Responding to his VP’s mega-gaffe, Barack Obama essentially says Joe Biden has a habit of saying stupid things. That’s comforting?
Next repair job: explaining why his “spreading the wealth” comment shouldn’t be of concern. He tries to reinvent his comments to Joe the Plumber:
OBAMA: “The simple point I was making was that even assuming he’s at a point that he wants to buy a business that he hopes will generate more than $250,000, the point I was making was that ten years ago or five years ago or even a year ago when he was making a lot less than that, he was having a tough time. … We don’t mind people getting enormously wealthy because of their skills and their talents and their drive. But we always want to make sure that the playing field is such where everybody who’s got a good idea has a chance to succeed. Everybody’s got a chance to get financing. Everybody who works hard is able to raise their family. Everybody has an opportunity if they act responsibly to send their kids to college and retire with dignity and respect. And in that sense, that does involve us spreading around opportunity.
Actually Obama said the opposite: he’ll spread around the results of, not the opportunity for, wealth creation.
Both of these damage control efforts seem fairly weak, of course. But the reality is that Obama’s ultra-liberal economic outlook — his emphasis on “fairness”over wealth creation — is nothing new. Playing word games with voters likely isn’t going to obscure Obama’s meaning and intent. And as for Biden, explaining that his VP pick is an alarmist blabbermouth does not endear either one of them to voters concerned about national security. Biden — who was supposed to be the voice of reason and sobriety — has now been exposed as a foolish character. So those voters who were looking for ballast to steady the Obama presidency will have to prepare themselves for a very rough ride.
