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Biden Again Mistakes Brigades for Battalions
September 03, 2008 3:03 PM
ABC News' Matthew Jaffe reports: Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., likes to joke that Republicans don't attack him on foreign policy issues because he's "this big expert," but Sen. John McCain's, R-Ariz., presidential campaign believes they have found a chink in the Biden armor.
For the third time in a week, Biden, speaking Wednesday at Harborside Event Center in Ft. Myers, Fla., mixed up battalions and brigades.
"Over a year ago," Biden said of his running mate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., "He said we need two more combat battalions in Afghanistan."
In fact, Obama called for two more brigades.
Moments before mixing up battalions and brigades, Biden, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, had said that when it comes to national security and foreign policy, "I do think I know as much as anyone in government about those things."
The six-term senator also made the same mistake while addressing his party last Wednesday at their convention in Denver, and then again in a speech Saturday in Dublin, Ohio. And Republicans, of course, have noticed.
"Joe Biden, whose celebrated foreign policy expertise sealed his selection as Barack Obama's mentor and running mate, once again confused the difference between battalions and brigades when discussing Barack Obama’s plans for Afghanistan," said McCain spokesman Ben Porritt. "While Americans are already apprehensive about the lack of experience of Barack Obama, the misunderstanding of basic military terms by Joe Biden presents added uncertainty to a ticket that clearly lacks judgment."
The Biden campaign, however, let it be known that it would not back down from a foreign policy fight.
"Does the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld Republican Party really want to debate who is better versed in foreign policy and national security?" said Biden spokesman David Wade. "Did we really get this lucky? If we wanted to stoop to the level of the McCain campaign, we’d point out that John McCain can't get straight the difference between Sunni and Shia, and seems to think Czechoslovakia is still a country. But this is much bigger than words. It's about judgment. On every big foreign policy question from Iraq to Iran and Afghanistan, John McCain has been dead wrong, and Barack Obama and Joe Biden are right. Let’s have that debate."
September 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (95)
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What about Cindy MCsame who think Sarah has foreign policy experience just because Alaska is close to Russia. Come up with something better. We have more to tell about McSame foreign policy knowlwedge
Posted by: change | Sep 3, 2008 3:43:10 PM
Yes!
Can we PLEEEASSSSE get into a gaffe discussion?
McCain confuses Shia and Sunni, for crying out loud!
Then there's the Iraq border McCain confusion.
The "Czechoslovakia" McCain confusion.
The "Soviet Union" McCain confusion.
Yeah, McCain, let's talk about foreign policy gaffes.
Hahaha....
Posted by: jds | Sep 3, 2008 3:46:52 PM
Do you think we are that stupid how you have nothing to report at this time? Tell me about Sarah who fired her deputy chief because he didn't want to fired her brother in law.
Posted by: change | Sep 3, 2008 3:47:08 PM
geevil
if biden is incompetent what the hell is palin
Posted by: Bhrandon | Sep 3, 2008 3:49:39 PM
JO
if we want to really look at mixed up words
i dont think mccain would pass at all
so... this is another loser for you guys, keep dodging palin questions, keep trying to change hte subject
so sad
Posted by: Bhrandon | Sep 3, 2008 3:51:25 PM
Laura McGann brought word from Alaska yesterday that Palin had, in her own words, pooh-poohed her own executive experience, mocking it as "not rocket science." Strangely, for all the "not rocket science" nature of the work, Palin was unique among Wasilla mayors in that she still needed help. As ProgressiveAlaska notes: "...when Palin was first elected mayor...in 1996, she had to hire a city manager. When her predecessors had occupied the office, they did that job themselves. There went $60,000 per year." (Much more on that via Andrew Sullivan.)
The whole attempt at contrasting Palin as someone who stands up to "oil producers" is similarly baffling, considering that McCain's been broadly signaling that his presidency will be a drill-crazy bonanza for the oil industry.
Posted by: Bhrandon | Sep 3, 2008 3:51:43 PM
Republicans have touting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's service as "commander in chief" of the state's National Guard as proof of her foreign policy chops. Democrats and other observers countered that while a governor can command the Guard in local emergencies, he or she has no say at all when it comes to foreign deployments.
As it turns out -- according to both conservatives and liberals -- U.S. governors were stripped of crucial discretion over their National Guard units at home for a good part of Palin's first term.
A clause from National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 amended the Insurrection Act, handing President George W. Bush expanded power to declare martial law and take over Guard troops without a governor's assent. Passed by the Congress and signed by the president more than a month before Palin took office in December 2006, critics on both sides of the aisle deemed it a federal power grab.
"Governors' control of the National Guard can be trumped with a simple presidential declaration," the American Conservative wrote.
Posted by: Bhrandon | Sep 3, 2008 3:52:39 PM
It was the McCain campaign that announced Palin's daughter's pregnancy. That alone might be understandable since it appears a supermarket tabloid was about to print the story. But it was the McCain campaign, entirely on its own, that dished up unsubstantiated claims about maternity tests and all sorts of other lurid nonsense that had never been seen in print anywhere. And now the McCain campaign has staged a ceremonial laying-on-of-hands on the tarmac in St. Paul in which Sen. McCain has given his official blessing to the young couple and embrace of Bristol's boyfriend Levi.
Posted by: Bhrandon | Sep 3, 2008 3:53:40 PM
Meg Whitman, McCain's national campaign co-chair and former CEO of e-Bay, veered off message today in an interview with Fox News, describing the media vetting of Palin as "completely fair" and saying that there hasn't really been any sexism to speak of in the coverage.
Posted by: Bhrandon | Sep 3, 2008 3:54:36 PM
So the Great Foreign Policy Expert,
Joe Biden doesn't know the difference
between a battalion and a brigade!
Isn't this the same Joe Biden who
opposed "the surge" in Iraq which has turned out to be an unqualified success?
Isn't this the same Joe Biden who
suggested that Iraq be divided into
Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish sections?
Lack of knowledge, bad judgement!
Sounds like Barack Obama!
They are the Tweedledee and Tweddledum
of inexperience and poor judgement!
Posted by: reaganfan | Sep 3, 2008 3:54:39 PM
The stupidity of gotcha politics knows no bounds. If I was the party of George W. Bush, I think I'd be lying low on the whole gaffe thing. Then again, a debate on the issues might be a disaster for the GOP.
Posted by: Ryan | Sep 3, 2008 3:54:51 PM
He probably stole the line anyway.
Posted by: cardinal | Sep 3, 2008 3:58:43 PM
Reagan,
Do you really wanna talk about judgment? We have a lot to say about McSame.
Voting for the war in Iraq
Taking Russia out off the G8
Punish Russia
Dont talk with Iran
Those sound like bad judgment to me reagan
Posted by: change | Sep 3, 2008 4:01:20 PM
MSM REDEMPTION:
I agree with you.
I want to some some real journalistic
research from the MSM on Barack Obama's
association with William Ayers the
former weather underground terrorist!
Why is the MSM Covering Up this Story?
Obama is a liar and a fraud!
Posted by: reaganfan | Sep 3, 2008 4:01:39 PM
Yes, what we need is a leader that knows the difference between Shia and Sunni!!
(Oh wait, that would be Lieberman...)
Posted by: Susan | Sep 3, 2008 4:03:06 PM
Reagan,
You dont need to press to do that for you. William Ayers teaches in the same university with Obama. Do you wanna know more
Posted by: change | Sep 3, 2008 4:04:27 PM
Governor Palin runs the largest state in the union. Obama runs the largest mouth from South Chicago. Is there even a rational comparison?
Posted by: Mary | Sep 3, 2008 4:05:50 PM
Biden is a drunk. He only got chosen to keep Obama's secret. Google Biden's son and Larry Sinclair! Press conference at DC. See what comes up. You might be very surprised.
Posted by: Fae | Sep 3, 2008 4:08:20 PM
Best article I've seen so far why Obama will lose....written by a liberal who was at the Obama convention speech.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JI03Aa02.html
Read it and weep Obamabots.
Posted by: Jo | Sep 3, 2008 4:09:04 PM
bhrandon, and Obama claims his experience as running for President makes him qualified! He actually told this to Anderson Cooper.
So Obama admits he wasn't "experienced" until he started running for president. And yet his campaign manager is the one in charge of his campaign. Ouch.
You can't make this stuff up!
Posted by: Jo | Sep 3, 2008 4:11:57 PM
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