I think that Wade did an excellent job on the helicopter story - anyone who thinks there are clear boundaries of taliban and no-taliban there is crazy. Also it was clear that Kerry's version was the most understated, where he likely minimized the danger, probably to make people less worried and to compliment the troops who did a great job keeping them safe. He spoke of having planes (which I guess were better able to fly in snow than the helicopters above them), making it clear that they weren't sitting there defenseless. But, this was clearly an area that the Senators would not have been approved to visit on the ground.
The Iraq comment was not Bosnia - there was NO attack in Bosnia and the welcome ceremony did take place. Iraq was extremely dangerous and he was clearly not completely save. I don't know the full context of what he said - but they need to get this out. (By the way, Stephanie Cutter was blind sided on this by David Gregory on Hardball, where he quoted from the NYT, and seemed very unprepared.)
"Senator Biden, you told me once that, shortly before the 2004 election, you advised John Kerry to respond harshly to a new Osama bin Laden videotape. You described the conversation this way: “I’m on the phone, I e-mail, I say, ‘John, please, say three things’: ‘How dare bin Laden speak of our president this way.’ No. 2, ‘I know how to deal with preventing another 9/11.’ No. 3, ‘Kill him.’” You then threw up your hands in disgust and said of Senator Kerry, “He didn’t make any of it. Let’s get it straight. None of it.”
This story was entertaining, but it wasn’t strictly accurate. It turned out that you did not, in fact, even speak with Senator Kerry until well after he had issued a vigorous denunciation of bin Laden. This episode is one of several in which you have appeared to exaggerate your importance. Recently, you spoke of being “shot at” in Iraq. This, too, turned out to be false. Why should voters trust you, after you have made so many provably embroidered assertions?
— JEFFREY GOLDBERG, a national correspondent for The Atlantic and the author of “Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/opinion/02veepdebatefortheweb.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=sloginThe fact is that Biden does embroider stories - we complained about it here in 2005. Wade did the best with the coal miner comment, but if it were a joke, he really needs to find a way to clue in even clueless AP writers. He needs to try to avoid adding to this list that they will use against him. The fact though is that he has not come close to the idiotic things Palin, who is kept out of the public has done and Obama is far younger and healthier than McCain. He is an intelligent good guy and he needs to control the storytelling, that made him "folksy".