Could You Please Dial The Interweb For Me, Mr. Biden?

Alareth said:
Can anyone explain to me why an old man forgetting the name of a website and misunderstanding internet terminology is in any way newsworthy?
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My mother is about 15 years older than Biden, and the last person you would call knowledgeable about the interweb, and yet she's not so out of touch that she refers to a website's "number."

And she is not first in line to succeed the president.

It's really sad that the partisanship in this country is so deep that each side has to dig this deep to create an attack on the other side.
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Yes, it is. What have we come to when we savage our elected leaders for being out of touch?
 
BPSCG said:
My mother is about 15 years older than Biden, and the last person you would call knowledgeable about the interweb, and yet she's not so out of touch that she refers to a website's "number."

And she is not first in line to succeed the president.

Yes, it is. What have we come to when we savage our elected leaders for being out of touch?
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So you therefore agree with the reports in the link above?

If Bush had made the mistake Biden did, would it be fair for the left to jump all over it?
 
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Undesired Walrus said:
So you therefore agree with the reports in the link above?

If Bush had made the mistake Biden did, would it be fair for the left to jump all over it?
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The point is, the left did jump all over Bush for allegedly being "out of touch." The point is, the people jumping on Biden today did not start it; Biden is simply reaping what the left has been sowing for years.

Thomas Boswell is a sports writer for the Washington Post, and arguably one of the best writers on baseball alive. He is the author of a couple of wonderful books - How Life Imitates the World Series and Why Time Begins On Opening Day.

FWIW, I have no idea about Boswell's political leanings - he doesn't let his political views intrude on his sports writings, a practice a lot of other newspaper columnists might do well to emulate.

Boswell writes with passion and poetry.

Boswell also does a weekly online chat during the baseball season. Since the chat goes on in real time, you get to see how he really writes. To put it mildly, it is apparent from what he writes online, that the Post's editors do a lot of work on his columns, as did the editors of his books. Online, he's a mess (Michael Wilbon does much better, FWIW).

And yet, Dan Quayle is an idiot because he misspelled "potatoe" in front of a TV camera.

For many years, the left has done yeoman's work in portraying conservative politicians as stupid, bumbling, and out of touch, going back at least to Clark Clifford's calling Reagan "an amiable dunce." And now when people mock the buffoonish gasbag who is our vice-president, Alareth finds the partisanship in this country to be "sad."

Hypocrisy much?
 
BPSCG said:
The point is, the left did jump all over Bush for allegedly being "out of touch." The point is, the people jumping on Biden today did not start it; Biden is simply reaping what the left has been sowing for years.

Thomas Boswell is a sports writer for the Washington Post, and arguably one of the best writers on baseball alive. He is the author of a couple of wonderful books - How Life Imitates the World Series and Why Time Begins On Opening Day.

FWIW, I have no idea about Boswell's political leanings - he doesn't let his political views intrude on his sports writings, a practice a lot of other newspaper columnists might do well to emulate.

Boswell writes with passion and poetry.

Boswell also does a weekly online chat during the baseball season. Since the chat goes on in real time, you get to see how he really writes. To put it mildly, it is apparent from what he writes online, that the Post's editors do a lot of work on his columns, as did the editors of his books. Online, he's a mess (Michael Wilbon does much better, FWIW).

And yet, Dan Quayle is an idiot because he misspelled "potatoe" in front of a TV camera.

For many years, the left has done yeoman's work in portraying conservative politicians as stupid, bumbling, and out of touch, going back at least to Clark Clifford's calling Reagan "an amiable dunce." And now when people mock the buffoonish gasbag who is our vice-president, Alareth finds the partisanship in this country to be "sad."

Hypocrisy much?
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Summary: "But he started it, mommy!"
 
Lonewulf said:
Some things are beyond mockery.
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Argh. :boggled:

Of course, you understand how a careless slip of the finger can give you "doofis" when you want "doofus" (look at the keyboard), whereas substituting "you're" for "your" is clearly intentional.

Lonewulf said:
Summary: "But he started it, mommy!"
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No. Summary: The left can dish it out for almost thirty years but can't take it for one month.

Or, summary: When the left makes mock of conservative politicians, it's okay because because conservatives are doofuses (doofi?); when the right makes mock of leftwing politicians, it's destructive partisanship at its worst.

Again, hypocrisy much?
 
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! People criticized Bush! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
 
Cleon said:
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! People criticized Bush! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
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Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Why are people making fun of Biden? Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

See "can dish it out for 30 years but can't take it for one month," above.

Hypocrisy much?

Or do you actually believe Biden isn't a buffoonish gasbag?
 
BPSCG said:
The left can dish it out for almost thirty years but can't take it for one month.
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Wow. When I made the first post in this thread I was using my cutting-edge brand of satire but you're really running with it!
 
BPSCG said:
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Why are people making fun of Biden? Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
See "can dish it out for 30 years but can't take it for one month," above.

Hypocrisy much?

Or do you actually believe Biden isn't a buffoonish gasbag?
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How cute. It's like you're ignoring the entire thread.
 
Cleon said:
How cute. It's like you're ignoring the entire thread.
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Nope, just the posts that don't add anything of substance. Except for yours, obviously...

Now, do you have anything of substance to add? Would you care to argue against the proposition that Biden is a buffoon and a gasbag?

Or do you prefer to acknowledge that he is a buffoon and a gasbag, but that there are good resons that he should not be ridiculed?

Choose your weapon, sir.
 
BPSCG said:
Argh. :boggled:

Of course, you understand how a careless slip of the finger can give you "doofis" when you want "doofus" (look at the keyboard), whereas substituting "you're" for "your" is clearly intentional.
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Not always. I've misspelled "your" as "you're" without thinking, as I type so fast and just want to get the words on my head onto the screen. I find the typos to be quite similar overall, really.

No. Summary: The left can dish it out for almost thirty years but can't take it for one month.

Or, summary: When the left makes mock of conservative politicians, it's okay because because conservatives are doofuses (doofi?); when the right makes mock of leftwing politicians, it's destructive partisanship at its worst.

Again, hypocrisy much?
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I think my version is closer to the truth. Just more whining about the evil left. ;)

"Doofi" should be correct, I think. :cool:
 
Alareth said:
Can anyone explain to me why an old man forgetting the name of a website and misunderstanding internet terminology is in any way newsworthy?

It's really sad that the partisanship in this country is so deep that each side has to dig this deep to create an attack on the other side.
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FWIW, I think partisanship is part of the reason for the problems the US faces right now. Bush was easily the worst president of my life, but Republican partisans defended him and Republican politicians exploited his weaknesses to savage the country with crony driven spending and massive fiscal irresponsibility.

People did make fun of Bush's common speaking errors, but the fact was that he misspoke often and any public figure would have been subject to some ridicule for this. I disagree with BPSCG's apparent point that this was driven principally by partisanship. Yes it is true that the Democratic base might have been a little quicker to laugh at Bush for this than the average citizen. But if a Democratic president had misspoken as often as Bush did I think the level of ridicule would have been about the same and the Republican base would have been a little quicker to think the jokes were funny than the average citizen.

I guess BPSCG is trying to make the point here that Biden's mistake here is similar to the kind of thing that Bush did and he's not being treated the same as Bush for it. There are several difficulties with BPSCG's pont I think:

1. Biden is not part of an administration that became very unpopular and it is to be expected that at the beginning of one's tenure the public is going to cut you more slack than at the end when you have become widely unpopular.

2. Biden's gaffes seem to be somewhat different than Bush's. Biden's often seem more like foot in mouth kind of gaffes. Bush's seemed to be more like the kind caused by a loss of concentration or mental sharpness while one is speaking that leads to garbled speech. I am not sure that public reaction to the two different kinds of gaffes is going to be the same.

3. Bush just made a lot more speaking errors than Biden does.

4. The president is a much more public figure than the vice president.

It is true that BPSCG along with many others that participate in this forum has conservative ideas about economics. I don't think he is one of the half dozen or so knee jerk Republican partisans floating around in this forum. I was surprised to see him pushing something like this. Perhaps there is at least some validity to his point that the media cuts Biden more slack because he's a Democrat. At the least it would be difficult to completely disprove.
 
BPSCG said:
Nope, just the posts that don't add anything of substance.
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That apparently translates to "posts that don't fit in with BPSCG's preconceived opinions."

Perhaps, instead of constantly whining about how unfairly Dear Leader was criticized for being the buffoon that he undoubtedly was, you might to want to consider getting the **** over it already.

Take a step back. You're accusing people of hypocrisy based on the fact that nobody jumped down Biden's throat because he said "web site number." I mean, really. That's just sad.

Do you not have any real political issues to talk about?
Are you seriously so angry and bitter that you start threads for no purpose than constructing accusations of hypocrisy against other posters?

And are you seriously so one-sided in your perception of reality that you think that's it's only been the so-called left "dishing it out for thirty years?" Were you in a coma during the Clinton years?

Sad.
 
BPSCG said:
The point is, the left did jump all over Bush for allegedly being "out of touch." The point is, the people jumping on Biden today did not start it; Biden is simply reaping what the left has been sowing for years.

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Hypocrisy much?
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Hypocrisy? If the very people who criticised Bush for the exact same thing find this article unfair, then probably so.

That said, you are not simply using this thread to point out left-wing hypocrisy. You are very clearly using this Biden gaffe to cast doubt on his competence in the job.

You may be pointing out the hypocrites on the left, but, BPSCG, you have palpably just joined them.
 
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Undesired Walrus said:
...That said, you are not simply using this thread to point out left-wing hypocrisy. You are very clearly using this Biden gaffe to cast doubt on his competence in the job.

.../
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I hear there's this guy willing to give mind readers a million US dollars if they can actually do it.
That's quite a stretch you're making there
 
I still find it sad and depressing that a skeptical site like the JREF still has burning, heated, angry arguments over which side of the political spectrum is the correct one.

There are people on here whom I wouldn't trust a word they type, since they feel the need to repeatedly bash, slam, and mock the opposing side.
 
Folks, the exchanges here are drifting from debate to personalizing things... please avoid that in future posts.

Thanks!
Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: jmercer
 
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