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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBiden may have meant well but it was a stupid comment...
Last edited Wed Aug 15, 2012, 11:50 AM - Edit history (1)
..."they want to put "y'all" back in chains"...
Come on Joe, don't try to connect with your phony southern syntax. You're from Delaware not Virginny. And enough with the implied slavery.
It just gives the media soundbites that make you look like a crazy grandpa.
Just tell the truth about the rightwing and their destructive ideas without being too hyperbolic that end up as rightwing talking points of stupidity.
On Edit:
Don't I look and feel like a jackass....
I didn't realize the context of Biden's comment. Here I went and posted, like a reactionary, how Biden's comments were hurtful to the Obama campaign because it gives the other side rhetorical ammo to use against them. I didn't realize Biden's comment before the "yall" statement was that "They want to un-shackle Wall St".
I didn't get that context from the radio news I was listening to when I first heard that statement. My bad for thinking the media was being forthright in their reporting of his comments.
In a way it makes my point that the media distorts their message and helps the other side.
My apologies.
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liberal N proud
(60,344 posts)Figuratively or actually, it is what the 1% want to do to the rest of us.
matmar
(593 posts)...if he meant to say what YOU said, then he should have said THAT.
Not give them something to distract away from Ryan's social and economic craziness and Romney's tax evasion.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,361 posts)liberal N proud was using those terms to refer to what Biden said. He couldn't have said "they want to do that"; he had to specifiy what he was talking about.
BeyondGeography
(39,379 posts)liberallibral
(272 posts)We don't need crap like that to beat these idiots.....
99Forever
(14,524 posts)...coincidence!
The Team Mittwitt talking point is what an awful thing Joe Biden said and now you are here telling us the same thing.
Fascinating.
Enjoy your stay.
GoneOffShore
(17,340 posts)And he was spot on with the comment.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)GoneOffShore
(17,340 posts)And yes, I've heard "Y'all" in both Kent and Sussex counties and down around St. Georges. Any time you go south and west of the New Castle County Airport you're in the South (well, except for some bits of Rehobeth).
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)GoneOffShore
(17,340 posts)
Warpy
(111,339 posts)There are all sorts of chains but the invisible chains of poverty, debt, and hopelessness are the worst.
When the Republicans start to shriek in pain, it means someone told them the truth. I hope Biden keeps telling them the truth. I would hope we'd all have the courage to tell the truth.
fredamae
(4,458 posts)nor are they offensive. It is the consequence(s) of electing a GOP majority and their plans for austerity in tandem with corporate benefits and wall street wealth. I saw no racial undertones, I saw Predictions that affect each of us, regardless of gender, race, politics and religion. WE too message the same because it is true.
WI_DEM
(33,497 posts)undisciplined. He should stick, however, with what he said the other day in NC, that there is no guts in cutting Medicare and then cutting taxes for the rich.
bigtree
(86,005 posts)It's worse than that. What they intend legislatively threatens actual lives and they are seemingly unmoved. I attribute much of it to ignorance, but their actions and expressions are anything but benign. These elections have real-world consequences and the dangerousness of this breed of republicans we're opposing can't be easily overstated.
matmar
(593 posts)...making statements (that we on the left see nuance in) that look like ramblings from your crazy grandpa (because that's how the media will portray them) is not going to help get those votes.
Go after Ryan/Romney with their own histories and try not to give the other side a distraction.
fredamae
(4,458 posts)antidote to the GOP Poison is the Truth. We have a choice-try to walk on eggs around the pure facts and "play" by their "psychological games"/rules OR we can allow our candidates to do what we've been criticizing them for Not doing the past four years-to Confront the BS with the truth.
If people are concerned about the MSM contradictions to the truth? No matter what we do and say, that will happen-only 5 or 6 people own all of the media and they ain't on our side.
So do we continue to bury Our heads, stay silent and "hope" people will see the truth or do we announce and educate?
matmar
(593 posts)Tell about how NAFTA style trade deals have killed jobs. Tell about how the tax code is unfair to those on the bottom. Tell how Labor Unions provide a better standard of living.
Educate the middle.
fredamae
(4,458 posts)2pooped2pop
(5,420 posts)on any little thing like this because they have little in actual fact to use against them. They have to try and make this a big deal. Or a bigFNdeal at that. lol
matmar
(593 posts)2pooped2pop
(5,420 posts)sometimes that leads to what some may consider political gaffes. This is no big deal.
Since we know the Rmoney team will be just as happy to splice a piece together to make something look like a gaffe, ie Obama's half told "you didn't build that" it really isn't going to make a difference.
though I do imagine Joe will try to word it better for you next time anyway.
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)
spanone
(135,873 posts)
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)No apologies, no regret, no "explanation," no admission of "error."
We all know what the real outrage is...
This is just a dumb distraction to keep the focus off the disastrous Romney campaign and VP pick. It is a fabricated issue.
Botany
(70,581 posts)Biden said nothing wrong and this "outrage" has 1 purpose and that is
to take the focus off of what the Veep was talking about which was
regulations for the financial industry.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)
mac56
(17,574 posts)
matmar
(593 posts)Concern for giving the other side ammo when they don't have any is being a troll?
Get real.
mac56
(17,574 posts)Please continue.
Raffi Ella
(4,465 posts)And sometimes using a southern syntax makes a point like nothing else could. Sort of like a well placed 'Fuck' now and then, sometimes that's exactly what's needed to make a point.
Fuck Romney Ryan.
matmar
(593 posts)But the media doesn't do nuance.
I heard on Sirius Left at the top of the last hour how the "news" reported Joe Biden's comment.
No context, no nuance. So for those who are "undecided" it sounded like a stupid comment.
We're fighting for the "undecided" middle.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)comments. I don't dig that elitist bull shit. People understand clear talk, and people know that debt and economic doldrums do chain us and do take from us our liberty. If you think others don't know that, you need to get out more.
matmar
(593 posts)...Maybe I do need to "get out more" but watching how the media portrays statements that could be perceived as off-the-wall by those who don't pay attention to politics isn't "elitist".
Remember how they portrayed Howard Dean's so called "scream"?
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)The Romney supporter who said 'the common people just don't understand' was saying exactly what you are saying, looking down one's nose at others with a smug certainty of superior understanding is elitist as it gets. To buy into your theory here, I'd have to agree that you are very insightful while others are too stupid to understand simple English. I don't buy that at all.
Joe was spot on. I loved it.
And I can tell that your actual experience with media begins and ends with consumption of media. Eat it up, yummmm!
RedStateLiberal
(1,374 posts)One cannot choose what the media focuses on. The Romney campaign made an issue of Biden using the term "put in chains" even though he was responding to their own statements of wanting to "un-shackle" Wall Street from regulations.
Yes, Biden used a different word, but it was the manufactured outrage of the Romney campaign who made an issue out of something no reasonable person would find to be a gaffe or out of line in any way. They did so to get media attention and the conflict-obsessed media is happily obliging.
Biden did nothing wrong. It's the media that is the problem.
matmar
(593 posts)Rhetorically speaking.
We need Obama to wipe the floor with these clowns and I know how skillful the rightwing is at lies, obfuscation and destraction.
RedStateLiberal
(1,374 posts)..using the word chains instead of shackles is hardly throwing the other side a life ring. Their outrage over Biden's line is complete bullshit. They saw it as an opportunity to race-bait and drum up controversy and the media loves that.
The right-wing noise machine will make an issue out of anything and everything they can use to pretend they're somehow offended to play the victim. That's what they do. Our side shouldn't edit ourselves out of fear of that kind of deception because they're going to do that no matter what.
Maeve
(42,288 posts)Just before that he said (in essence, don't have the transcript in front of me) "they say they want to 'unchain' business"--noting that the R's want to deregulate (like that worked the last time!).
Raffi Ella
(4,465 posts)In my opinion, the more people who hear what Biden said the better! You're acting like he should be ashamed of himself, that WE should be ashamed of him - I'm not, not in any way shape or form.
Joe Biden is a stand up guy, one of the best. The people that don't get what he meant by chains are the people who don't WANT to get it and never will, simple as that.
In any case, your concern is noted and while not dismissed? rather tiring at this point. If you want to continue to try to shame Biden be my guest but don't expect me to help you out with that.
Are_grits_groceries
(17,111 posts)it was spoken as if he had said it all his life. It wasn't jarring and out of place. This was in direct contrast to Mittens and his cheesy grits. He sounded like he was reading from his hand and got it wrong.
I have heard people from the South who have said y'all with less aplomb.
matmar
(593 posts)
DevonRex
(22,541 posts)I've never said cheesy grits in my life. It's cheese grits. And Joe used y'all correctly. Plural.
gollygee
(22,336 posts)Why is it every time Obama or Biden get an edge, we have people post about how they shouldn't have done or said whatever they did or said? Hmmm.
Obviously he meant "in chains" figuratively, and he's right.
Sometimes people miss even the glaringly obvious.
matmar
(593 posts)...because they know what Biden meant?
Do you not see how they lie about how Obama "stole" money from Medicare to pay for the ACA?
This isn't about you or me or those of us on the left that pay attention to politics.
It's about not gibing the other side something to talk about that distracts from the real issues.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)say 'us' when he and other wealthy people will not be chained to debt and a dying economy, WE will be.
Joe was perfectly on message. Your editorializing will not alter that fact.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)people who will be (mock) offended are those who weren't planning to vote for Obama\Biden anyway.
Delaware (Biden's state) was a border state where slavery was legal, so a 'yall' isn't 'phony southern Syntax'. In fact, it's not syntax at all, it's dialect.
But thanks for your concern.
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)And it's a dumb comment when anyone on our side references slavery for red meat rhetoric.
To use the experiences of slaves as figurative references to make a point diminishes that very real history.
CabCurious
(954 posts)
1-Old-Man
(2,667 posts)and it had the extra advantage of being true.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)either way. People expect gaffes and wild overstatements from him, so whatever he says will be taken in that context.
global1
(25,270 posts)Tommy_Carcetti
(43,198 posts)As I've always said, Joe Biden is one of the most underestimated minds in DC. And that can be an advantage at crucial times.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)if they worried every frame and meme they'd be paralyzed.
And for the record, he spoke the truth, why the other side is reacting the way it is
randome
(34,845 posts)It seems that some here on DU are making more of this than they should.
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)phleshdef
(11,936 posts)I'm sick of this kind of feckless bullshit invading the discourse among Democrats. We yell about spine, but stuff like this OP is exactly why we come out looking like we don't have one.
I applaud his comment. I applaud the way he said it. I want him to say it again, and again, and again, and again. Because its true. Its accurate. Its appropriate. And it matters.
Sheepshank
(12,504 posts)This is what a critic can come up with?
Fuck that. The REAL message however, has come across loud and clear.
railsback
(1,881 posts)As Lawrence O'Donnell said this morning, 'it's NOT news'.
jillan
(39,451 posts)WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)Turn off your television.
Now.
datasuspect
(26,591 posts)thank you for your concern.
Bake
(21,977 posts)Poverty is slavery. There is no difference. That's where the Thugs want us.
Bake
Proles
(466 posts)many years. They say something daring, and despite it actually being true (unlike the daring, blatant lies of the GOP), people even from within their own party label the comment as "inappropriate."
For a change, the Dem's need to let go of political correctness, and just go on a full frontal assault against the party that wants to destroy the middle class. Too much is at stake, and people need to hear just how frightening the prospect of a new republican presidency would be.
Fact of the matter is, the GOP does want to put us in chains. They want the poor and middle class to be wage slaves working for corporations at the smallest wages possible, with no benefits or regulations. That's their dream.
