move, the Biden press shop has severely restricted access to vice president and begun telling journalists what they should write about his activities as they write them up.

Cable News Network host Soledad O'Brien has clashed often with conservative guests on her program, but on Thursday, she pressed the liberal chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus when he tried to dismiss Vice President Joe Biden's comment that Republicans wanted to "put y’all back in chains."

During that morning's edition of the Starting Point program, O'Brien showed a clip of Biden's remarks, from his campaign stop in Danville, Virginia, then asked Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) what he thought about his fellow Democrat's comments. The scandal-plagued congressman responded succinctly: “Absolutely nothing.”

For a hot minute, it looked like Joe Biden might have lost Al Sharpton. And just as quickly, Sharpton returned to the fold.

Biden has another possible entry to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, along with his open-mic boast to President Obama in 2010 that passage of Obamacare was "a big f***ing deal." (audio clip after page break)

On Wednesday, August 15, MSNBC’s noon show, “NOW With Alex Wagner,” featured a brief but revealing segment on Vice President Joseph Biden’s recent gaffe. This was the one where Biden addressed a crowd, mostly of African-Americans, and, using what sounded like a Southern accent, said of the Romney/Ryan team: “They’re going to put ya’ll back in chains,” supposedly with deregulation of Wall Street.

The “NOW” panel was urged to address this by host Alex Wagner, but from a specific standpoint – “How do we get past this and get to the big issues?”

Chris Matthews on Wednesday went to embarrassing lengths as he struggled to explain away a gaffe by the Vice President, offering tortured, confusing logic to defend Joe Biden's "chains" comments. According to the Hardball host, Biden's remarks to a largely black audience that Republicans will "put y'all back in chains" were "historical" and not "negative" or racist like when the GOP does it.

Matthews, who on Tuesday foamed that Paul Ryan could be "worse" than Dan Quayle and "more trouble" than Democratic debacle Thomas Eagleton, defended, "...Biden, maybe he is trying too hard to get the support of black people, but he's not using negative slurs in doing it." Matthews lectured, the Vice President's comment is different than the "code" from the GOP "about food stamps and welfare and welfare queens and all." He added, "It seems to me that [GOP comments on race are] a negative reference to slavery and to black folk." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

There were some stark contrasts on the campaign trail in Wednesday's New York Times. After Vice President Joe Biden warned a racially mixed south Virginia audience of the Republican ticket: "They're going to put y'all back in chains." A five-paragraph brief on Biden's comments by Rebecca Berg made page A14 Wednesday, including a brief quote of Mitt Romney's counterattack on the Obama camp in Chillicothe, Ohio, under the soporific headline "A Metaphor Draws Notice."

Berg helpfully corrected Biden's grammar by removing the veep's condescending second-person plural Southernism ("y'all"), replacing it with the more standard "you all." By contrast, the exchange was highlighted in a front-page Washington Post article, which retained Biden's contraction.

Wednesday's CBS This Morning did its best to spin Vice President Joe Biden's "he's going to put y'all back in chains" slam of Mitt Romney and even forwarded the Obama campaign's own talking points on the controversial line. Both Anthony Mason and open Obama supporter Gayle King inserted language that the Vice President didn't even use in his original speech on Tuesday.

During an interview of Romney himself, King claimed that Biden "said that Republicans want to unshackle Wall Street and put middle class Americans back in chains." She followed up by asking, "Isn't the metaphor of unshackling...something that Republicans have used, including Paul Ryan?" Earlier, Mason stated that "Vice President Biden says Republicans are going to put lower-income Americans back in chains." (audio available here; video below the jump)

While USA Today and other liberal media outlets today were spinning the snap Gallup poll about Mitt Romney's pick of Paul Ryan in a negative light, data within the poll itself show that Ryan fared better with Republicans than Biden did with Democrats in 2008 in a similar snap Gallup poll in August 2008 just after Obama's announcement of his running mate.

From the Gallup.com news release (emphasis mine):

After government audits showed Amtrak costing taxpayers millions of dollars due to waste and theft, CNN reported the story on Friday morning while ABC, CBS, and NBC were all silent.

"Waste management and employee theft at Amtrak, it appears to be off the rails," reported CNN's Zoraida Sambolin. "Pretty stunning report," added Early Start co-host John Berman. CNN mentioned the audits four times between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. EDT.

While CNN initially panned Mitt Romney's Wednesday reception by the NAACP as "very negative," anchor Kyra Phillips was quite jovial about Joe Biden quoting scripture to the audience the next day.

A gleeful Phillips gushed that Biden "rolled out the scripture. He got spiritual on them, and they loved it! That is Joe Biden, we had to expect that." [Video below. Audio here.]