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Home Front: WoT
Bill Whittle: BidenÂ’s Hint
2008-10-25
National Review

A few days ago, Joe Biden was trotted out to make his monthly gaffe. Last time — I think it was last time; it’s hard to follow without a program — it was about how Hillary might have been a better VP candidate. This time he mentioned that a young President Obama was likely to be tested in his first six months. Anyway, that’s what he said, before being rotated back to the Cone of Silence.

The thing I actually like about Joe Biden is that these gaffes of his are actually just the product of a man speaking his mind, and some of the time, he happens to be correct.

There have been a lot of guesses as to what shape this “test” might take. But what really interests me is what Sen. Biden had to say later in the same discussion, speaking “off the record” to Democratic-party stalwarts.

“Gird your loins,” he begins — not good! — and then it gets really interesting . . .

I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, “Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?” We’re gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I’m asking you now, I’m asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you’re going to have to reinforce us.

So, with the clear understanding that all that follows is the reading of tea leaves and chicken entrailsÂ… What the hell was Joe Biden hinting at? What possible action would drive a President ObamaÂ’s poll numbers down into the ground?

Well, some people have argued that if Iran and Israel decide to get serious — and if an Obama administration did essentially nothing to defend our ally… how would the vast majority of American Jews — largely Democrats — take that? Could that be the poll hit that Democrats need to “gird their loins” for?

That’s depressing. Here’s something even more depressing: What if Biden is hinting that Obama would indeed get us involved militarily at Israel’s side — or anywhere else, for that matter. In other words, if Obama were to step up and do the right thing, and put America in the middle of another war — would that be what he wants to brace the base for?

What’s depressing about that? Well, in a fundamentally moral country — or political party — such an action should make his poll numbers shoot up.
In the casually anti-Semitic, fashionably anti-American circles where Bill Ayres, Jeremiah Wright, Markos "Kos" Moulitsas, and George Soros circulate, this would be treason of the highest order.

Another theory: Recruitment is apparently falling off sharply within the last month or so. I have heard, anecdotally, that new recruits are waiting out the election, since most of them have no desire to serve in the kind of toothless military they see under a President Obama. Is Joe Biden warning us that Obama may need to reinstate the draft to make up for a sudden plunge in volunteers? Who knows? I wonder what the Obama Youth Vote would think if that comes to pass.

Finally, Ed Morrissey over at Hotair.com is wondering if this may all be preamble to something Barack Obama outlines in no uncertain terms in a video you can watch with your own eyes right here.

If youÂ’re new to these intertubes, hereÂ’s the print version: He is sitting in what appears to be his senate office, and says, quite clearly, that:

I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems. [snip] I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons. I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material. And I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMÂ’s off hair-trigger alert.

Wow.

Is Barack Obama planning a unilateral drawdown of U.S. forces? He says thatÂ’s what he wants, and he sounds pretty clear about it to me.

ThereÂ’s a lot to say about that, obviously, but my first thought was that if this became national policy for the United States, we can count on the press brigades that were diligently deployed to determine irregularities in Sarah PalinÂ’s 4-H dues from 1981 and Joe the PlumberÂ’s failure to use American-made Teflon tape to descend on the disarmament procedure and make sure each warhead and every gram was diligently disposed of.

As far as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are concerned… well, they will undoubtedly by moved by the high moral purpose involved — not to mention the fact that it’s Obama who’s asking! — and so I don’t think we need to be too concerned about compliance on their end.

So what was Joe hinting at? What was going to cause Obama’s poll numbers to crater? . . . None of these speculations fill me with joy, but I’ll tell you straight up — that last option — unilateral disarmament — makes my blood run cold. When you’re surrounded by armed, raging barbarians, that is not the optimal time to lay down your sword… even if you don’t have the will or the inclination to use it. Why, you may discover that even if you just wave it around a little, it can have a remarkable effect.

Unless youÂ’re running away when you do it, in which case it just pisses them off even more.
Posted by:Mike

#6  dude. Pick a nym, stick with it, k?
Posted by: Frank G   2008-10-25 22:03  

#5  Joe, Joe, Joe...thank you! We at the consevative end of things would like to thank you for another gift. Even if the illuminati media won't cover this in great detail, as they would rather examine Palin's shoes.
Posted by: Shairt McGurque2382   2008-10-25 22:01  

#4  I still think ol' Joe can't tell us which "scenario" will happen because Zero's puppetmasters people are still negotiating with our various enemies to see which one will pay the most for the help privilege of attacking us uncontested.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2008-10-25 21:07  

#3  The upside is that the honeymoon was over during the Carter years rather quickly. Even Carter's own party got fed up with him.>/i>

The downside is that in a a far less dangerous situation and, being far less nuttier and a far better American than Obama, Carter came close to lose the cold war.
Posted by: JFM   2008-10-25 18:18  

#2  I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, "Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down?

Because there is nothing there except for more governmental sprawl, more central control from Washington, an inability to govern, new and bigger cockamamie social programs and higher taxes to support all this governmental intervention and meddling in our lives?

The upside is that the honeymoon was over during the Carter years rather quickly. Even Carter's own party got fed up with him.
Posted by: JohnQC   2008-10-25 14:58  

#1  I suspect that he was making it up out of whole cloth. I have seen nothing to indicate that Biden has any sense of what is happening in the world outside of his echo chamber.
Posted by: DoDo   2008-10-25 13:39  

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