Covering for Joe

I enjoy reading Mickey Kaus's "kausfiles" blog over at Slate. I don't necessarily agree with what he says -- but I do like to know what he's thinking. More importantly, he only writes when he has something to say.

The only downside is that one can't avoid those annoying teaser ads that appear to the right of Mr. Kaus's column. Invariably, they're opinion pieces posing as fact. Usually, I ignore them. However, I took the bait on the article entitled "Biden's Gaffe Immunity" by some guy with a keyboard named Christopher Beam.

I won't go into chapter and verse about Mr. Beam's article but in his worldly eyes, he sees three types of gaffes:

- Informational: When you get your facts wrong
- Message: When you get your policy wrong
- Political: When you offend a supporting interest group

But to Mr. Beam, Joe (like Parker Lewis) can't lose.

Because he's "generally seen as worldly and knowledgeable" the information gaffes don't hurt Biden. I don't know. A few more remarks akin to FDR appearing on TV in 1929 and you can put the worldly and knowledgeable description in the ashcan.

Message gaffes make Biden sound authentic to Mr. Beam. No they don't. It displays a lack of discipline and insubordination to the guy who picked him for Vice President. (Ironically, Biden was selected to add "gravitas" to the campaign.)

Mr. Beam struggles to defend the political gaffes because, Biden is so, well, "...so darned congenial". Says who?

I recall the pre-Internet era when Vice President Quayle was attacked -- at times justifiably -- for his miscues. I don't recall any "tsk, tsk" moments from Big Media on his behalf.

What's at play is that Joe Biden has been a dreadful pick for VP -- and it's Big Media's time to step up and make him more presentable.

When Barack Obama launches into an attack on John McCain for not getting anything done while he was in the Senate; one realizes that he could be describing Biden's longer and less distinguished time on Capitol Hill.

More telling in Mr. Beam's article, was Joe Biden's recent address in the battleground state of Virginia -- he was talking to an audience of 150! In fact, when flying with Joe Biden, bring a book -- it's a lonely flight. (In fairness to Mr. Beam, the New York Times published a similar puff piece on Biden two weeks ago.)

In about six weeks time, Joe will continue to be a gaffe machine. Fortunately, nobody will be listening.