Former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani and Arizona Senator John McCain were on the attack against Vice President Joe Biden over this past weekend, making clear that Barack Obama should drop Biden from the Presidential ticket, with ridiculous statements that make them look very bad!
Guiliani made it seem that Biden was out of his mind because of recent statements, what could be called gaffes, that the Vice President has made. He made it seem that maybe Biden was too old, that he needed to be locked up, for the remainder of the campaign, and that one needed to wonder if he was qualified to become President if that were to happen during the next term.
What a ridiculous assertion, as Joe Biden is the best qualified person EVER to be Vice President, with maybe the exceptions of Lyndon B. Johnson under John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey under Johnson in the 1960s, and Nelson Rockefeller under Gerald Ford in the 1970s, and the argument could be made that he has had more total experience on national issues and foreign policy issues than even those three distinguished Vice Presidents.
Could it be that Guiliani is trying to get revenge for Biden’s past statement about Guiliiani during the 2008 campaign wars, when Biden said that when one thinks of Guiliani, one thinks of September 11 and nothing else?
And, for John McCain to argue that Biden should be replaced and had looked foolish, who is he to say anything on this topic, when he burdened us with Sarah Palin for Vice President, a true embarrassment, and a woman we cannot get rid of, as she constantly issues outrageous, ridiculous utterances, as she continues to exploit gullible people who see her as a savior!
Neither Guiliani nor McCain are experts on what the Vice Presidency is all about!
Joe Biden, an expert on foreign policy? Really? The same Joe Biden that supported the nuclear freeze in the early ’80s against Thatcher and Reagan? The same Joe Biden that was against aiding the Nicaraguan Contras which in the end brought democracy and ended the Sandinista rule at the time? Biden? Who was against Reagan’s expansion of the defense budget which bankrupted the Soviet Union and led to the end of the Soviet Empire? He then opposed the first Iraq War, the Gulf War that liberated Kuwait that everybody agrees was a good thing. But afterwards almost 10yrs later he supported the Second Iraq War which he says was a terrible mistake. And then when the surge happened, he opposed the surge in Iraq which rescued a losing war. What a record!!!
I agree with your assertions on Johnson and Rockefeller (who is sadly always forgotten). I made a similar argument in the maiden posting for my blog. But I offer that George H. W. Bush and Dick Cheney were highly qualified, at least in terms of national policymaking or policy implementing experience. (We all know that Cheney is an example of what not to do as VP.) And if you’re counting Humphrey on the list of highly qualified, then I would offer Gore as well. Just my two cents…
I would not disagree with you, C J, but I was pointing out years of experience, and Johnson, Humphrey and Rockefeller had more than Bush Sr and Cheney and Gore. But then we could add Mondale as well, who actually became the model for an active, nearly co Presidency with Carter, and was very effective, enough so that he was the front runner for President on the Democratic side in 1984. So all contributed to the growth of the office of Vice President, after it first became notable with Nixon as Vice President under Eisenhower in the 1950s!