For Obama, Biden’s Most Qualifying Characteristic Is The Fact That He Rides Amtrak

• August 26, 2008

Obama says it wasn’t Biden’s foreign policy experience that made let him to choose the Delaware Senator as his running mate, but rather the fact that Biden rides Amtrak home from work every day.

“People talk a lot about Joe’s foreign policy experience,” the Illinois senator told an audience of mostly undecided Republicans and Independents.
“And its true, he’s chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he knows world leaders, he can be a wonderful counselor and adviser. People talk about all the experience he has in Washington, and that’s true he’s been chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he helped pass the Violence Against Women Act, he helped pass the 1994 crime bill that put 100,000 more cops on the streets. He knows how to get things done in Washington.”
“But you know the most important thing about Joe Biden?” Obama continued. “He’s never forgotten where he came from. He’s from a working class family that he still takes the train back every night to Delaware to spend it with his family.”

Call me cranky, but the fact that Biden rides the rail of a boondoggle passenger train service that has never been solvent and bilks citizens out of tax dollars at a current $2 billion/year clip as a way to pander to the Amtrak and railroad union employees in his home state is hardly an endearing quality.
Pandering and wasteful government spending aren’t examples of change we can believe in.

Tags: Asshats, Domestic Issues, Politics, The Loony Left

http://Array Lestat

Kenny cares what Rob thinks of him. I give a shit. He read the same article and got the same message, yet he chose to try to change it.

He is a liar.
http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/ goon

Rob the left loves AMTRAK, Dorgonoff is a be fan of it.
Hannitized

Ok, both Lestat and Kenny made the point…i don’t need to beat a dead horse.

But don’t get your hopes up Kenny, Rob isn’t going to let reality get in the way of his personal attack. This isn’t about making a point, it’s about making an attack.

You had to know that, didn’t you?
Hannitized

Pay attention here, Hannitized! There’ll be a quiz later.

Betcha 5 bucks a polite and respectful disagreement matters not to Rob. I have seen on several occasions where that approach is returned with insult or smart-asses smarminess.

You really have an interpretation of this site and its bloggers that is unrealistic Bat.
Bat One

I’m intrigued with the notion of Joe Biden as some sort of expert at foreign policy. Why? On what basis was it decided to market this? What has Biden ever done to merit the label of “foreign policy expert” anyway?
http://www.willisms.com/ Zsa Zsa

HA! His qualifications are getting better all the time. That is so funny!
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

I understand that AMTRAK takes billions of dollars of subsidies. Why are we subsidizing a man of Biden’s means?

Just another freeloader unwilling to pay his own way.
Bat One

Whistler,

Look at it this way, Joe Biden could have been doing a whole lot more to undermine our republican form of self-governance and our free-market economy. The fact that he hasn’t really done much of anything, like John Kerry for example, could easily be counted a blessing in disguise.
Bat One

Interesting to “contrast and compare” the two styles of disagreement with the thrust of Rob’s post.

Lestat, who cannot manage to object to Rob’s interpretation without calling him a liar, and Kenny, who voices the same disagreement in a respectful, non-disagreeable manner.

Pay attention here, Hannitized! There’ll be a quiz later.
http://insanereindeer.blogspot.com/ Kenny

Unfortunately Rob, I took the same thing away from the article as Lestat did. Obama’s talking about his commitment to his family. And not forgetting where he comes from. The train only gets passing mention.
http://www.valleydeals.com/cgi-bin/board2/YaBB.pl Kevin

How many “frequent rider” miles does Joe have?
http://insanereindeer.blogspot.com/ Kenny

Let’s see how it goes. The last 5 or 6 comments you directed at me were nothing more than trying to access an argument you had not engagement in and you tried to make me look foolish.

The last comment, before this thread, was an attempt to see why I was wrong…even though I agreed with you…on the McCain housing issue. (You never answered btw.) The last time I talked to you before that was in a private IM, where you continued to call me a liar after I proved you wrong in a thread. And in that thread I simply pointed out that you used someone proving you wrong to claim you were correct.

Regardless, TWICE, I have agreed to civility if it was returned. I have no silly belief you will follow through this time. If you do, great, and I will publically praise you for it. But the burden is on you this time.
Bat One

You really have an interpretation of this site and its bloggers that is unrealistic Bat.

H,

Not really. Its just that I’m not afflicted with either partisan myopia or adolescence.
Hannitized

Kenny sees no reason to be a dick.

Kenny shows me that side of himself, quite often as a matter of fact. It may not come with curse words, it may not come with four letter words (all the time) but it is always laced with a lot of dickishness that is something far removed from cordial or polite disagreement.

Am I wrong Kenny?
http://insanereindeer.blogspot.com/ Kenny

Am I wrong Kenny?

Yea, you are actually. I’m rude to you because you repeatedly call me a liar, and a right wing hack. I dislike my character being attacked. When you first arrived here, I was more than civil to you, and even defended you on a few occasions. In return, I got insults and rudeness. So I decided you were no longer worth being nice to.

I really don’t know what you expect man. You’re a complete prick to me, and even on the occasions when I try to be civil and explain things to you, you call me stupid. As I’ve told you REPEATEDLY, if you quit being a jackass, debate respectfully, and admit when you’re wrong, I will be nicer. And while I can’t promise it, the rest of the people here will MOST LIKELY be nicer too. No one else here gets the kind of scorn you do, not RBB, not Mike, not even Lestat. Why? Because no one else is as big of a jerk as you are. I used to respectfully disagree with you too. Til you started calling me names that is.
http://insanereindeer.blogspot.com/ Kenny

Kenny cares what Rob thinks of him. I give a shit. He read the same article and got the same message, yet he chose to try to change it.
He is a liar.

Kenny sees no reason to be a dick.

Lestat decides that being a fuckhead both to Rob and to Kenny, who is agreeing with him by the way, makes more sense.
http://insanereindeer.blogspot.com/ Kenny

So, you guys are saying Biden doesn’t ride the train to pander to the significant number in his constituency who work for Amtrak and/or the railroads? And that such pandering does expand to Biden’s support of rampant bailouts of Amtrak?

Rob,

I’d never heard that Biden rode the train til now. How could it be pandering? Heaven forbid he rides it for convenience. Or cost. Or because he likes the people on Amtrak. Or hell, even if he rides it to curry votes.

That was not your original point.

You claimed Obama praised Biden because he rode Amtrak. He didn’t. He praised Biden because he was a man who loved his family and hadn’t forgotten where he came from.
Hannitized

Rob,

That was a feeble attempt to ask a question while making a statement to bash liberals in the same breath.

Some people believe, particularly liberals is that the point of the story is to suggest is a regular guy and that is why he rides the train. Nobody but you and your buds think it is pandering.

This is why a liberal never wins with you. If they drive an SUV, they are hypocrite, if they take a bus or train they are pandering. If they drove a hybrid they would be a phony panderer as well, I am sure.

Why don’t you just start a blog that says “I hate libruls….in a hunderd ways”.
http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

Actually, the route Biden takes at least used to be said to be one of very few where Amtrak either broke even, or even turned a slight profit. I don’t know what the situation is today with Acela (which did use huge subsidies to at least get started), but we’re not talking about the Zephyr or the Empire Builder here in terms of subsidies.

Now when we talk about being “the common man,” though, I do think that a guy who buys two train tickets at $50-$100 apiece each day just might not be that in touch with the working class. That’s what the ride from Wilmington to DC costs–$40-$50 on regular trains, $97 on Acela.

Glad to see him get extra time to work, and get extra time with his family. However, this doesn’t prove he’s a man of the people–closer to the opposite, really.
Hannitized

Ok Kenny,

Let’s see how it goes. The last 5 or 6 comments you directed at me were nothing more than trying to access an argument you had not engagement in and you tried to make me look foolish.

Let’s see how it goes.

Btw, is it reasonable to say that white people will vote for McCain, because they are white?
Bat One

It is a 100 mile drive. That gives him at least another 3 hours to work.

Seems to me that train ought to be a whole lot faster given the enormous taxpayer subsidy that Amtrack gobbles up every year.

If he drove he probably couldn’t afford to go home every night because he would have to use the time to work.

So what has he been working on so diligently? Joe Biden’s list of legislative accomplishments is as paltry as John Kerry’s.
Lestat

I think that the point was that he is a family man, not that he rides the train.

But I understand, lying is second nature to you.
Hannitized

Seems to me that train ought to be a whole lot faster given the enormous taxpayer subsidy that Amtrack gobbles up every year.

I agree Bat. I think the train should also produce oxygen while it travels with all that money we spend on it. I mean, it could also run over coal and crush them into diamonds too.
Hawk

So, you guys are saying Biden doesn’t ride the train to pander to the significant number in his constituency who work for Amtrak and/or the railroads?

He has been doing it for over 25 years. He does it because you can actually read and work on the train, while if you drive you cannot. It is a 100 mile drive. That gives him at least another 3 hours to work. If he drove he probably couldn’t afford to go home every night because he would have to use the time to work.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

So, you guys are saying Biden doesn’t ride the train to pander to the significant number in his constituency who work for Amtrak and/or the railroads? And that such pandering does expand to Biden’s support of rampant bailouts of Amtrak?

Something you liberals would hate if Amtrak were a profitable corporation and not the government-subsidized employer of unionized workers.

SayAnythingBlog.com

For Obama, Biden’s Most Qualifying Characteristic Is The Fact That He Rides Amtrak

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