We Still Love Ya Joe!

Well what do you know?  Who knew that this Saturday Night Live skit during the campaign accurately reflected Obama’s fears?  Apparently Obama was greatly alarmed during the Fall in 08 at his running mate’s unending propensity to open his mouth and say something stupid.

The relationship between Barack Obama and Joe Biden grew so strained during the 2008 campaign, according to a new book, that the two rarely spoke and aides not only kept Biden off internal conference calls but refused to even tell him they existed…

[W]hen Biden, at an October fund-raiser in Seattle, famously predicted that Obama would be tested with an international crisis, the then-Illinois senator had had enough.

‘How many times is Biden gonna say something stupid?’ he demanded of his advisers on a conference call, a moment at which most people on the call said the candidate was as angry as they had ever heard him…

Speaking to his own staff, Biden insisted that it hadn’t really been a gaffe. And feeling a bit defensive, he invoked one of the worst memories of Obama’s primary campaign.

‘I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t say anything about bitter people who cling to their guns and religion,’ Biden cracked, the authors paraphrase.

I am on Biden’s side in this dustup.  His propensity to say stupid things was well-known long before Obama picked him.  Besides, in this administration Biden’s habit of saying idiotic things is a feature not a bug.  His role is national clown to lighten our mood in this endless Obama-ession.  Keep it up Joe!  Don’t let your detractors get you down!