RTFA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymy0Woaz81U

On the very same day that Colin Powell’s endorsement supposedly calmed the nerves of those worried about Obama’s foreign policy inexperience, running mate Joe Biden makes the counter-argument — God love ‘im:

“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “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.”

Biden, you’re an ass. I won’t speak for fumf or placidwater, but I, farkinga, officially endorse Bigfoot/Nessie as the most promising candidates in the 2008 election season.

From Wikipedia:

A gaffe is a verbal mistake, usually made in a social environment. The mistake may come from saying something that is true, but inappropriate. It may also be an erroneous attempt to reveal a truth. Finally, gaffes can be malapropisms, grammatical errors or other verbal and gestural weaknesses or revelations through body language. Actually revealing factual or social truth through words or body language, however, can commonly result in embarrassment or, when the gaffe has negative connotations, friction between people involved.

What an ass!

However, I hasten to point out that our current president was far less experienced than Obama, and in fact held office during the greatest life-taking tragedy in US history, the 9/11 attacks. His famous response to the attack was: keep shopping. …and then tortured the 9/11 facts to justify the invasion of Iraq, which has resulted in more American deaths by this point than the original attacks.

But the ineptitude of W doesn’t make Biden’s remarks more palatable – it simply means the US can survive even the most inept leaders in the most dire times.

UPDATE 2008-10-22Redacted the “due to Obama’s inexperience” from the title of the post. It’s juicy, but it’s not what Biden said.

RTFA: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4496829n

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Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin share their thoughts on the best and worst parts of current Vice President Dick Cheney’s career. Katie Couric reports.

Good point in the CBS comment thread: just because Biden has tons of experience with interviews doesn’t mean he’s the better candidate. Biden is a known critic of Cheney, so is this answer surprising? …but once again, I think this clip speaks to the preparedness of the two VP candidates.

It’s possible to be critical of Cheney’s actions without getting overly partisan.

For example, consider Cheney’s closed-door Energy Task Force which happens to have preceded the Enron scandal, California’s blackouts, inflation of energy costs unseen since the 1970s, and the inherent conflict of interest involved in being the former CEO of Halliburton, an energy services company. By the way: Halliburton has moved its headquarters from Texas to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, with the partial justification being that it will reduce costs by lowering their taxes.

As another example, consider the infamous Cheney decision to shoot down United Flight 93, which was the 9/11 hijacking airplane that crashed in Pennsylvania. According to the official 9/11 Report, Cheney deliberated over this decision in “the time it takes a batter to decide to swing.” Those are literally the words. While I do not disagree with the decision, I would like to believe that a world leader would be more considerate in a situation like that.

There are Cheney’s repeated attempts to deceive the US people into believing that Iraq was somehow involved with 9/11, even though there was no evidence to support this … even though Cheney’s office has now been convicted of criminal activity in attempting to fabricate the evidence and cover it up. It was Cheney’s office (if not Cheney himself) who blew Plame’s CIA cover, in retaliation for questioning the Iraq-9/11 link. …and Palin was caught red-handed repeating the Cheney rhetoric.

Finally, there is the duck hunting incident, and the attempt to cover it up during the days immediately following. It’s embarrassing, in the first place, but the attempt to keep the story from the media is par for the course, and damning.

…but that is seriously the worst Palin is willing to be critical of? This is scandalously wrong! As Biden points out, detention and torture is wrong, and so is Unitary Executive Theory. Palin seems to have no problems with any of this, and that in and of itself is troubling.

RTFA: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4493093n

Katie Couric sat down with Sarah Palin and Joe Biden and asked them their thoughts on Roe v. Wade.

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I’m not going to step up in favor of United States Senator Joe Biden, from Delaware. In this video, Biden specifically comments on a disagreement with the Supreme Court over Federal jurisdiction in cases of violence against women, and I tend to agree with the Court. The VAWA isn’t a bad idea at all, but there are parts of the act that really concern me and a lot of other people. I take issue with a number of other Biden initiatives, like the RAVE act and his general involvement in criminalizing drug issues.

…but I am going to be a detractor of Alaska’s Governor, Sarah Palin. Her response is totally pathetic – it’s not even a good evasion of the question. At least in terms of preparation, Biden stomps all over Palin. Terrible performance!

So, while I may disagree with some of Biden’s previous actions, Palin hasn’t even done anything that can be examined, and it’s obvious from this interview that she isn’t ready to take a Federal leadership role like Vice President. She doesn’t know anything about the Federal government! She couldn’t even be a House Rep with that kind of background, and we’re supposed to seriously consider her as a viable Vice President? Astonishing…