Doug Wilder, black former Va. Governor, slams Biden’s “chains” remark

Not only that, but he claimed once again that Hillary would have been the better veep pick for Obama back in 2008 … and now:

Former Democratic Virginia Governor Doug Wilder offered his criticism in an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer” saying Biden’s remarks were racially-charged.

“First of all, without question they were appeals to race,” Wilder said. “The important thing I got out of this was Biden separated himself from what he accused the people of doing. As a matter of fact, what he said is they are going to do something to y’all, not to me. Not us. So he was still involved with that separate American.”

“As far as I am concerned, the President would not associate himself with those remarks,” he said. “And I expect as the days go forward there will be more clarity associated with what the president feels about what Joe Biden said.”

He also repeated an assertion he’s made previously that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should have been swapped in as President Obama’s vice president. Wilder first made the suggestion in a 2010 op-ed published by Politico.

“As a matter of fact, over eight or nine months ago that it would have been in the president’s bets interest to pick Hillary because-and I’ll go even further,” Wilder said. “If Hillary were on that ticket today based on the job she’s done as secretary of state, I think that would be a clearer advantage the president would be seeing.”

Wilder added, however, “It’s not going to happen. It’s too late. I think she’ll be getting herself together for 2016. But that doesn’t help the president today. What the president need to do it disassociate himself from trying to show anybody that division is what this administration is about as some may have said, ‘cool it,’ ‘back up.”

Both the President himself and top Obama surrogate and Mayor of Newark, NJ Cory Booker have tried to provide “context” for the remarks, with Obama insinuating that no one cares about perceived gaffes outside of Washington insiders – which we know is flat out untrue. That said, this was no gaffe and is exactly the type of rhetoric we heard coming from Obama and his high profile supporters and senior advisors all throughout 2008, and it has no place in civilized debate – and certainly should not be tolerated in the “New Tone” era. I think Wilder is spot on in his criticism of Biden’s injection of race into this campaign – as was Mitt Romney on Tuesday
and GOP veepstakes winner Paul Ryan was yesterday:

“You know, these are the kinds of things you say when you’re desperate in a campaign,” Ryan said of Biden’s comments. “I think you’re going to hear more of these things as we go on because they have a terrible record and can’t run on it so they’re going to kind of sink this campaign to these low levels to distract people.

“To try and you know, stoke the emotions of fear and envy, and it’s just not going to work. People are going to see through this. We’ve gone from hope and change to anger and division and blame and attack and I think people are going to see through this,” he said.

I sure as heck hope so.

8 Responses to "Doug Wilder, black former Va. Governor, slams Biden’s “chains” remark"

Great White Rat says:

August 16, 2012 at 9:47 am

Hillary would have been the better veep pick for Obama back in 2008 … and now

ST, any of your houseplants would make a better veep pick than Slow Joe. There’s no loss in mental capacity or ability, and the plants would be less likely to say something stupid in front of cameras.

Biden serves one, and only one, purpose. He’s Obama’s impeachment insurance.

So basically, Wilder has a keen grasp of the intuitively obvious. But I give him credit to recognize Biden’s race-baiting for what it was and say so honestly, unless so many other Democrats.
Carlos says:

August 16, 2012 at 11:10 am

And why wouldn’t Biden phrase his racism in a way that would jndicate that he would be on the slave owner end of the deal? He’s a Democrat, and that was the position of the Democrats pre-war AND post-war.
Sefton says:

August 16, 2012 at 11:41 am

That said, this was no gaffe and is exactly the type of rhetoric we heard coming from Obama and his high profile supporters and senior advisors all throughout 2008

And Obama is meeting with Biden and Hillary today.
In another thread following Ryan’s pick, I’d mentioned that keeping Biden is dead weight – if not an outright negative to Obama’s re-election. Palin giving her “advice” on replacing Biden with Hillary was actually a brilliant move; forcing the Obama team to check their egos should they be considering it (the last thing they want to admit to is Palin stealing their thunder).
Unfortunately, if a switch is planned, it’s the right move. Romney/Ryan have the momentum and the Obama team is needing a booster shot. Enter Hillary to complete the new “Clinton order”.

But the irony in the above quote is thick. Ostensibly it would be this racial “gaffe” by Biden that broke the stick for the Obama team… and they bring in the woman who they tried to label as a racist in the ’08 campaign? That’s just too rich.

Obviously, I’m jumping the gun here on whether this is the plan for the stumbling Obama team. We’ll see.
Carlos says:

August 16, 2012 at 5:13 pm

Such a move would not only give the jackasses a boost, but it would also set the table for Hillarious to run in 2016, whether that team wins this year or not.

If Slo Joe is dropped and Hillarious picked up, the Republicans should pound Palin’s recommendation long and hard on the airwaves showing that it was them that made the decision for the jackasses because the jackasses are incapable of making decisions that important…
Sefton says:

August 16, 2012 at 6:52 pm

Looks like they’re sticking with Plugs.
I don’t know if it’s because of Obama’s ego or Hillary told him to go pound sand, but I’m betting it was at least considered or suggested by some elements of the campaign staff.
At some future date we may even find out, in Hillary’s memoirs for instance, that they broached this in the meeting today and that she declined the offer. Just because they come out laughing about it now, as if it was even foolish to suggest, tells me that it was probably in play.
Great White Rat says:

August 16, 2012 at 7:03 pm

One of the beautiful aspects to this is that Sarah Palin already opined that the Dems would do better dumping Slow Joe in favor of Hillary. Now, the Dems are caught between a rock and a hard place. If they keep Biden, they’re stuck with an imbecile on the ticket (well, two, but that’s beside the point). If they dump Biden, then they’re in the position of agreeing with Palin and trying to explain that away. Fun times.
Drew the Infidel says:

August 17, 2012 at 3:50 am

“Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs, rather than a fool in his folly.” Proverbs 17:12
Dee-Dee says:

August 19, 2012 at 2:38 pm

I’m confused, what is the difference between the term “shackles” used by the republicans and the term “chains” used by the democratic VP-Biden. By the way, if things don’t change, it’s not an issue of racial chains, it’s an issue of chains of poverty-the clear masters will be the super wealthy. And Gov. Wilder, I disagree with your interpretation of Biden’s statement. There will be two classes: the “wealthy” and the “poor”. GOD help us all.

Comments are closed.