How come the media is not going after Biden they way they are going after Palin?

ProfJohn

Lifer
Jul 28, 2006
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We know everything Palin has ever done in her life, but the media seems to be completely ignoring Biden and his sons lobbying.

If the fact that Palin asked for earmarks hurts McCain's ability to fight against earmarks wouldn't the fact that Biden's son is a lobbyist hurt Obama's anti-lobbyist argument??

Let's also not forget the earmark money that Obama steered towards one of Biden's sons.

If Obama wants to talk about change then he should understand that Biden is exactly the kind of Washington insider that we need to change.
35 years in office.
One son serves as AG for Delaware.
The other is the founder of a lobbying firm.

How is electing a life long politician who has turned politics into the family business 'change'?
link
If Barack Obama really wants to fix "the broken politics of Washington," he could start with his running mate, Beltway insider Joe Biden.

Indeed, the Delaware senator's Capitol Hill seniority has proven to be a dividend to his family - including his son, Hunter, a multimillion-dollar DC lobbyist.

As The Los Angeles Times reported, Hunter Biden and his uncle - Joe Biden's brother - got $2 million in financing (to buy a premium hedge fund) from a law firm that has lobbied the senator's office on a key bill, and benefited nicely from Biden's vote.

That firm, SimmonsCooper - one of the nation's leading tort-law firms - used as its local counsel in Delaware a law firm whose partners included another Biden son, Beau, who'd obtained the contract.

SimmonsCooper and the Biden family are old friends, the paper reports.

The firm and its employees have given more than $200,000 to Joe Biden's campaigns - his largest contributor. Biden is the biggest recipient of SimmonsCooper's largesse.

Those donations began after Biden fought efforts by the asbestos industry to get lawsuits against it out of court by creating a trust fund to handle mesothelioma claims. SimmonsCooper spent $6.4 million lobbying senators, including Biden, to kill the plan.
link 2
Sen. Barack Obama sought more than $3.4 million in congressional earmarks for clients of the lobbyist son of his Democratic running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, records show. Obama succeeded in getting $192,000 for one of the clients, St. Xavier University in suburban Chicago.
Much longer article at link.
 

Double Trouble

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
9,272
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Biden is pretty much "business as usual" in Washington, so there's not much in the way of ratings to be had going after him. Palin on the other hand is a newsmaker and surrounded by buzz right now. That, and we all know that given a choice the vast majority of the media, since they lean to the left, would rather focus on trying to smear Palin than Biden.
 

Double Trouble

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Originally posted by: Double Trouble
Biden is pretty much "business as usual" in Washington.
Just like McCain

Yep, absolutely. I don't see how either Biden or McCain could say with a straight face that after a million years in Washington that they are not "business as usual". They can say that as president they're going to try to change things, but still...
 

ProfJohn

Lifer
Jul 28, 2006
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Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Originally posted by: Double Trouble
Biden is pretty much "business as usual" in Washington.
Just like McCain
Really? McCain has lobbyist sons?

How much in earmarks did McCain ask for in 2008?
 

Dari

Lifer
Oct 25, 2002
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38
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Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Originally posted by: Double Trouble
Biden is pretty much "business as usual" in Washington.
Just like McCain
Really? McCain has lobbyist sons?

How much in earmarks did McCain ask for in 2008?

His campaign is filled with lobbyists. He isn't fooling anyone. It's all just campaign talk.
 

Lemon law

Lifer
Nov 6, 2005
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Biden is a well known quantity and has been in Senate for 30 plus years. In short, he is well explored by the press.

Sarah Palin may be old news in Alaska, but she is almost total unknown to the national press. And if we want to talk about Pit bulls, the Alaska press may be better described as toothless, and the national press
as more of a pack of toothy pit bulls, trying to bring down a Moose. Or maybe you like shark analogies better, they already smell blood in the water, and its a feeding frenzy.

PJ, you may be right, its unfair, but the GOP is not always the beneficiary of favorable press, and as ole Harry Truman said, if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

McCain could have picked a more well known national figure and all this would not be happening. But McCain made an audacious gamble, and sometimes audacious gambles lose the farm.
 

heyheybooboo

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2007
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Title: How come the media is not going after Biden they way they are going after Palin?

Joe Biden was on Meet The Press this morning.

When will Governor Palin be on MTP ???
 

Pens1566

Lifer
Oct 11, 2005
11,480
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Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
Title: How come the media is not going after Biden they way they are going after Palin?

Joe Biden was on Meet The Press this morning.

When will Governor Palin be on MTP ???

Hold your breath on that one .... see how it works out for ya.
 

Lemon law

Lifer
Nov 6, 2005
20,984
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When it comes down to a scripted event like the RNC, Palin can write her own script.

But when it comes down to something like meet the press, the moderators may not ask Palin or any guest the killer hard ball questions, but they won't let it turn into an a campaign rally either.

On meet the press, I was pleasantly surprised to see a somewhat newly packaged Biden, an elder Stateman not a fixing to rip into Palin and risk a sympathy backlash, but quite ready to give Sarah enough rope to hang herself with when the debates come. We will see what happens when a barracuda tries to eat a Biden, Sarah is likely to discover she is not in Alaska anymore.
 

BMW540I6speed

Golden Member
Aug 26, 2005
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Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
Title: How come the media is not going after Biden they way they are going after Palin?

Joe Biden was on Meet The Press this morning.

When will Governor Palin be on MTP ???

If Sarah Palin were ready to confront the hosts of the Sunday political shows she would have been sent onto the talk show circuit by now with the McCain campaign's blessing.

This whole sorry display is part and parcel of the Republican Party's media shell game. The McCain campaign is using the media as a foil to energize the Republican base while deflecting media attention from Sarah Palin's lack of knowledge and readiness. These people may be cynical and shallow but they're far from stupid. They know exactly how to tap into the deep well of resentement and feelings of victimhood in their conservative and Evangelical voters.

McCain's handlers will cast Governor Palin as the victim of a biased media smear campaign designed to tear down the McCain-Palin ticket in particular and the Republican Party in general. Tough questions will be ignored or spun back at the interviewers as "unfair", "scurrilous" and will be projected back at the media, Barack Obama, liberals, et al. The fact that Senator McCain has been a darling of the national press corps for two decades will be conveniently ignored.

Meanwhile, Governor Palin will read from scripts at campaign rallies and fundraising events in front of friendly audiences where nosy reporters can be ignored, dodged or easily wrangled if they try to ask "unfair" questions about Palin's family, policy positions and ethics. Republican media hacks will dutifully adhere to their directives and talk about how Governor Palin will be taking her message directly to the people, rather than having it distorted by the slanted coverage of the "mainstream" media
 

Bowfinger

Lifer
Nov 17, 2002
15,776
392
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Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
Title: How come the media is not going after Biden they way they are going after Palin?

Joe Biden was on Meet The Press this morning.

When will Governor Palin be on MTP ???
Yeah, that's pretty outrageous, and a perfect example of the contempt Bush/Cheney/McCain/Palin hold for the American people. That one decision, as much as anything, leads me to believe McCain/Palin will just be four more years of the last eight years. Change? Yeah, whatever.
 

bctbct

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 2005
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Title: How come the media is not going after Biden they way they are going after Palin?


He's qualified and she's not. You can come up with all kinds of reasons that she is being picked on etc., but in the end....she was picked for the emotional voters.
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
348
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Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Originally posted by: Double Trouble
Biden is pretty much "business as usual" in Washington.
Just like McCain
Really? McCain has lobbyist sons?

What do their children have to do with them, unless they are abusing their power to help their children - like Scalia's son getting appointed to a senior labor position, even though his background is as an enemy of labor? There are plenty of other Republican children who have had questionable appointments you will never see in a PJ post.

If this were a McCain child, you would be arguing it's a non-issue IMO.
 

ProfJohn

Lifer
Jul 28, 2006
18,251
8
0
Originally posted by: Tab
Lobbying is bad because? :confused:
Because Obama has been talking about how bad it is all year.
Refused to take money from lobbyists.
Attacks McCain because he has former lobbyists working for him.

But all of this went out the window the second he picked Biden it seems.
 

CallMeJoe

Diamond Member
Jul 30, 2004
6,938
5
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Originally posted by: BMW540I6speed
Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
Title: How come the media is not going after Biden they way they are going after Palin?
Joe Biden was on Meet The Press this morning.
When will Governor Palin be on MTP ???
If Sarah Palin were ready to confront the hosts of the Sunday political shows she would have been sent onto the talk show circuit by now with the McCain campaign's blessing.

This whole sorry display is part and parcel of the Republican Party's media shell game. The McCain campaign is using the media as a foil to energize the Republican base while deflecting media attention from Sarah Palin's lack of knowledge and readiness. These people may be cynical and shallow but they're far from stupid. They know exactly how to tap into the deep well of resentement and feelings of victimhood in their conservative and Evangelical voters.

McCain's handlers will cast Governor Palin as the victim of a biased media smear campaign designed to tear down the McCain-Palin ticket in particular and the Republican Party in general. Tough questions will be ignored or spun back at the interviewers as "unfair", "scurrilous" and will be projected back at the media, Barack Obama, liberals, et al. The fact that Senator McCain has been a darling of the national press corps for two decades will be conveniently ignored.

Meanwhile, Governor Palin will read from scripts at campaign rallies and fundraising events in front of friendly audiences where nosy reporters can be ignored, dodged or easily wrangled if they try to ask "unfair" questions about Palin's family, policy positions and ethics. Republican media hacks will dutifully adhere to their directives and talk about how Governor Palin will be taking her message directly to the people, rather than having it distorted by the slanted coverage of the "mainstream" media
It appears that Governor Palin will be carefully shielded from all questions for the time being. She is being intensively "briefed" by the campaign, and will start to speak to the press when her handlers are confident she will stay on message, and deliver the campaign line rather than her personal views. Until then, she will make her carefully scripted appearances with Senator McCain while the campaign spins her "abuse" by the press.

Meanwhile, the campaign will employ the BS smears spewing forth from the "blogosphere" to reinforce her "victimhood", using her abuse by the "liberals" to color all criticism of her record and views. In this way, her most fervent attackers are also her most valuable tools.
 

Red Dawn

Elite Member
Jun 4, 2001
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Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Originally posted by: Tab
Lobbying is bad because? :confused:
Because Obama has been talking about how bad it is all year.
Refused to take money from lobbyists.
Attacks McCain because he has former lobbyists working for him.

But all of this went out the window the second he picked Biden it seems.
Because of his son?
 

WHAMPOM

Diamond Member
Feb 28, 2006
7,628
183
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Originally posted by: ProfJohn
We know everything Palin has ever done in her life, but the media seems to be completely ignoring Biden and his sons lobbying.

If the fact that Palin asked for earmarks hurts McCain's ability to fight against earmarks wouldn't the fact that Biden's son is a lobbyist hurt Obama's anti-lobbyist argument??

Let's also not forget the earmark money that Obama steered towards one of Biden's sons.

If Obama wants to talk about change then he should understand that Biden is exactly the kind of Washington insider that we need to change.
35 years in office.
One son serves as AG for Delaware.
The other is the founder of a lobbying firm.

How is electing a life long politician who has turned politics into the family business 'change'?
link
If Barack Obama really wants to fix "the broken politics of Washington," he could start with his running mate, Beltway insider Joe Biden.

Indeed, the Delaware senator's Capitol Hill seniority has proven to be a dividend to his family - including his son, Hunter, a multimillion-dollar DC lobbyist.

As The Los Angeles Times reported, Hunter Biden and his uncle - Joe Biden's brother - got $2 million in financing (to buy a premium hedge fund) from a law firm that has lobbied the senator's office on a key bill, and benefited nicely from Biden's vote.

That firm, SimmonsCooper - one of the nation's leading tort-law firms - used as its local counsel in Delaware a law firm whose partners included another Biden son, Beau, who'd obtained the contract.

SimmonsCooper and the Biden family are old friends, the paper reports.

The firm and its employees have given more than $200,000 to Joe Biden's campaigns - his largest contributor. Biden is the biggest recipient of SimmonsCooper's largesse.

Those donations began after Biden fought efforts by the asbestos industry to get lawsuits against it out of court by creating a trust fund to handle mesothelioma claims. SimmonsCooper spent $6.4 million lobbying senators, including Biden, to kill the plan.
link 2
Sen. Barack Obama sought more than $3.4 million in congressional earmarks for clients of the lobbyist son of his Democratic running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, records show. Obama succeeded in getting $192,000 for one of the clients, St. Xavier University in suburban Chicago.
Much longer article at link.

Biden old news, Palin new news. You're just afraid of what they will dig up on Palin.
 

ProfJohn

Lifer
Jul 28, 2006
18,251
8
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Originally posted by: Craig234
What do their children have to do with them, unless they are abusing their power to help their children - like Scalia's son getting appointed to a senior labor position, even though his background is as an enemy of labor? There are plenty of other Republican children who have had questionable appointments you will never see in a PJ post.

If this were a McCain child, you would be arguing it's a non-issue IMO.
Well I just figured since we made Palin's kids such a big deal we could do the same of Biden's right?

Really though, Biden has spent most of his life in Washington. He has kids who followed him into politics.
He is exactly the type of Washington/political insider that Obama has been running against all year.

If we want to change Washington we need to get rid of the career politicians and the family ties and all the other crap that goes on in DC.
 

heyheybooboo

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2007
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Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Originally posted by: Craig234
What do their children have to do with them, unless they are abusing their power to help their children - like Scalia's son getting appointed to a senior labor position, even though his background is as an enemy of labor? There are plenty of other Republican children who have had questionable appointments you will never see in a PJ post.

If this were a McCain child, you would be arguing it's a non-issue IMO.

If we want to change Washington we need to fool the American people into thinking the Republican party was not responsible for the last 8 years and hide all the other crap that they did.

Fixed.

 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
348
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Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Originally posted by: Craig234
What do their children have to do with them, unless they are abusing their power to help their children - like Scalia's son getting appointed to a senior labor position, even though his background is as an enemy of labor? There are plenty of other Republican children who have had questionable appointments you will never see in a PJ post.

If this were a McCain child, you would be arguing it's a non-issue IMO.
Well I just figured since we made Palin's kids such a big deal we could do the same of Biden's right?

*New news* that her *teen daughter* was pregnant when teen pregnancy is a political issue, and her policies on teen pregnancy are relevant, is not anything like Biden's child being a lobbyist. It's not you mentioning the child as a lobbyist that's an issue - that's appropriate as one of the facts - it's your trying to say that Biden is bad because of it.

If Obama's kid were older and arrested for dealing drugs - or got pregnant at 17 - it'd be news too.

Your point was completely worthless in attacking Biden, and hypocritical given the difference in the way you treat the issues based on party.

Really though, Biden has spent most of his life in Washington. He has kids who followed him into politics.
He is exactly the type of Washington/political insider that Obama has been running against all year.

No, he's not. You confuse the superficial - 'been in Washington' with the substance - being part of the corrupt machinery of the corporatocracy, the 'power of the few' over the public.

Biden has long been a champion of the average American AGAINST the corporatocracy - he's part of the change people are wanting. Obama passed up offers from big law firms to make big bugs to serve the public for a lot less money, with the public agenda against the corporatocracy - he's part of the change to the Washington culture.

It's McCain, one of the most lobbyist-friendly, lobbyist-connected, lobbyist-dominated Senators, and Palin, an enabler of the corporatocracy with her right-wing extremism, who represent the continuation of the corporatist agenda that has been represesented the last 25 years, since Reagan, with only a slight reduction with Clinton.

If we want to change Washington we need to get rid of the career politicians and the family ties and all the other crap that goes on in DC.

You're totally wrong on the issue there. It's not about who is a 'career politician'. Bernie Saunders is a 'career politician'. Ted Kennedy is. They are not about representing the corporatocracy. If you got rid of the long-time politicians, all you would do is to allow anonymous puppets of the corporatocracy to replace them and wield power for their masters, LESS accountable. You just don't know what the change needed is. Anyone calling for 'change' by replacing Bush with McCain doesn't understand the need for change.
 

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,945
122
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..obvious to the most casual observer the media is in the tank for the obama.