Gaffe of the day: "Gird your loins!"

October 19, 2008
Seattle, Washington
Joe Biden goes bidengaffer in his two weekend fundraisers. He warns that barry will be challenged within 6 months (I think he'll be challenged January 21st - if not before.) by an international crisis. And then goes into his usual verbal perambulations and 15 minutes in it dawns on him that the press is there. Where else would they be? They probably have daily bets - like Cubfans did predicting Piniella's first blowup. Somebody's making a lot of money.

Partial audio courtesy of DhimmiTube666
(10-20) ABC News' MATTHEW JAFFE: (Emphasis added.)

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., on Sunday guaranteed that if elected, Sen. Barack Obama., D-Ill., will be tested by an international crisis within his first six months in power and he will need supporters to stand by him as he makes tough, and possibly unpopular, decisions.

"Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

"I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate," mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."

Not apparent initially? This makes me think he already knows what is going to happen. And what isn't he going to be right about? Iran? Palestine? Korea? Or is he directly referring to Cuba again?

"Gird your loins. We're gonna win with your help, God willing, we're gonna win, but this is not gonna be an easy ride. This president, the next president, is gonna be left with the most significant task. It's like cleaning the Augean stables, man. This is more than just, this is more than – think about it, literally, think about it – this is more than just a capital crisis, this is more than just markets. This is a systemic problem we have with this economy."

"I've forgotten more about foreign policy than most of my colleagues know, so I'm not being falsely humble with you. I think I can be value added, but this guy has. This guy has it. But he's gonna need your help. Because 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."

This sounds like a stump speech. Who was in the crowd? He's talking about buyer's remorse. Must have had a lot of Hillraisers in the group. Certainly couldn't have been a lot of ignorant bots with the reference to girding your loins and the Augean stables. (Cleaning out the Augean Stables was the fifth labor of Hercules.)

"There are gonna be a lot of you who want to go, 'Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don't know about that decision'. Because if you think the decision is sound when they're made, which I believe you will when they're made, they're not likely to be as popular as they are sound. Because if they're popular, they're probably not sound."

He's talking like he knows what's going to happen and that he knows what the decisions will be and that they might not be popular. Makes you wonder if that's why Colin Powell has jumped ship. That's another post.

Biden emphasized that the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border is of particular concern, with Osama bin Laden "alive and well" and Pakistan "bristling with nuclear weapons."

"You literally can see what these kids are up against, our kids in that region," Biden said in recalling when his helicopter was forced down due to a snowstorm there. "The place is crawling with al Qaeda. And it's real."

"We do not have the military capacity, nor have we ever, quite frankly, in the last 20 years, to dictate outcomes," he cautioned. "It's so much more important than that. It's so much more complicated than that. And Barack gets it."

"I probably shouldn't have said all this because it dawned on me that the press is here."

"All kidding aside, these guys have left us in a God-awful place," he then said of the Bush regime, promptly wrapping up his remarks. "We have the ability to straighten it out. It's gonna take a little bit of time, so I ask you to stay with us. Stay with us."

He's well-educated but lacks a filter. I think he's right but it will come sooner than six months. It may come in the intervening months between the election and the inauguration.