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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Friday Evening Open Thread: Good Ol’ Crazy Uncle Joe Biden

Friday Evening Open Thread: Good Ol’ Crazy Uncle Joe Biden

by Anne Laurie|  May 10, 20136:45 pm| 78 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat

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First, let me draw your attention to Jonathan Bernstein, on “Why You Should Care About 2016 Right Now“:

The pollsters at Quinnipiac are preparing their first Iowa polling for 2016, and will release the results in a few weeks. If you think that’s too soon — and everyone but the most extreme political junkies thinks that — you’re right! But it’s not too soon to be thinking about and working for the 2016 presidential nomination contest, because now is when it’s really possible to push the candidates on policy, which is what’s really important….

A large part of that is finding good issues to run on. And that’s where what happens now matters. Candidates — potential candidates — are looking around to determine which stances all party candidates must take, and are also looking for good issues to help differentiate themselves from the pack. What party actors — everything from think tankers to activists — can do, at this point, is to push the candidates to adopt their pet issues and make them central to the campaign….

Keeping that in mind, Douglas Brinkley has an interview with Vice-President Biden in the upcoming Rolling Stone:

There is a keen Kennedy-like vigor to Joe Biden that overwhelms any room. As was once said of Theodore Roosevelt, he, too, wants to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral. Unlike President Obama, who speaks in interviews with Hemingway-esque sparseness, Biden rambles like Thomas Wolfe, painting a robust picture of an ever-changing America where coal miners will soon be working in clean-tech jobs, gun-safety laws will be tougher and China will be reined in by the White House from poisoning the planet with megatons of choking pollutants…

What matters the most to Biden these days is whether he can persuade Congress to enact meaningful gun-control laws. After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in Newtown, Connecticut, President Obama asked Biden to head up the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. Though his efforts so far have failed to overcome congressional resistance, he says that he is not giving up. If serious gun-control legislation is passed in the next three years – and Biden is convinced it will – he will deserve the lion’s share of the credit.

My takeaway from my one-hour White House interview with Joe Biden is that he must be considering a presidential run. There will be too much Obama-era unfinished business – implementing the Affordable Care Act, fighting for climate-change initiatives, for example – for Biden to throw in the towel. His strengths as a candidate are his blue-collar persona, family values, lifetime support of labor unions and farmers, foreign-policy expertise and stouthearted belief that the Obama administration’s record of accomplishment – from the economic recovery to the killing of Osama bin Laden – has been historic. With Air Force Two at his disposal and his two superbright sons, Hunter and Beau, probably working as his chief advisers, Biden can give Hillary Clinton a run for her money. Although she will have an unquestioned advantage among women, it’s not inconceivable to think that labor unions, environmentalists, African-Americans, LGBT voters and small-business owners will prefer the hypercaffeinated, hard-charging vice president. Like Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a presumed Republican candidate, Biden has learned to turn the sound-bite culture on its head by speaking from the gut. Though he’s been a major political player since the Nixon years, Biden has pulled off the trick of not seeming like politics-as-usual. It could be a mistake to underestimate his populist appeal. And it’s hard to imagine that this highly ambitious man will choose not to pursue the office he’s wanted all his life…

***********
So… apart from getting in on the ground floor, what’s on the agenda for the start of the weekend?

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Reader Interactions

78Comments

  1. 1.

    PsiFighter37

    May 10, 2013 at 5:58 pm

    Balloon Juice meetup Hellay this evening at Golden Road Brewery. About to take off from SF – looking forward to seeing a bunch of strangers from the Internet. Pretty sure they tell you not to do this when you’re a kid.

  2. 2.

    Suffern ACE

    May 10, 2013 at 6:02 pm

    Well thanks to some suggestions earlier in the week, I’ve recieved one of the two Jackie Vernon records I ordered. Something about Man and a Watermelon. If I’m not laughing, then I’m gonna get grouchy on ya’ll.

  3. 3.

    JWL

    May 10, 2013 at 6:02 pm

    Biden also endorsed the Bush-Cheney big lie war for oil.

    As with the unrepentant H. Clinton, what else does anyone need to know about the guy?

  4. 4.

    Mnemosyne

    May 10, 2013 at 6:03 pm

    Biden’s father lived to 87 and his mother lived to 93, so he’s got good longevity in his family. I love my crazy uncle Joe, but we’ll see how it shakes out.

  5. 5.

    Mnemosyne

    May 10, 2013 at 6:04 pm

    @PsiFighter37:

    I have to go to Ikea after work, but I may try to stop by Golden Road afterwards, unless Ikea makes me lose the will to live. It has that effect sometimes.

  6. 6.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    May 10, 2013 at 6:52 pm

    @JWL:

    I’d like to know what he’s going to attempt going forward. Setting a one-issue purity test for prospective nominees is a good way to elect a Republican.

  7. 7.

    Amir Khalid

    May 10, 2013 at 6:54 pm

    The foreign point of view — well, this foreigner’s POV, anyway:
    Unless some younger and better Democrat shows up by early 2015, either Joe or Hillary will be fine.

  8. 8.

    beltane

    May 10, 2013 at 6:55 pm

    Wow, the Kennedy School of Government is defending Richwine’s thesis http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/10/1208318/-Richwine-s-Harvard-PhD-The-Committee-and-Dean-Respond

    Way to go, Harvard!

  9. 9.

    El Cid

    May 10, 2013 at 7:03 pm

    Fuck YES.

    Guatemalan court finds former dictator Rios Montt guilty of genocide

    (Reuters) – A Guatemalan court on Friday found former dictator Efrain Rios Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity during the bloodiest phase of a 36-year civil war.

    It was the first time a former head of state has been found guilty of genocide in his or her own country.

    Rios Montt, 86, took power after a coup in 1982, and is accused of implementing a scorched earth policy in which troops massacred thousands of indigenous villagers.

    Too bad no authority existed which could have tried, convicted and jailed all his funders, suppliers, directors, and protectors in the Reagan administration including the doddering evil fool himself.

    The U.S.’ role in Guatemala during this time period (as if the other time periods were pretty) is one of the most immoral and disgusting records in history.

  10. 10.

    Hal

    May 10, 2013 at 7:05 pm

    It’s not too early for Republicans. Benghazi is all about Hillary. Even Christie in current polling does not beat Hillary in NJ, and watching MSNBC the other day, something like 55% of people polled in NJ didn’t even want Christie to run for President. Still so early anything could change, but Republicans may be anticipating a weak candidate like Paul or (please glob) Ted Cruz and are trying to weaken Hillary as much as possible.

    Oh, and I watched 30 seconds of Hannity the other night with the worlds Mayor Rudy, and according to Rudy Benghazi would either come back to bite Obama or Hillary. Very convenient.

  11. 11.

    JPL

    May 10, 2013 at 7:05 pm

    Hillary should be on the morning shows, if she wants to stop the bleeding.

  12. 12.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 10, 2013 at 7:05 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Ikea? My wife works in the Mongolian BBQ in the mall next to there.

  13. 13.

    rda909

    May 10, 2013 at 7:09 pm

    In more Obama FAILYORE news…Consumer Reports names the Tesla Model S the best car they have EVER tested, of any kind.
    http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2013/05/video-the-tesla-model-s-is-our-top-scoring-car.html

    And Tesla’s sales are skyrocketing along with the stock price. I BLAME OBUMMER and his “fuck-ups” like BenGayzi! How dare he LOAN that company money to create entirely new car manufacturing plants in America. The nerve of that drone-lover! Same as Bush, yeppers!

  14. 14.

    Yatsuno

    May 10, 2013 at 7:09 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Small world, it is.

    Hoping the phone traffic drops to zero tonight. I’m tired of humans this week.

  15. 15.

    El Cid

    May 10, 2013 at 7:10 pm

    @rda909: Ha ha! Solyndra!

  16. 16.

    Trollhattan

    May 10, 2013 at 7:11 pm

    Per another commenter today, May 10, 2011 was the day the teabaggers sold their souls to the alter of Medicare. Or something.

    And now, they’re of the essence and now they’re the ones risking being gone. History will show it started this day, the tenth of May, 2011, when they gave up the fight and they lost the war. This spring day in 2011, they lost something else, their souls.

    Move the calendar forward two years and let’s jot down May 10, 2013 as the day our atmosphere reached 400ppm CO2.
    This is a day humanity might consider paying attention to.

    Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have broken through a symbolic mark. Daily measurements of CO2 at a US government agency lab on Hawaii have topped 400 parts per million for the first time.

    The station, which sits on the Mauna Loa volcano, feeds its numbers into a continuous record of the concentration of the gas stretching back to 1958.

    The last time CO2 was regularly above 400ppm was three to five million years ago – before modern humans existed.
    Scientists say the climate back then was also considerably warmer than it is today.

    Carbon dioxide is regarded as the most important of the manmade greenhouse gases blamed for raising the temperature on the planet over recent decades. Human sources come principally from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.

    The usual trend seen at the volcano is for the CO2 concentration to rise in winter months and then to fall back as the northern hemisphere growing season kicks in. Forests and other vegetation pull some of the gas out of the atmosphere.

    This means the number can be expected to decline by a few ppm below 400 in the coming weeks. But the long-term trend is upwards.

    Can somebody remind me what it was that Inhofe was concerned about today? I’m sure it was more important than this sciency trivia.

  17. 17.

    MikeJ

    May 10, 2013 at 7:11 pm

    Open thread? Good. If you’re looking for a restaurant to take your mom to this weekend, in Seattle make sure you you avoid Wild Ginger. The owner of Wild Ginger Restaurant in Seattle was one of those who whined about a city law allowing sick people to not not sneeze in your food. Rick Yoder, owner of Wild Ginger Restaurant in Seattle is objectively pro-snot in your food.

    The law has passed and he has to obey it, but the fact that the owner of Wild Ginger Restaurant in Seattle campaigned in favour of snot makes me never want to eat there.

  18. 18.

    beltane

    May 10, 2013 at 7:13 pm

    @rda909: I guess this means that that NYT Broder hack really was a corrupt POS after all. Color me shocked.

  19. 19.

    Davis X. Machina

    May 10, 2013 at 7:14 pm

    @El Cid:
    Rios Montt was tighter than a tick with the burgeoning US religious right.

    Even the attenuated JP-II-era Catholic social justice movement in the region was an intolerable left-wing threat to the oligarchs.

  20. 20.

    Trollhattan

    May 10, 2013 at 7:16 pm

    @MikeJ:
    Ugh.

    Have actually eaten there while mom was still alive. Not that a boycott from two states away is meaningful but I’m with ya.

  21. 21.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 10, 2013 at 7:16 pm

    @PsiFighter37: A couple of things about the location of Golden Road for those unfamiliar with the area. You can get off on either the 5 at Colorado or the 134 at San Fernando. There are 2 San Fernando’s: the main one on the east side of the railroad tracks and the small one on the west side. The Golden Road is on the smaller west one.

    If you use Colorado you would cross the tracks on Broadway/Brazil(the street changes name there). However, that RR crossing may not be open, they’re doing construction and it was closed last weekend. If that’s the case continue north up to Doran. If the Broadway crossing is open, cross the tracks and hang a right. You’ll see the Golden Road(it’s yellow) a few blocks ahead.

    If you get off the 134 you will actually exit onto Doran. Continue straight across the tracks and make a left at the propane place. The Golden Road is the series of buildings south of the propane place, the pub is the most southerly one.

    I’ll be the short fat guy wearing black pants and a blue and gold shirt with the piercings.

  22. 22.

    jl

    May 10, 2013 at 7:17 pm

    Man, what did crazy old uncle in the attack and probably senile Joe Biden do to deserve this abject puff piece? Remember, loose-lips goofy old out of it Joe?

    I’m more of a Biden fan than many. But ‘Kennedy-like vigor”? C’mon dude, yer killing me with the jokes. That’s a joke right?

    Now he is a gimlet eyed, steely jawed international decisive man of action.

    I guess the Dems chances are so good in 2016, that if “Benghazi!” damages HRC, then better start grooming (relatively weak candidate) Old Handsome Joe for access in the next election.

    I mean, this is kind of embarrassing for Biden. But that is OK, he’s used to it. But for the writer, Douglas Brinkley? The name sounds familiar, but I can’t keep all these people straight, so not sure who he is.

  23. 23.

    Trollhattan

    May 10, 2013 at 7:17 pm

    @Trollhattan:

    p.s. Is Texas pro, or anti-sneeze? What say the Free Markets(pbut)?

  24. 24.

    El Cid

    May 10, 2013 at 7:18 pm

    @Davis X. Machina: I know. What’s great is that they knew — partly because they had been advised by U.S. backers — to play up their evangelical anti-communist attitudes.

    And Ronald Reagan was such a personally mean, vicious, and yet trusting callous bastard that they played up the role he himself wanted them to play.

    There have been certain events at which I was waiting for the UFO’s to arrive and put on the trials no one else could, but it appears to be up to watch as South America over the last decade or so tries to teach us how to be decent humans again.

  25. 25.

    joes527

    May 10, 2013 at 7:18 pm

    I loves me some crazy Joe. But he is too old. So is Hillary. The sooner everyone makes their peace with those 2 facts the sooner we can start thinking about serious possibilities.

  26. 26.

    rda909

    May 10, 2013 at 7:19 pm

    @Hal: I don’t get this theory at all. Newt Gingrich, Rupert Murdoch, Arianna Huffington and so many other republicans are promoting a Hillary run like crazy. Why is that? I have my own answers to that question.

    This about taking away anything positive about President Obama in the minds of as many people possible. They did the same with Clinton…I’m still amazed how many people seem surprised when you let them know about the Clinton’s jobs record and how it compares to other Presidents. They still talk about Whitewater and Vince Foster to this day, yet they can explain not one single things about those issues and certainly have no idea how they were created just to hurt the Clinton legacy, which is exactly what they’re doing with BenGayzi now. I don’t watch much news, but I haven’t heard one word about Hillary in recent days since they’ve decided to make this THE MOST IMPORTANT STORY EVAH for the 5th time now. It’s all Obama-bashing all the time, no matter how many times it’s shown there’s no proof to the republican claims, and in fact, the proof shows the opposite, but the news bobbleheads don’t let that get in the way.

    This isn’t about Hillary at all. They WANT Hillary. If she runs (I don’t think she will), it will be the end of the Obama Revolution. It would be a move backward, not forward. She cannot win a nation election. Why is this so hard to understand?

  27. 27.

    TaMara (BHF)

    May 10, 2013 at 7:19 pm

    @Yatsuno:Did I miss something or is it dyslexia?

  28. 28.

    rda909

    May 10, 2013 at 7:20 pm

    @beltane: Yea, that hit job has been debunked 20 ways to Sunday.

  29. 29.

    Turgidson

    May 10, 2013 at 7:20 pm

    @JPL:

    Meh. If BENGHAZI really does threaten to materially damage her candidacy – and so far I don’t see it – I think she’d be content to just put her feet up, have a mojito, and call it a career rather than wade back into the fever swamps.

    Just my idle speculation, but I think she’s definitely interested in running again, but hasn’t decided yet, and would prefer to avoid the fight-for-every-inch slog that she and Obama ended up in in 2008. She’s probably also smart enough to know that, no matter how clear her glide path to the presidency may look today, it won’t stay that way, and the GOP will fling many, many tons of poo at her regardless. And she may just not want to deal with that anymore.

  30. 30.

    Yatsuno

    May 10, 2013 at 7:20 pm

    @MikeJ: Damn. I really wanted to try that place. Please tell me Tom Douglas was on the side of the good guy in this one. I really really really lurves me some Serious Pie.

  31. 31.

    Trollhattan

    May 10, 2013 at 7:20 pm

    @Trollhattan:

    Duh. cite:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22486153

  32. 32.

    Yatsuno

    May 10, 2013 at 7:21 pm

    @TaMara (BHF): My old nym got stuck in a semi-permanent state of banishment. FYWP. Never could figure it out although I have my suspicions Soonergrunt is up to something.

  33. 33.

    rda909

    May 10, 2013 at 7:22 pm

    @joes527: Agreed. Senator Elizabeth Warren needs to be the candidate in 2016. First female President. We can do this.

  34. 34.

    mclaren

    May 10, 2013 at 7:23 pm

    @rda909:

    Tesla’s sales are skyrocketing…

    “Tesla expected Model S deliveries to total 5000.” “Skyrocketing.”

    Yes, people are rushing to buy the $50,000 Tesla Model S in the midst of the worst economic collapse since 1930.

    For a glimpse of the real world, as opposed to rda909’s delusional fantasyland, check out the Car And Driver article: ‘The Spark is Gone: What’s Going On with Electric Cars — EVs haven’t yet caught on the way they were supposed to. Will they ever?’ January 2013.

  35. 35.

    Davis X. Machina

    May 10, 2013 at 7:24 pm

    @El Cid: We had Guatemalans pass in some numbers through the church in the parish I was living in then — it was part of the sanctuary movement. The stories were hair-raising.

    It was hard to do ecumenical stuff with some of the competition cross town when they were bigging up Guatemala as a mission field at the same time.

  36. 36.

    El Cid

    May 10, 2013 at 7:27 pm

    @mclaren: Oh, good lord, Tesla’s cars wouldn’t be the first products bringing a technology first to richer consumers that later made their way to more buyers. Good grief.

    I couldn’t afford a $50,000 car, but f***ing big U.S. trucks get those prices too.

    Make an argument against $50,000+ cars in general, but it should hardly make a difference once in that price range whether your toy has a gas-powered zoom-zoom or an electrically-powered zoom-zoom, right?

  37. 37.

    The Sailor

    May 10, 2013 at 7:27 pm

    Nobody gives a fuck about what the beltway thinks, except people in the beltway.

  38. 38.

    Yatsuno

    May 10, 2013 at 7:29 pm

    @mclaren: Sigh. Yet again you put up an article that doesn’t say what you think it says. Or did you bother to read past the first paragraph?

  39. 39.

    joes527

    May 10, 2013 at 7:30 pm

    @rda909: I _seriously_ loves me some Elizabeth Warren. But I’m afraid that her age + lack of political experience are a double whammy. If she were an elder statesman, she might (almost) be able to skate on the age thing, but she isn’t. She should stay where she’s at. We need her there.

  40. 40.

    Trollhattan

    May 10, 2013 at 7:30 pm

    @mclaren:

    To be fair, C&D and much of the automotive press has always held DFH cars in contempt, along with notching up of safety regs, emmission regs and CAFE standards. I stopped subscribing to them after becoming fed up with their being mouthpieces for the oil companies and intransigent automakers first, and “journalists” second.

    Can’t afford a Tesla but it’s fucking impressive. Beautiful too, in person.

  41. 41.

    El Cid

    May 10, 2013 at 7:30 pm

    @Davis X. Machina: Miserable sons of bitches made it a point to wage domestic war against those meddling churchers, too. It was the Reagan administration’s Christian war against U.S. faithful who were anti-American in their opposition to having women and children have their throats slit and skulls bashed open and bellies ripped open.

  42. 42.

    Yatsuno

    May 10, 2013 at 7:31 pm

    @joes527: I lurves me some Liz Warren. But I think she’s best off staying in the Senate where she’s already making some big noises regarding bankstahs and student loans.

  43. 43.

    Cassidy

    May 10, 2013 at 7:33 pm

    So whats up with this fired General and Admiral horseshit showing up in my winger acquaintances feeds? Have you all seen this shit?

    Cassidy +0 because one of the kids took a class trip and isn’t home yet. dammit.

  44. 44.

    TaMara (BHF)

    May 10, 2013 at 7:34 pm

    @Yatsuno: Well you’ll take a co-starring role in tonight’s recipe exchange. :-)

  45. 45.

    Spaghetti Lee

    May 10, 2013 at 7:34 pm

    @rda909:

    Like I’ve said before, I kind of like the idea of Warren staying in the Senate. In the White House she’d have less power to go after the banks because, well, she’d have to go through congress. At least if she stayed she’d be making the Senate less sucky.

    Also, all three are about the same age, so I don’t think that makes a difference.

    ETA: Jinx, I owe Joe and Yatsy a soda.

  46. 46.

    rda909

    May 10, 2013 at 7:35 pm

    @mclaren: Heh. A couple THOUSAND percent increase in sales from the previous quarter? Yea, I’d call that skyrocketing. The Consumer Reports video where they say the Tesla Model S is the best car they have EVER tested, also says the Model S is now outselling every car in the same category in the US (it’s more like $80K-$90K), including the Mercedes and BMW non-electrics in the same class. Yep, skyrocketing.

    You might also want to try reading articles before using them as your “proof,” because there’s this little bit at the end:

    “…sales numbers recently have shown a marked increase.”

    The graph on the bottom also shows a massive increase in sales from 2011 to 2012 for all EVs, and 2013 is shaping up to be a break-out year for nearly all of them, with many more charging stations and models coming out this year. Reality: Try It Sometime.

  47. 47.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 10, 2013 at 7:36 pm

    @jl: I believe Douglas Brinkley is a historian, seen him on MSNBC.

  48. 48.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 10, 2013 at 7:41 pm

    @rda909: Reality? mclaren? Surely you jest.

  49. 49.

    Susan K of the tech support

    May 10, 2013 at 7:42 pm

    Tonight’s venue is just down the street from Topline liquor. 556 Riverdale Drive, Glendale, CA 91204 A nice little hole-in-the-wall place in a warehousey district. Am drinking a single malt that comes from there, though I haven’t personally been in there for a while. Closes today at 6. Think I won’t make it there today, either. But hey, it’s gotta be said, since it’s close by.

    Also, just looking at the map of the area, isn’t the restaurant that Jamie The Food Guy helped inspire/feature/revamp when he was doing the Jamie’s Food Revolution in LA?

  50. 50.

    quannlace

    May 10, 2013 at 7:43 pm

    I love me some Biden, but Jesus! It’s too fucking early to even be thinking of 2016. Well, the parties involved can be starting the windup, but please. Can you give the rest of us a break for …another year at least?

  51. 51.

    David Koch

    May 10, 2013 at 7:43 pm

    @rda909: can we really trust Warren considering her closeness to history’s worst monster?

  52. 52.

    Alistair

    May 10, 2013 at 7:44 pm

    @mclaren:
    Car and Driver has reliably right-wing editorial views. It’s not surprising that they have an anti electric car slant.

  53. 53.

    Self-Righteous Little White Guy

    May 10, 2013 at 7:48 pm

    Bring on the Bidens!

  54. 54.

    Suffern ACE

    May 10, 2013 at 7:53 pm

    @quannlace: I can see a lot of problems ahead if the dems don’t take back some of those statehouses that were lost in 2010. How to get dem voters out in off year elections is something that has to have some solution. But there is going to be problems if those upper mw states, Florida and PA vote to split their electoral college vote.

  55. 55.

    MikeJ

    May 10, 2013 at 7:54 pm

    @Yatsuno:

    Please tell me Tom Douglas was on the side of the good guy in this one. I really really really lurves me some Serious Pie.

    Frankly I never heard any restaurant owner coming out in favor of the sick leave law publicly, but not publicly campaigning against it is a start.

  56. 56.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 10, 2013 at 7:55 pm

    @David Koch: So Obama is “history’s worst monster”, while Jimmy Carter is “history’s greatest monster”?

  57. 57.

    NotMax

    May 10, 2013 at 7:56 pm

    @mclaren

    Tech writers love to compare Tesla to Apple. As Steven Johnson pointed out earlier this year—and as many other writers have as well—Elon Musk’s electric-car company seems to be following the master plan Steve Jobs drew up when he brought Apple back from the brink in the late 1990s.

    Both companies sell high-end products that inspire evangelical fervor in their supporters and incredulous, irrational hatred in their opponents. Both are adored by critics. Consumer Reports just gave Tesla’s Model S sedan a near-perfect score, one of the best in the magazine’s history.…
    [snip]
    …Over the long run, Musk aims to keep lowering the price of its cars—he’s hoping to release a $30,000 car in the next three or four years—while keeping the company’s gross profit margin at 25 percent, which is very high for the car industry. Source

  58. 58.

    Mino

    May 10, 2013 at 8:02 pm

    Bankruptcy bill will be the big difference between Biden and Hillary. Elizabeth Warren opposed Biden on it, too.

  59. 59.

    jl

    May 10, 2013 at 8:02 pm

    Maybe this puff piece is just for access to loose lips Biden for the rest of the Nobama term?

    Don’t fall for it, Joe, it’s a trap! That Brinkley fellow will break your heart. Stay strong and be disciplined! (yeah, like that could happen).

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    May 10, 2013 at 8:03 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA

    Pity Caligula.

    Always the bridesmaid…

    Not to mention several fellows who sport the nickname. “the Terrible.”

  61. 61.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 10, 2013 at 8:07 pm

    @NotMax: Caligula? Shhh, he may show up, shows up a lot on Fridays.

  62. 62.

    JWL

    May 10, 2013 at 8:15 pm

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: “..Setting a one-issue purity test for prospective nominees is a good way to elect a Republican”.

    Were it any other issue but war or peace, I would agree.

    I’ve turned my back on any number of perceived transgressions by politicians I’ve continued to support.

    I even voted for John Kerry in 2004, such was my utter contempt for the Bush-Cheney regime. That remains the only vote I’ve ever cast for which I’m ashamed.

    But never again.

  63. 63.

    Calouste

    May 10, 2013 at 8:23 pm

    @Turgidson:

    Clinton could do a good job for the Democrats by never denying she is going to run in 2016, even though she might already have decided she is not going to. It will draw the fire from the RWNM from the actual candidates until the primaries come into view.

  64. 64.

    jl

    May 10, 2013 at 8:28 pm

    @Calouste:

    The evil Dr. Evil Nobama’s mind control techniques have implanted eleventy D chess in the minds of the DemocRAT hordes. Oh no! The Republick is dooooomed!

  65. 65.

    Hill Dweller

    May 10, 2013 at 8:33 pm

    I really loathe the Beltway press. They will turn even the slightest Dem mistake into a crime against humanity. But Republicans can spend 4+ years tearing down the country in hopes of destroying Obama, without as much as a peep from the Village. Hell, they blame Obama for Republican insanity.

  66. 66.

    ulee

    May 10, 2013 at 8:41 pm

    I hope Biden runs. He laughed Paul Ryan out of the room, made him look junior varsity. Imagine what he would do to Rand Paul. Rand would start out smug and leave the debate literally shaking from fear and humiliation.

  67. 67.

    Suffern ACE

    May 10, 2013 at 8:46 pm

    @Hill Dweller: were still at more questions? Maybe troubling questions? But what?

    Even the notes they are releasing seem normal. I guess what they want is an email from Axelrod telling the president to go with specific wording?

  68. 68.

    eemom

    May 10, 2013 at 8:48 pm

    Not that it matters, but this

    My takeaway from my one-hour White House interview with Joe Biden is that he must be considering a presidential run.

    from whoever the fuck Douglas Brinkley is, is all there is to Joe’s supposed designs on the candidacy at this point.

    Well, that and AL’s stoically unspoken shitfit at the very concept of him upstaging Hillary.

  69. 69.

    Hill Dweller

    May 10, 2013 at 8:54 pm

    @Suffern ACE: That dumbfuck Jonathan Karl is implying the emails are evidence of a strategy to downplay terrorism, while Obama was publicly calling it terrorism. The stupidity is astounding.

  70. 70.

    Yatsuno

    May 10, 2013 at 9:05 pm

    @Hill Dweller: Yesbut…he didn’t declare it terrorism right away you see. Therefore worse than Watergate and Iran Contra right away just from the get-go.

  71. 71.

    Todd

    May 10, 2013 at 9:10 pm

    @eemom:

    Well, that and AL’s stoically unspoken shitfit at the very concept of him upstaging Hillary.

    It did have the faintest little whiff of nothingburger, didn’t it?

  72. 72.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    May 10, 2013 at 9:13 pm

    @JWL:

    That’s an interesting point of view. If you weed out all of the Dems who didn’t oppose the Iraq war with whom are you left?

  73. 73.

    Suffern ACE

    May 10, 2013 at 9:19 pm

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: those who weren’t in office yet and those who were in state government so their opinions were unknown.

    Hey, it’s not a bad idea to want to turn from those folks who didn’t stand up.

    Also, after watching the behavior of these senators, I’m beginning to think being a senator for any period of time might be a net negative.

  74. 74.

    MikeJ

    May 10, 2013 at 9:20 pm

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    If you weed out all of the Dems who didn’t oppose the Iraq war with whom are you left?

    It leaves you with Obama, who, as we know, is worse than Bush sold us out under the bus,

  75. 75.

    Mike in NC

    May 10, 2013 at 9:22 pm

    Breaking news: Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) will appear on this Sunday’s “Meet the Press” to announce that he has legally changed his first name to Benghazi.

  76. 76.

    JoyfulA

    May 10, 2013 at 9:25 pm

    @MikeJ: We’re left with Howard Dean!

  77. 77.

    something fabulous

    May 10, 2013 at 10:20 pm

    @MikeJ: Edit? made joke about spinach artichoke dip being suddenly… unappealing. Leery of posting twice.

  78. 78.

    David Koch

    May 11, 2013 at 3:09 am

    I wonder who Hillary will pick as her running mate, Harold Ford or Jamie Dimon?

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