Can Joe Biden get any dumber? Just last Thursday, the vice president said he didn't blame the 41% of West Virginia Democrats who voted for an incarcerated felon over Barack Obama in the recent primary because they were acting out of frustration. Just before that, as the president put it, ol' Joe had "got out a little over his skis" by coming out for same-sex marriage while his boss was still evolving.
On Tuesday Mr. Biden takes his act to New Hampshire, where he will speak at a campaign rally at Keene State College. One thing's for certain: Anything remotely colorful will generate yet another round of news stories about the "gaffe-prone vice president." Then again, in some ways that's become Mr. Biden's role.
In a recent documentary on Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon summed up his role as sidekick this way: "You had to be good, but not too good." Every vice president faces that challenge. In Mr. Biden's case, however, his reputation as resident bonehead brings at least one benefit: It distracts folks from asking whether the administration's record really shows Mr. Obama as brilliant and nuanced as we are constantly told he is.
After all, Mr. Biden's penchant for hyperbole didn't begin when he took up residence in Number One Observatory Circle. To the contrary, Mr. Biden came with a long record: here appropriating not only the words but the coal-miner ancestors of a British Labour leader; there saying you can't go into a 7-Eleven "unless you have a slight Indian accent"; there again hailing Mr. Obama as a "clean" African-American.
The difference between then and now? Then, these remarks were hailed as an endearing sign of a genuineness sadly lacking in Washington. That was the argument advanced by David Brooks in the New York Times in August 2008 that ran under the headline "Hoping It's Biden." American voters, he said, were "smart enough to forgive the genuine flaws of genuine people."
The VP relieves comics from having to tell jokes at Mr. Obama's expense.
When the Washington Post two days later asked a group of "political experts" for their thoughts on Mr. Biden, the superlatives were flowing. These descriptions included "unassailable foreign policy credentials," "good-natured, serious, and truly qualified," "the political maturity and foreign policy gravitas [Obama] lacks," and so on.
In other words, whatever his miscues Mr. Biden was a respected Washington figure. And why not? The senator from Delaware had earned that respect the old-fashioned way: by embracing virtually every enthusiasm that passed for wisdom inside our Beltway. On foreign policy alone, Mr. Biden helped cut off aid to South Vietnam in 1975 after the North invaded. He pushed arms control while opposing the Reagan military buildup. He voted against the Strategic Defense Initiative, voted against the first Gulf War, and so on down the line.
Now he has become a punch line for late-night television. Of course, that makes the vice president a great convenience for our late-night comics. It relieves them of having to do any jokes at Mr. Obama's expense.
After all, it's not as though Mr. Obama has gone gaffe-less. He's told us America has 57 states, called the Malvinas the Maldives during a visit to South America, and hailed his reforms for bringing "inefficiencies to our health-care system." The president's gaffes, however, are simply not echoed the way the vice president's are.
Perhaps that's because casting Mr. Biden as the fool who is weighing the ticket down helps the president escape accountability for his own agenda. Just how wise, for example, was it for Mr. Obama to ignore the economy in favor of a highly unpopular health-care bill that also cost him a Democratic House? Is it Mr. Biden or Mr. Obama whose policies have kept growth sluggish and unemployment north of 8%? And who was right on the contraceptive mandate?
Say this too for Mr. Biden's latest "gaffes": They have the virtue of being true. The 70,000-plus West Virginians who voted for a Texas prisoner were surely signaling frustration. As for same-sex marriage, it's curious isn't it? Mr. Biden is the dolt even though he spoke straightforwardly about his position, while Mr. Obama is lauded as courageous for feeding us yet another line, which is that he thinks same-sex marriage an issue best left to the states.
The truth is that there are two types of Washington people to be wary of. The first are those who emphasize how smart they are. The second—and they are often the same people—are those quick to label others dumb.
Certainly Mr. Biden is more loquacious than most pols, and he's had more than his share of doozies. What makes it different in 2012 is that the same Beltway establishment that once hailed Mr. Biden for speaking his mind now finds that highly inconvenient.
In other words, for President Obama to remain all-wise and wonderful with this record, Mr. Biden has to be the stupid one.
