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Giuliani and Santorum Assail Biden for Virginia Speech
The New York Times
Brian Knowlton
8/19/2012
Excerpt:
"WASHINGTON — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. came in for an unapologetic drubbing on Sunday from two prominent Republicans for suggesting last week before a largely African-American audience that Mitt Romney’s policies would unshackle Wall Street but put some Americans “in chains.”
In turn, a spokeswoman for President Obama tried to turn the focus to language used by Mr. Romney himself.
But on Sunday, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, bluntly questioned Mr. Biden’s stability.
“Oh, no, I don’t think he’s nuts,” he said on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.” “I’m just saying I wonder if he’s got the kind of balance — probably what I should have said is the balance to be president of the United States.”
He added: “This guy is like one gaffe after another, and he’s a — he’s a joke on late-night television.”
Rick Santorum, a more recent presidential candidate, was no less direct. The former Pennsylvania senator, who now supports Mr. Romney despite their sometimes bitter fight for the nomination, suggested that Mr. Biden was “playing the race card” by evoking a slavery-era image.
Such language, he said on the CNN program “State of the Union,” was “horrendous” and Mr. Biden should apologize. But, Mr. Santorum added, the remarks reflected “exactly the tone of this campaign.”
The Boston Globe called in an editorial over the weekend for Mr. Biden to apologize.
Even Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, said Sunday that the vice president’s remarks had been “indelicate,” but he forcefully rejected the notion that they had a racial undertone. “There’s not a racist bone in Joe Biden’s body,” he said on the NBC News program “Meet the Press.”
On Sunday, Mr. Obama’s deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, suggested that Mr. Biden might have chosen better words but insisted that his point – that “we cannot go back to the days where taxpayers end up bailing out people because of their own reckless behavior” – remained valid.
Speaking on CNN, she then turned her fire on the Romney campaign.
“If we want to talk about words on the campaign trail that are poor choices of words, let’s talk about Mitt Romney’s, when he has been traveling for the last two years basically calling the president un-American, saying that he wanted to — the president wanted to make it a less Christian nation. Those are poor choices of words, and that is, you know, that we find completely offensive.
“So this faux outrage by Mitt Romney, complaining and whining about the tone of this race, is really completely hypocritical.”
View the complete article at:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2...rginia-speech/
The New York Times
Brian Knowlton
8/19/2012
Excerpt:
"WASHINGTON — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. came in for an unapologetic drubbing on Sunday from two prominent Republicans for suggesting last week before a largely African-American audience that Mitt Romney’s policies would unshackle Wall Street but put some Americans “in chains.”
In turn, a spokeswoman for President Obama tried to turn the focus to language used by Mr. Romney himself.
But on Sunday, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, bluntly questioned Mr. Biden’s stability.
“Oh, no, I don’t think he’s nuts,” he said on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.” “I’m just saying I wonder if he’s got the kind of balance — probably what I should have said is the balance to be president of the United States.”
He added: “This guy is like one gaffe after another, and he’s a — he’s a joke on late-night television.”
Rick Santorum, a more recent presidential candidate, was no less direct. The former Pennsylvania senator, who now supports Mr. Romney despite their sometimes bitter fight for the nomination, suggested that Mr. Biden was “playing the race card” by evoking a slavery-era image.
Such language, he said on the CNN program “State of the Union,” was “horrendous” and Mr. Biden should apologize. But, Mr. Santorum added, the remarks reflected “exactly the tone of this campaign.”
The Boston Globe called in an editorial over the weekend for Mr. Biden to apologize.
Even Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, said Sunday that the vice president’s remarks had been “indelicate,” but he forcefully rejected the notion that they had a racial undertone. “There’s not a racist bone in Joe Biden’s body,” he said on the NBC News program “Meet the Press.”
On Sunday, Mr. Obama’s deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, suggested that Mr. Biden might have chosen better words but insisted that his point – that “we cannot go back to the days where taxpayers end up bailing out people because of their own reckless behavior” – remained valid.
Speaking on CNN, she then turned her fire on the Romney campaign.
“If we want to talk about words on the campaign trail that are poor choices of words, let’s talk about Mitt Romney’s, when he has been traveling for the last two years basically calling the president un-American, saying that he wanted to — the president wanted to make it a less Christian nation. Those are poor choices of words, and that is, you know, that we find completely offensive.
“So this faux outrage by Mitt Romney, complaining and whining about the tone of this race, is really completely hypocritical.”
View the complete article at:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2...rginia-speech/