Obama: Biden dust up reveals "WWF wrestling part of politics"

(CBS News) Republican outrage over recent remarks from Vice President Joe Biden -- and the GOP suggestion that President Obama should replace his vice president -- amount to the "WWF wrestling part of politics," Mr. Obama said Wednesday.

"If we're going to talk about substance, than we should focus on what Joe's comments meant and what they're intended to mean," Mr. Obama said in an interview with "Entertainment Tonight" in defense of his vice president.

At a campaign stop in Virginia Tuesday, Biden told more than 800 supporters, many of whom were African-American, that Mitt Romney wants to repeal the financial regulations enacted after the Wall Street crash of 2008, and that Republicans are "going to put y'all back in chains" with their economic and regulatory policies.

In response, Romney said the Obama campaign is a "disgrace" to the presidency. Several other Republicans spoke out against the vice president as well.

"Slavery is nothing to joke about," Former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, the first African-American elected as governor in the U.S., said Wednesday on Fox News. "And the history of this nation's involvement with slavery is nothing to pass off in a joke."

Even if one were to give Biden the benefit of the doubt and assume he didn't mean it, Wilder continued, "you can't continue to make gaffe after gaffe after gaffe and believe that it's going to be supportive of what you and the president are both trying to do."

Biden tells African-American audience GOP ticket would put them "back in chains"
Romney: Obama campaign "disgrace" to presidency
Ryan: Biden comments are 'desperate'
What substance? Campaign attacks get nastier than ever

Former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin suggested that Mr. Obama would be better off if he made Secretary of State Hillary Clinton his running mate because "Joe Biden drags down that ticket." John McCain, with whom Palin ran in 2008, agreed it would be "wise" to replace Biden.

Mr. Obama said that Biden's choice of words created "a distraction from what is at stake" when it comes to Wall Street regulations.

"We've got a situation where we just went through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and part of the reason we went through that crisis was because there was a lot of reckless behavior on Wall Street," he said. "We put in reforms to make sure we don't have any more taxpayer funded bailouts. Governor Romney and his allies in Congress disagree with those reforms... and I think understandably what Joe Biden said is we shouldn't want to go back to the status quo."

As for the suggestions that Clinton should replace Biden as his running mate, Mr. Obama said, "We don't spend a lot of time worrying about the chatter and the noise and this and that... The country isn't as divided with gaffes or some stray remark as Washington is. Most folks know that's just sort of a WWF wrestling part of politics. It doesn't mean anything, just fills up a lot of airtime."

While some may think Clinton should replace Biden after his latest gaffe, Clinton similarly came under fire in 2006 after telling a largely black audience, "When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation. And you know what I'm talking about."

[credibility2]

If a Republican made that type of comment and with ethnic dialect, the hyena Dems would be out dancing around their cauldrons calling for them to be boiled in oil. The president is a nincompoop and Biden is the droppings.

[RealiteBites]

What a hypocrite to say that everybody should focus on the substance and ignore the gaffes.

Remember when Hillary Rosen made that comment about Ann Romney, and Obama totally threw her under the bus rather than focus on the substance of her argument?

Obama also treated Sarah Palin like **** ... I never forgot that.

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

EmpireGeorge______-- August 16, 2012 12:48 PM EDT
The quotes are neverending
---------------

Yep! And the best one belongs to Biden concerning Healthcare!

"This is a big F****** Deal!

OBAMA/BIDEN 2012 : )

[cubscout09]

My Great-Grandfather was sold into indentured servitude. in 1840, at 8-years of age. He had two shirts and one pair of pants, no shoes. He fed and milked cows, barefoot, at a Vermont dairy during the dead of winter. Tough and smart, he became a schoolteacher, high school principal and prominent judge. His book on probate law is used to this day.

Captured American Merchant Marines were routinely sold into slavery, usually by the English East Indies Company of Boston Tea Party fame, up to the end of the War of 1812. (1812-1814)

Do not let yourself be complacent or apathetic about freedom.

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

I'm distracted today.
So it took me a moment to realize what they're REALLY doing!

Suggesting Biden be replaced with Hillary so that when he's not, they can attempt again, to steal the Clintonistas!

Not gonna work y'all! Didn't work last time and it won't work this time!

OBAMA/BIDEN 2012 : )

[cubscout09]

Saw it right away, Joe Biden is advocating the passage of his Violence Against Women Act (1994) as we blog. If passed, it would likely be declared unconstitution by the Supreme Court as it would violate the same "Constitutional Right to Privacy" that is the cornerstone of Roe v Wade.

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

When will they stop pretending to be offended and get down to answering the charges?

The banks had us ALL in chains!

[neilfarris]

WWE not WWF

[cubscout09]

If Biden is soooo bad, why are the GOP soooo afraid of him???

In addition to being a working class hero for his vernacular:
This is a big, ******* deal.
Yes, they are acting like a bunch of *******. (not the 'T' word)

Joe is an accomplished and knowledgeable debater. He handled Palin with kid gloves. He didn't refute one single thing she said.

I don't expect Ryan will get the same treatment.

[annieb346]

Too bad Romney doesn't have any kind of budget or plan to move America FORWARD to talk about, so he has to nitpick at what the Democrats are saying. We all know how much easier it is to tear down than it is to build something up. And apparently neither Romney/Ryan nor most of the commenters here have the higher level thinking skills to understand the ANALOGY that Biden was making. In my experience, the Right sees only one layer - the surface - and is unwilling or unable to look or think any deeper. Hence the popularity of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. This also explains the Religious Right, who seem incapable of understanding the teachings of Jesus as he taught using parables.

[AKansan]

President Obama has no problem separating us by race.

http://youtu.be/BdjoHA5ocwU

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

If you're "separating by race" which side do you put Obama in? He's half black and half white? ; )

OBAMA/BIDEN 2012 : )