One of the few moments in the debate between Republican Joe Biden and Democrat Sarah Palin (follow the link) when I raised my eyebrow and said, “That sounds off” from either side - on the whole, there were only a few exaggerations during the evening - came when Joe Biden mentioned the the idea that both he and Obama had warned against the Bush administration’s support for an election in Israel. I assume that he is referring to the municipal elections in 2005, the first elections held in Palestinian territories in 30+ years: details here.

As far as I can find with initial searching (I asked a friend to plug it in to Nexis), I don’t see anything from Obama on this subject. But the reason it seems off to me is that the timing’s all wrong: the election Biden is talking about happened in 2005, right after Obama was elected to the Senate. He had to have been in office for mere days when it took place (correction: during the first round, he hadn’t even been sworn in yet), and it’s doubtful he made any statement on it. If he did, it is not on his own site, nor is it available on the normal search methods, nor is it in the Congressional Record as far as I can see.

Can the campaign produce any evidence that Barack Obama took this prescient opinion on the elections in Israel? If not, will Joe Biden retract his claim?

Update: Glenn Kessler at the WaPo notices it as well.

One of the few moments in the debate between Republican Joe Biden and Democrat Sarah Palin (follow the link) when I raised my eyebrow and said, “That sounds off” from either side - on the whole, there were only a few exaggerations during the evening - came when Joe Biden mentioned the the idea that both he and Obama had warned against the Bush administration’s support for an election in Israel. I assume that he is referring to the municipal elections in 2005, the first elections held in Palestinian territories in 30+ years: details here.

As far as I can find with initial searching (I asked a friend to plug it in to Nexis), I don’t see anything from Obama on this subject. But the reason it seems off to me is that the timing’s all wrong: the election Biden is talking about happened in 2005, right after Obama was elected to the Senate. He had to have been in office for mere days when it took place (correction: during the first round, he hadn’t even been sworn in yet), and it’s doubtful he made any statement on it. If he did, it is not on his own site, nor is it available on the normal search methods, nor is it in the Congressional Record as far as I can see.

Can the campaign produce any evidence that Barack Obama took this prescient opinion on the elections in Israel? If not, will Joe Biden retract his claim?

Update: Glenn Kessler at the WaPo notices it as well.

Seriously. $369/year? Is that all Joe Biden can contribute? If so, must have taken some Delaware-sized stones to sit and smirk in the audience at the Columbia Presidential Forum on Service last night while John McCain talked about his love for the sacrifices our military makes.

Jake Tapper, hardest working man in the 08 cycle, continues his coverage of the ever declining mental faculties of Joe Biden, Senator. For all the coverage given the family affairs of Governor Sarah Palin, precious little has been given to the rambling, bizarre statements of Smilin’ Joe Biden since his convention speech. And there’s so much good stuff here, too! Just the other day in Florida, for example, where he went on a 75 minute riff:

The evening was full of Biden-isms, including the inevitable Obama/Osama slip, made when Biden was discussing the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border “where Obama, Osama Bin Laden lives, and Obama wants to go to get him.”

Look, we know you want to keep pretending Biden is going to stop flubbing this, but he’s not. He may keep doing it all the way into the second year of an Obama term. And a lot more, too:

At another moment, he said, “when I hear people say, ‘Hey Joe, geez, I understand your values. I connect with you. But I don’t know about that other guy.’ Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. If Barack Obama grew up in my neighborhood in Scranton or Claymont or Wilmington, Delaware, he would have been the guy who had my back. If Barack Obama had grown up in my neighborhood, he would have been the same guy he is now.

“I’ve got to tell you, I’m tired,” Biden continued. “Let me tell you. If you’re looking for a very sophisticated, Harvard graduate who went to Columbia undergrad and was president of the Law Review, he’s totally intellectual. Baby, you ain’t seen nothing yet. This guy is steel. This guy is steel, and I assure you that.”

Tapper makes the obvious point that Obama-Biden isn’t exactly in need of solidification of the people who want a sophisticated Law Review Harvard-Columbia intellectual in the office. That already exists. You might have heard of their party.

At another point, Biden riffed on being the older presence on the ticket, saying, “my role in this campaign is I’m the old man. I really thought I was still in pretty good shape. But I watched when they, when Barack, as they say, ‘rolled out,’ his, his, Vice President nominee. Half of the people in America thought I was going to get ‘rolled out.’ I don’t know. And I was listening to one of the news broadcasts after we had that great event in Springfield, Illinois, and there…was a runway to get up to the, to get up to the microphone from the door we came out. And I came out, and it was a long way away, I didn’t want to hold people up, so I started jogging. Next morning, I listen, I think it was Gwen Ifill, who I love, Gwen Ifill said, you know, something to the effect that, ‘It was a great speech, but Biden shouldn’t run.’ I thought, What are you talking about I shouldn’t run? What do you mean I shouldn’t run? So, you know, I don’t like young guys anymore.”

I don’t have any idea what the last part means.

So much for that text message announcement. Obama really should’ve done it earlier - this afternoon at the latest. All he’s done now is piss off the morning papers by making them miss their deadline, and given the networks a scramble for Saturday morning. How very throwback to think you could avoid the internet attention - but then, they got what they wanted in millions more phone numbers. And the biggest winner of the day is big Telco. Hooray!

So what can we say about the choice? I must admit that I, like Jonah Goldberg it appears, have always had a soft spot for Joe Biden. He’s actually a lot like John McCain in his blunt personality, albeit without the history of heroism behind it, which forms a package some find entertaining and others abrasive.

He certainly fits Obama’s Cheneyesque goal in a choice, which is why I thought Biden was the likeliest selection this morning. (I get few “I told you so” moments, so allow me this one.) In the end, Obama wasn’t interesting in breaking down any political traditions by going for a dark horse, going courageous with Clinton or pissing off the netroots with Bayh or even swinging for a state with a targeted pick like Kaine - he just wanted an old white guy who’s been around Washington forever. And lo and behold, he found one!

Biden is a “reassure people” pick, not a Hope pick, and certainly not a Change pick. Say it with me now, and know it is one of the first times you’ve heard it said about Joe Biden without an accompanying snicker: GRAVITAS. Such a ludicrous word it’s become if it can be applied to this fellow, who is in so many ways an uninspiring Washington politician - an ornery chap who likes women a bit too much for his own good, a horrible liar during the Clarence Thomas hearings (and during a few others too), and yes, all of it coming with an ego the size of Jupiter.

What’s more, for a man who’s supposed to bring vast tracts of foreign policy experience to the table, he’s really more of a shoot from the hip type - take this TNR anecdote for example:

At the Tuesday-morning meeting with committee staffers, Biden launches into a stream-of-consciousness monologue about what his committee should be doing, before he finally admits the obvious: “I’m groping here.” Then he hits on an idea: America needs to show the Arab world that we’re not bent on its destruction. “Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran,” Biden declares. He surveys the table with raised eyebrows, a How do ya like that? look on his face.

The staffers sit in silence. Finally somebody ventures a response: “I think they’d send it back.” Then another aide speaks up delicately: “The thing I would worry about is that it would almost look like a publicity stunt.” Still another reminds Biden that an Iranian delegation is in Moscow that very day to discuss a $300 million arms deal with Vladimir Putin that the United States has strongly condemned. But Joe Biden is barely listening anymore. He’s already moved on to something else.

So why do I still kind of like the man? Well, if I had to explain it, my view would come down to this:

Joe Biden does not believe that America is a bad idea.

This fact, of course, separates him from most liberal Democrats. Including Michelle Obama. And that is a good thing.