"Biden to make it official on Comedy Central" is a headline in today's News Journal. You gotta love the irony, eh, especially given what Biden said today about Democratic challenger Barack Obama:
"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."
How culturally clueless is Biden, anyway? Calling a black person "articulate" has been parodied ad nauseum by comedians like Dave Chappelle for years now. But Biden has to go a step further, and infer that "mainstream" African-Americans before Obama were not intelligent and ... clean?? And what does Biden think of "non-mainstream" blacks (whatever a "non-mainstream" black person is)?
I can hear Biden's "explanation" for this whopper now: "I have a lot of black friends* and they know I don't have a racist bone in my body ...!"
Meanwhile, we at Colossus have gotten an advanced copy of the beginning of Biden's announcement speech, written by Biden himself -- a complete original job:
My fellow Americans, I have a dream, that one day the only thing we'll have to fear is fear itself. I'd like Americans to ask not what their country can do for them, but what they can do for their country ...
Neil Kinnock wasn't available for comment on the speech.
(* Another favorite white person phrase that rivals the word "articulate" for most unintentionally insulting vocabulary used towards blacks.)
Actually I believe it was Chris Rock who had the stand-up set about how "he's so well-spoken" actually means "I expect black men to be ignorant monkeys."
But yeah, Diamond Joe sure stepped into it. Again.
Posted by: Jeff the Baptist at January 31, 2007 04:31 PMI'm sure Rock has brought that up, Jeff. It's right up his alley. But I know for a fact that Chappelle has lampooned that statement numerous times, too, especially in the hilarious skit "The Ni**er Family."
Posted by: Hube at January 31, 2007 04:50 PMDelaware has Biden (34 years in the Senate) who can't explain what what he said even though he just said it and Pennsylvaniua has Specter (more than 25 years) who has no core beliefs but will anything in a desperate effort to be viewed as brilliant (remember "Scottish law" and "not proven" soundbites?).
Posted by: AJ Lynch at January 31, 2007 05:47 PMhe's not called the dumbest man in the senate by accident!
I assume he ment to say "clean cut".
if he had half a brain... er I mean if his campaign manager had half a brain, they would have blanketed the internet with the correction while taking another shot at Obama (He's a clean cut light-weight)
ofcourse it's possible that it was a fruedian slip and the Joe has been watching Obama it the showers at the Senate Gym...
Posted by: steamboat willy at January 31, 2007 05:59 PMHube,
Watch out. You are in danger of turning into the conservative version of Delawareliberal.
Posted by: jason at January 31, 2007 09:35 PMBiden, wasn't he the one that invented the internet?
Posted by: Al at January 31, 2007 10:02 PMWhatever. The fun part was when he pointed out that John Edwards is full of crap. You gotta love him for that!
Posted by: G Rex at February 1, 2007 09:28 AM...you could also make the case that Obama's "clean" in that he doesn't have a prison record like Al Sharpton or a half-dozen illegitimate kids like Kwesi Mfume.
Posted by: G Rex at February 1, 2007 10:37 AM