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Joe Biden changes story on Osama bin Laden raid

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CDX

Member
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/20/politics/joe-biden-osama-bin-laden-raid/

Washington (CNN)

Vice President Joe Biden offered an account Tuesday of the decision to launch the raid that killed Osama bin Laden that differed from some of his previous retellings -- and from Hillary Clinton's.

His remarks come as he considers facing off against the former secretary of state in the 2016 presidential race, and they seem to signal that he sees his earlier stance on the raid as a potential liability.

At an event honoring former Vice President Walter Mondale, Biden said he had privately advised the President to pursue the raid on bin Laden's compound after initially advising a more cautious approach at a Cabinet meeting.

"We walked out of the room and walked upstairs," Biden said. "I told him my opinion: I thought he should go, but to follow his own instincts."

The new account is a significant departure from what he said at a Democratic retreat in January 2012.

"Mr. President, my suggestion is, 'Don't go,'" Biden said, according to an ABC News report from that time.

"'We have to do two more things to see if he's there,'" Biden recalled, though the story did not include what those two things were.

The Cabinet meeting Biden referred to has been described by several people in the administration, including President Barack Obama himself.

The President asked his closest advisers for input on how he should respond to intelligence that bin Laden was holed up in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan -- intelligence that was anything but certain.

The proposed raid by Navy SEALS was risky, particularly without notifying Pakistan of the plan.

"Those decisions are not always popular. Those decisions generally are not poll-tested," Obama told moderator Bob Schieffer in a 2012 presidential debate. "And even some in my own party, including my current vice president, had the same critique" about the risk of the operation as did some outsiders.

Clinton has also characterized Biden has having been openly skeptical in the meeting.

Tuesday's account is also a change from an account Biden gave on NBC's "Meet the Press" in May 2012, in which he described advising the President to follow his instincts but didn't explicitly advise him to "go" for it.


...Biden WHAT are you doing today?

First you have to say "I actually like Dick Cheney, for real ... I think he’s a decent man." and "I don't consider Republicans enemies, they're friends."

And now this. Contradicting your own previous accounts, and seemingly even President Obama's previous account.
 

ivysaur12

Banned
This is the thing about candidates: The enter the race (or like, sort of do), they get they get the scrutiny of a normal campaign, and we see their imperfections, or they do stupid shit like this.

Biden has run two failed presidential campaigns. There's a reason.
 

JDSN

Banned
Wasnt Biden into some big scandal because he told some lies? He should know he is always gonna be under extra scrutiny.
 

Chariot

Member
I swear two days ago people were still fawning over him. But he opens his mouth and suddenly he is Webbing.
 
Biden talks way too fucking much and is undisiplined. He's a good guy and I think he'll run...but he's not going to win. Basically if he runs it's him banking on Hillary going to jail in the next few months. Which isn't a bad bet but still.
 
Wasnt Biden into some big scandal because he told some lies? He should know he is always gonna be under extra scrutiny.

He got arrogant looking at his poll numbers. Going by polls before she ran you'd think Clinton was going for the 400+ EV landslide.
 

harSon

Banned
Biden talks way too fucking much and is undisiplined. He's a good guy and I think he'll run...but he's not going to win. Basically if he runs it's him banking on Hillary going to jail in the next few months. Which isn't a bad bet but still.

this dude
 

Revolver

Member
This is the thing about candidates: The enter the race (or like, sort of do), they get they get the scrutiny of a normal campaign, and we see their imperfections, or they do stupid shit like this.

Biden has run two failed presidential campaigns. There's a reason.

It's the backup QB syndrome. Everyone loves the guy on the bench until he gets in the game and reminds you why he was holding a clipboard in the first place.
 
He hasn't even announced his nomination yet and the media/counter-media is already in over drive mode over supposed slights, good luck America.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
Biden getting in the race will just help Hillary. Left-wing Democrats will no longer tear themselves over Sanders not beating Clinton, they'll be afraid to see Biden win and will back Hillary. There's a real risk right now that Sanders supporters won't support Clinton, they're Ron-Paulish. Not going to be the case with Repubiden in the picture.
 

Dude Abides

Banned
Biden is a terrible candidate. He can't open his mouth without saying something dumb. The enthusiasm for him, particularly on this board, is mystifying.
 
Biden is a terrible candidate. He can't open his mouth without saying something dumb. The enthusiasm for him, particularly on this board, is mystifying.

This.

I seem to remember this board seeing Biden for the assclown he is not that long ago. Not sure what happened.
 

Bowdz

Member
This.

I seem to remember this board seeing Biden for the assclown he is not that long ago. Not sure what happened.

Rose tinted glasses. Every single candidate looks great until they enter the race. It happened to Hilldawg. It happened to nearly everyone on the GOP field (not that I thought they looked great, but to prospective GOP voters they were highly lauded) and now it is happening to Biden. The intensity with which mud is slung in American political elections makes it nearly impossible to have the same shine in the field as out of it.

All that said, Biden has long had a terrible case of "foot-in-mouth" syndrome. It is what makes him so likeable and endearing, but it causes enough gaffes to make a campaign manager have a heart attack.
 

SmokeMaxX

Member
This.

I seem to remember this board seeing Biden for the assclown he is not that long ago. Not sure what happened.
Some people on this board are delusional enough to think Biden's Presidency will just be a continuation of Obama's. They're very different people with very different agendas.
 
Rose tinted glasses. Every single candidate looks great until they enter the race. It happened to Hilldawg. It happened to nearly everyone on the GOP field (not that I thought they looked great, but to prospective GOP voters they were highly lauded) and now it is happening to Biden. The intensity with which mud is slung in American political elections makes it nearly impossible to have the same shine in the field as out of it.

All that said, Biden has long had a terrible case of "foot-in-mouth" syndrome. It is what makes him so likeable and endearing, but it causes enough gaffes to make a campaign manager have a heart attack.

Rose-tinted glasses suggest nostalgia but Joe Biden is still in office. He never stopped being a walking punchline so why are people taking him seriously recently?

I get nostalgia for Hillary though.
 
Joe Biden going to destroy the stellar rep he built to lose to Hilary?

I like how the guy responsible for the most racist elements of the drug war and a career of shitting on average citizens to enrich credit card companies has a "stellar rep".

But hey, let's post a picture of him staring at a woman's chest and forget all that, right?
 

BigDug13

Member
It's the backup QB syndrome. Everyone loves the guy on the bench until he gets in the game and reminds you why he was holding a clipboard in the first place.

Was just talking to my roommates about this because of this thread and then I read your post. We all agree that it's such a great analogy.
 

darkinstinct

...lacks reading comprehension.
Biden is a terrible candidate. He can't open his mouth without saying something dumb. The enthusiasm for him, particularly on this board, is mystifying.

He seems like the goto candidate for the Democratic Party. Make him secure votes that Hillary doesn't get, then quit the race and endorse Hillary. Feels like that is what Biden has been doing for 20 years.
 

WoodWERD

Member
After this revision and the other statement pandering to repubs, I have no interest in seeing this guy run. I don't think anyone replied to my question in the repubs-are-friends thread, but it's become pretty apparent that the 'dying wish' angle was most likely bullshit aimed for the heartstrings. If so, that's pretty despicable even for a politician. I hope he gaffes (no pun intended) himself out of the race before he even joins.
 

Maledict

Member
My thoughts exactly. You have to be great at half-truths to be a successful candidate, and Joe just wasn't built to lie.

Um, that's not correct at all.

Joe Bidens first presidential run collapsed after it was revealed he was stealing speeches from a British Politician.

This very thread was created because at some point he's lied - he's contradicting his *own* story about Osama.

Joe Biden isn't some miraculous truth telling politician. He's not a successful candidate for president because he's not that great a politician and has a bad case of foot in mouth syndrome. If you read the books about the 2012 elections and obama's first term it's also apparent that outside of gay marriage Joe is to the right of the president and Hilary on social matters, particulary around abortion and religious exemptions. He's an old school, working class catholic democrat, and part of the coalition forged by FDR and then carried forward by Kennedy and Carter - but distinctly not the same collation Obama relied on.
 

Maledict

Member
Thing is, even when he's "just telling the truth" as the Vox article points out he's actually lying. He didn't make the mistake over the coal miner because he assumed someone in his family was a coal miner - he made it because it was literally a speech from Neil Kinnock, who *was* from a family of coal miners.
 
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