Patterico's Pontifications

2/28/2014

Did Joe Biden Really Say Obama Gave Him “Every S**t Job” in the World? – Updated

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:45 am



Politico (Google cache link to punish thuggery) has a profile of Joe Biden, which details (among other things) his being walled out of the Obama administration. This is an interesting quote:

But, now as always, Biden remains skeptical of Obama’s cautiousness. “Look, I just have more of a populist strain than Barack does,” he told an associate recently, a statement that clearly hints at 2016 product differentiation from Obama and Clinton, a desire to emphasize that he’s his own man.

You don’t often see quotes like that from a sitting VP — but then, as the profile details, Biden upset the administration with gaffes such as announcing his support for gay marriage before Obama did.

I can’t help but wonder, though, whether the Politico article has been altered, because here is the headline at the Daily Mail:

‘I was given every s*** job in the world by Obama’: Biden makes astonishing revelations about his relationship with the President as it’s claimed he was ‘frozen out’ by White House over gay gaffe

Do me a favor and tell me where that rather incendiary language is to be found in the Politico article, because I can’t find it. In fact, I can’t find it in the body of the Daily Mail piece either — just the headline. What does the headline writer know that we don’t? Of course, the apparent absence of the quote from the source material does not seem to have prevented numerous Web sites from having quoted the language, including Fox News and the New York Post. Every reference goes back to Politico.

What gives?

UPDATE by JD – h/t Eliot. The Biden quote is on page 3 of the linked article. Since I will not link to Politico directly, you can find it at the link in the first comment.

28 Responses to “Did Joe Biden Really Say Obama Gave Him “Every S**t Job” in the World? – Updated”

  1. It’s on page 3 of the original story. Despite the _full.html ending the link in Google’s cache, the cached version nevertheless only displays the first of 5 pages. Here is a direct link (unavoidably to Politico, alas).

    Eliot (de5782)

  2. I thot antiChrist had thoroughly crapped the Dhimmi bed last time out, so what do I know?

    Still, I really don’t see a credible candidate more famous than MN’s Klobuchar. You know, someone who eats with utensils, doesn’t primal scream in the AM, avoids eliminationist ululation, and like that.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  3. Here is Biden’s quote from the Politico article:

    With his electoral path to the presidency blocked, Biden, like so many veeps before him, pivoted to the inside track. Not long after Obama selected him, Biden turned to his soon-to-be chief of staff, Ron Klain, to provide him with a detailed analysis of how to attack the vice presidency. Biden wanted to avoid what he considered Dick Cheney’s overreach (he told GQ last year that Cheney “made it hard for government to function coherently”), but he still wanted as much power as he could figure out how to get.

    To Biden’s surprise, Klain singled out his old boss Al Gore—not Cheney—as an example to avoid. Gore, Klain concluded, had erred by putting himself in a silo, owning only a few issues (the environment and a “reinventing government” project). That won him headlines but limited his impact and eventually exacerbated his estrangement from Clinton in 2000. Klain counseled Biden to embrace a much more ambiguous role that fit Biden’s take-it-as-it-comes personality, urging him to undertake, in Biden’s words, “every shit job in the world” that Obama didn’t want to do.

    Fortunately for Biden, there was a whole lot Obama didn’t want to do, from managing the withdrawal from Iraq to babysitting unreliable and paranoid Afghan President Hamid Karzai and dealing with a squabbling Senate that Obama had been only too happy to leave.

    The sentence that follows is equally damning, although for Obama instead of Biden: “Fortunately for Biden, there was a whole lot Obama didn’t want to do …”

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  4. The quote in the headline is still a paraphrase of what the article says, AND NOT A DIRECT QUOTATION.

    Only 6 out of the 11 words in supposed quote are actually in the article.

    If that’s the actual way Biden said it – “I was given…by Obama” – we don’t know where the Daily Mail or otehrs got those 5 words.

    In the article Biden seems to be paraphrasing Ron Klain’s advice back in 2008 or 2009.

    Sammy Finkelman (7072ea)

  5. An important difference bwtween the headline and the original Politico quote is that in the headline, it’s implied that that was Obama’s attitude toward the jobs he gave to Biden.

    But in the original quote, that is Biden’s attitude toward the jobs he agreed to or was anxious to handle, and not neccesarily all of them. Just that there was nothjing he would refuse.

    The key factor was that those were jobs “Obama didn’t want to do” not that they were (expletive deleted) kind of jobs.

    Sammy Finkelman (7072ea)

  6. Whatever the impetus behind the jobs given to Biden by Obama, he was under-qualified for them as he has been for most of his professional life for his endeavors – other than being elected in DE (which says a lot about DE).

    askeptic (2bb434)

  7. 3 hours and no loon has yet appeared to accuse the host of mis-characterizing the Politico article, snark at the dishonesty of conservatives and chide us all for being so gullible. Must be a Che’s birthday or something,

    max (131bc0)

  8. You guys just don’t like Joe Biden because he’s black. Or something.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  9. since it’s clear our SCOAMF is uninterested in doing *any* j*b, why are we surprised.

    other than golfing & going on vacation, JEFH hasn’t accomplished much, other than gutting the economy, the Constitution, and America’s influence overseas…

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  10. Others may speak for themselves. I don’t like Joe Biden because he’s a blithering idiot and he is next in line of presidential succession.

    elissa (06f6f8)

  11. elissa, at least admit your bias against older men who wear hair plugs.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  12. I thought the VPs job was to do all S..t jobs.

    Davod (4cc250)

  13. When Raul declares Miami an annexed suburb of Havana and the rights of Cubanos are being violated I wonder what the definition of troop movements will be.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  14. If Raoul raises enough cash for the DNC Obama will just declare Castro his new ambassador to South Florida and the troops will be his security detail.

    Steve57 (a7ff60)

  15. I don’t like Joe Biden because he’s a blithering idiot and he is next in line of presidential succession.

    lets be honest: Slow Joe would be an improvement over our SCOAMF, if for no other reason that that he’s a lazy stupid person, unlike JEFH, who’s actively st00pid.

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  16. yes, Biden has been wrong on every issue from the Alaskan pipeline, to the surge, but that makes him a senior statesman,

    http://twitchy.com/2014/02/28/somebody-has-a-case-of-the-sads-editor-who-dismissed-sarah-palins-russiaukraine-prediction-whines/

    narciso (3fec35)

  17. wow. cnn actually put a non derogatory palin article on its website which references that original FP article.

    http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/02/28/palin-on-ukraine-i-told-you-so/?hpt=hp_t1

    elissa (06f6f8)

  18. This is unlikely, but … if the GOP takes control of the Senate and Obama is impeached and removed from office, then Biden would become President. The idea of that always bothered me, primarily because Biden is so clueless about foreign policy. But Obama has made a terrible mess of his foreign policy, so they are equally bad at this point. What’s interesting, though, is that President Biden would be the incumbent President, and I think that would make it more likely he runs and a more competitive opponent for Hillary Clinton than Biden currently is. Unlikely but it would certainly make the Democratic primary more interesting.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  19. DRJ–My belief is that short of proof that he’s a Russian/Marxist double agent or some such, Obama will never be impeached because…historic presidency. Plus as you point out impeachment still leaves us with Biden and veto power. But if the GOP should take the senate in 2014 and support for Obama and Dems continues to crumble, I would expect that at least some Dem legislators might be far more willing to be reasonable on a number of important issues as part of a silent quid pro quo to avoid the embarrassment and threat of impeachment. I don’t think most Dems want Biden in the WH either.

    elissa (06f6f8)

  20. I see on the news that Ear Leader has drawn another line in the quicksand that he strides upon.
    Don’t call his bluff Vlad, you’ll be sorry.

    askeptic (2bb434)

  21. Who care’s who is in charge, this place runs itself, doncha know?

    http://minx.cc/?post=347524

    Actually its the same thing at State, County and Municipality level, just on a smaller scale.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  22. Vlad’s gonna choke to death on his vodka and caviar.

    ROTFLHAO.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  23. In an interesting likeness to Elissa’s link (@20) I heard reference today to BO’s mocking of Mitt Romney in one of the debates when, in answer to a question regarding America’s greatest threat, Romney responded with Russia, to which BO gave the “the seventies called and they want their foreign policy back..” comment.
    So much prophecy, so little credit….
    [I’d post a link if I could find one…]

    gramps, the original (b18bfc)

  24. 26. Actually, I don’t believe Crack Whore spends much time on the course, most of it is spent in the back room at the 19th hole.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  25. Think that had Paul Ryan or Sarah Palin ahd been let off the leash to say out that Biden was a zero senator from the credit card state, a silly stupid man with hair plugs and speeches stolen from hack Brit pols, we would have had President McCain or President Romney.Anyone that would trust him with anything more significant than a coffee order should not be president. Biden has been wrong about almost every major policy for the last 3 decades. On the other hand, given that Delaware depends on consumers stupidly maxing out their credit cards, what better man to continue to borrow to the tune of $17 trillion plus and counting.

    Bugg (a7077e)


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