Warm-up act
Posted: Thursday, October 16, 2008 6:17 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Joe Biden, Ron Allen
From NBC’s Ron Allen
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- When Joe Biden sits down for a few laughs with Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres tonight he will already be warmed up.
With a bit of self-deprecating humor, at a campaign office this morning here, Biden said he hoped, "not to make a fool of himself."
Lately, in fact, Biden has been trying out a few "zingers," out on the campaign trail. Much of it has been at the expense of his counterpart Sarah Palin.
Here's a sample of the routine.
Biden is on stage in Delaware recently, feeling comfortable at home, into his stump speech, and he starts to recall his debate with Palin, and that, "she was winking at you all." Then, "at least I think it was a debate," he says, dripping with sarcasm. That sets up Palin's line about how she has been paying attention to Biden's speeches since she was in the second grade. Biden counters with, "Well, I guess just like she can see Russia from Alaska, she can see Delaware from Alaska?" The partisan crowd roars with laughter. "She's got great eyesight," he cracked to keep the laughter going.
Jokes are, of course, standard fare on the campaign trail, but Biden seems to have sharpened his skewering of Palin, with apparent delight lately, and as the Democratic ticket's poll numbers rise.
And so as not to leave John McCain out, Biden finishes up that second-grade joke, by suggesting to Palin that she was probably in the sixth grade "the last time John McCain had a good idea!"
All of this, including the late-night appearances, is an example of how Biden has stepped out more, and increased the number of events he's doing for Barack Obama, as the campaign heads down the final stretch. Another example is that Biden has been what you might call "Spinner-in-Chief" on the network morning shows following the last 2 presidential debates. An important mission because that's when millions of Americans hear their first reviews of who won and who lost, and before the debate has been hashed through the news cycle.
On the trail, all jokes aside, Biden is very careful with his words frequently breaking up a thought for attribution. That’s not to say he hasn’t made gaffes. There have been a few for sure. Jobs, a “three-letter word”
Charges of lifting others’ lines derailed a past presidential campaign. He has also picked his time in the media's eye carefully -- often doing interviews with network anchors live, where the subject has a bit more control over the final product, more control than a taped interview that gets edited.
A couple of days back, when Biden sat down for a cheeseburger after glad-handing the folks at an Ohio diner for lunch, it was the first time since early September he's taken random questions from the reporters traveling with him day in and day out.
And Biden has pretty much ignored the practice of wandering to the back of his plane for a chat with the press, as candidates sometimes do. We hear from advisors. We see the back of Biden's head, sometimes a profile, but don't hear much from the candidate himself.
Now, back to a somewhat lighter note, and some of Biden's digs at Palin on some matters of policy.
Have you heard the one Biden tells about how McCain's plan to tax health benefits, while giving families a tax cut to help buy premiums, is as Biden puts it sounding befuddled, "a bridge to nowhere?" Or the climate change line, trying to make fun of a nuanced answer Palin has given about whether acts of man are causing global warming? With a look of surprised indignation, Biden mockingly asks, "how can you solve the problem if you don't know what causes it?"
At the last debate, McCain, unlike Obama, took a shot at his opponent's running mate when given an opportunity by a question from the moderator. McCain chided Biden, "the foreign policy expert" for voting against the first Gulf War, which the U.S., of course, quickly won with widespread international support and approval. And McCain dismissed what he called Biden's "cockamamie idea" to divide Iraq into a federation of three separate entities, what's also been called the "Bosnia" solution.
Biden has said helping to make peace in the Balkans is one of his proudest achievements.
Surely Biden won't find any of that amusing.
At the campaign office this morning, Biden also joked that Obama did so well at the final debate that Biden told him," he's going home to polish my golf game."
Meanwhile, Obama was in New York, at a meeting of his top donors warning anyone, "feeling giddy or cocky" not to be over confidant. Recalling his loss in the New Hampshire primary to Hillary Clinton after the polls gave him a good size lead, Obama said, "I've been in these positions before...when we are favored....and we ended up getting spanked."
