His Own Worst Enemy?

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: In The News

(AP Photo)

Joe Biden has had better days.

The Delaware Democrat and presidential candidate said this to New York Observer reporter Jason Horowitz: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

"Articulate?" "Bright?" "Clean?" Ouch. Cable news, a number of blogs, and the Drudge Report have all jumped on the comments, and Biden is already explaining himself. It'll be interesting to see where this goes from here: Will Biden see his presidential hopes derailed by a press corps unwilling to look past the perceived racism of the comments? Or will he be able to explain them away as an inarticulate moment and leave the taint of racism behind him?

Former Senator George Allen, of course, couldn't get past the implication that he was a racist, thanks in large part to his ill-advised "macaca" comment – he referred to a 20-year-old of Indian descent by the slur at a campaign event. Allen, you might remember, had a "race problem" even before the gaffe, something that certainly didn't make it any easier for him to play the macaca comment down as an isolated incident. Unfortunately for Biden, he has race problem of his own – he said "You CANNOT go into a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts without an Indian accent," a comment that some complained was offensive.

Is Biden a racist? I have no idea. What is becoming increasingly clear, however, is that he is prone to comments that get him in trouble – and in a media environment in which every gaffe can be endlessly replayed, discussed and analyzed right up to Election Day, that's not going to make his path to the White House any easier.

UPDATE, 6:10 PM: The following statement from Biden just landed in my inbox: "I deeply regret any offense my remark in the New York Observer might have caused anyone. That was not my intent and I expressed that to Senator Obama."

UPDATE, 10:20 AM: How could I have forgotten this?

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by osamabin1 January 31, 2007 9:46 PM EST: The Senate is elephant graveyard for old, white windbags. As the average age climbs further upwards (now at 62) we will increasingly see shades of Ronald Reagan: dementia. Notice how McCain is hardly the man he was 6 years ago. Or that Chaney has had clogged cerebral arteries for decades. Or that Bush is increasingly manifesting signs of cognitive impairment.

This fear of being stuck with feeble old loonies in charge of America is what makes Obama so attractive to the electorate, particularly those in their thirties and forties. People forget that Clinton was 46 and Gore 44 when first elected.; Reply to this comment


by one_american January 31, 2007 8:47 PM EST: Watch Biden claim it was a "botched joke" now.

Democrats are funny, but nobody is laughing.; Reply to this comment


by ronmwanga January 31, 2007 8:44 PM EST: I blogged about this. it reminds me of Biden's own shooting himself in the foot in 1987 when he pilfered a speech -- he or his staffers -- from a Neil Kinnock speech in the UK. I don 't feel Biden is racist, he is just terrible outside of the Senate well. He is quite useful on the Foreign relations Committee and a great thinker on International Relations (The Biden Plan is the most cerebral of the offered "solutions" to the problem of iraq) but he is absolutely clumsy on the national stage on the campaign trail. You can, I suppose, get away with that sort of gaffe in delaware, but not in the South Carolina Democratic primary where middle and low income African-Americans have great pull.; Reply to this comment