{"id":9785,"date":"2007-01-31T11:18:08","date_gmt":"2007-01-31T16:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9785.html"},"modified":"2007-01-31T11:18:08","modified_gmt":"2007-01-31T16:18:08","slug":"the-gloves-come-off-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-gloves-come-off-early\/","title":{"rendered":"The gloves come off early?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s inevitable that ’08 Dems are going to go after one another. It’s too big a field, too competitive a race, with too many serious challengers, to avoid some serious intra-party squabbles. No one wants to see the eventual nominee come out of the process bruised and beaten by his or her own side, but it’s largely unavoidable (and, fortunately for Dems, equally likely on the other side of the aisle).<\/p>\n

With this in mind, it’s not entirely surprising that John Edwards, for example, would start showing his aggressive side<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2004, John Edwards rarely had an unkind word to say about his rivals for the presidency. But it isn’t 2004 any more.<\/p>\n

Should Hillary Clinton apologize for backing the Iraq war? “That is a moral decision she has to make,” Edwards told me. […]<\/p>\n

That nonbinding resolution against the Iraq troop surge favored by Barack Obama? “Useless,” said Edwards. “Exactly like a child standing in the corner and stomping his feet.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As intra-party squabbling goes, this is not only mild, it’s substantive. Edwards avoided this kind of talk in 2004, but there’s nothing particularly offensive about him taking a few pointed shots at his top rivals. There’s nothing cheap, personal, or below the belt.<\/p>\n

I’m afraid I can’t say the same about Sen. Joe Biden<\/a>.
\n<\/p>\n

Senator Joseph Biden doesn’t think highly of the Iraq policies of some of the other Democrats who are running for President.<\/p>\n

To hear him tell it, Hillary Clinton’s position is calibrated, confusing and “a very bad idea.” John Edwards doesn’t know what he’s talking about and is pushing a recipe for Armageddon in the Middle East. Barack Obama is offering charming but insubstantial fluff. And all of them are playing politics.<\/p>\n

“Let me put it this way,” Mr. Biden said. “You didn’t hear any one of them get in this debate at all until they announced for President.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To be sure, Biden has some ground to make up. He’s trailing in the polls, his fundraising is tepid, and no one seems to consider him a serious top-tier contender. If Biden simply went through the motions, talking about his beliefs and ideas, it’s likely he’d never close the gap. It’s inevitable that he’ll throw some elbows.<\/p>\n

But as Greg Sargent noted<\/a>, in his interview with the Observer, Biden unloaded<\/i> on the top Dem candidates.<\/p>\n

On Hillary’s Iraq plan: “From the part of Hillary’s proposal, the part that really baffles me is, ‘We’re going to teach the Iraqis a lesson.’ We’re not going to equip them? O.K. Cap our troops and withdraw support from the Iraqis? That’s a real good idea.” […] The result of Mrs. Clinton’s position on Iraq, Mr. Biden says, would be “nothing but disaster.”<\/p>\n

On Clinton’s electability: “Everyone in the world knows her,” he said. “Her husband has used every single legitimate tool in his behalf to lock people in, shut people down. Legitimate. And she can’t break out of 30 percent for a choice for Democrats? Where do you want to be? Do you want to be in a place where 100 percent of the Democrats know you? They’ve looked at you for the last three years. And four out of 10 is the max you can get?”<\/p>\n

On Edwards: “I don’t think John Edwards knows what the heck he is talking about,” Mr. Biden said, when asked about Mr. Edwards’ advocacy of the immediate withdrawal of about 40,000 American troops from Iraq. […] “John Edwards wants you and all the Democrats to think, ‘I want us out of there,’ but when you come back and you say, ‘O.K., John'” — here, the word “John” became an accusatory, mocking refrain — “‘what about the chaos that will ensue? Do we have any interest, John, left in the region?’ Well, John will have to answer yes or no.”<\/p>\n

On Obama: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” But — and the “but” was clearly inevitable — he doubts whether American voters are going to elect “a one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate,” and added: “I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.”<\/p>\n

First, Biden’s comments on Obama came before the Illinois senator presented his own plan for withdrawal.<\/p>\n

Second, did Biden just describe Obama as the first “clean” mainstream African American? “Clean<\/i>“? I can only hope Biden meant that as “scandal-free.”<\/p>\n

In the big picture, I’m very skeptical about this approach. Chances are, Biden will likely hurt himself more than his rivals with these kinds of comments.<\/p>\n

That said, if this is what Biden is saying in January, I shudder to think where he’ll go in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s inevitable that ’08 Dems are going to go after one another. It’s too big a field, too competitive a race, with too many serious challengers, to avoid some serious intra-party squabbles. No one wants to see the eventual nominee come out of the process bruised and beaten by his or her own side, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}