The Biden Tapes
As is often the case when Biden speaks his mind, there's no shortage of material. In the story, we led with the fact that he savaged the Iraq plans of fellow Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, and that he did so in unusually personal terms.
We also noted that Biden chose to describe Obama using adjectives like "articulate" and "nice-looking," to which a spokesman for Obama responded by saying that Biden's words "speak for themselves."
That was the part that Drudge picked up and ran with. There's now a debate going on at Talking Points Memo about whether the addition of a comma before the word "who" in this sentence -- "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy" - would have affected its meaning.
Anyway, listen for yourself.
-- Josh Benson
Hillary is articulate and bright and clean and nice-looking too. What was his point?
Clean???
I just listened and I think the article does a disservice to Biden. I agree with the comments on TPM that there is a comma missing. He clearly paused, why wouldn't you put a comma there? It completely changes the meaning of what he said. Please correct and post a clear notation that you made the correction.
Where are the comments? I just posted one and I don't see any.
There's nothing wrong with Biden's use of the word "mainstream," as the only previous black American presidential candidates have been outsider and protest candidates like Dick Gregory, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson to Alan Keyes.
I think Biden's only real gaffe was his careless use of the word "clean." Did he mean to say "clean-cut" (in contrast to candidates like Gregory and Sharpton?) or perhaps "scandal-free" (in contrast to Keyes, Sharpton and Jackson)?
The audio makes it clear to me that it's not just a comma, it's the end of the one idea/phrase/sentance. The next sentance simply lists the merits of the candidate in question (Obama).
I watched Biden on the Daily Show and he explained that by "clean" he meant free of scandal and (hopefully) skeletons in the closet.
I think the Dems are showing their insecurity on this one.
Of course there is a comma missing, please everyone listen to the audio. It sounds like he was saying Mr. Obama has a whole lot going for him and not much against him. The transcriber did a poor job and a true disservice to all readers.
And for anyone who thinks a comma could not make much of a difference as to meaning, please read: "Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation".
I'm sorry, but Biden is an idiot and this quote shows it.
IN fact, there shouldn't be a comma, there are THREE ands in there:
...articulate, bright and and and clean...
He was fumbling for words and came up with CLEAN? No, his racism is showing, just like when he told us that "you need to speak with an indian accent if you walk into a 7-Eleven or Dunkin Donuts" in Delaware.
"Articulate" is, as Bush once said, "the soft bigotry of lower expectations."
No one calls Bill Clinton, or John Edwards "articulate." It's code for "can you believe this guy can actually speak, unlike the rest of THOSE people."
Biden and his elitism is offensive to us all.
Sorry...I'm a diehard conservative, but I'm not too thrilled with all the glee that certain Republicans are showing in this manner. I think it's pretty plausible that Biden wasn't saying what he said to contrast Obama with all other blacks. Let it go, people. It's a lot of hysteria over nothing.