Senator Joe Biden has been overshadowed by Governor Sarah Palin of late. Maybe he’s looking for something, anything, to get himself back in the news. I don’t think his latest comments were the kind of news he wanted, though.
Watch the following statement Biden made to CBS Evening News’ Katie Couric and see if you notice anything wrong with them. Hint: the stock market crash he was referring to occurred in October 1929.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnKcRo8DNYY[/youtube]
In case you missed the gaffes, here’s a transcript of Biden’s statements in this video:
Part of what being a leader does is to instill confidence, is demonstrate that he or she knows what they’re talking about and to communicates to people. If you listed to me and follow what I’m suggesting we can fix this. When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, “Look, here’s what happened.”
So Biden’s instilling confidence, right? Let’s go back in history. Who was President in 1929? If you answered Herbert Hoover you would be correct (FDR wasn’t elected until 1932).
Now about FDR getting on television . . . let’s research that. Philo Farnsworth made the world’s first working television system. He first demonstrated it to news media on September 1, 1928 and later to the public at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on August 25, 1934. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t 1934 come after 1929?
But I guess we can say that’s leadership Biden-style. Stay tuned for the next episode of the Biden Gaffe Machine, which, thanks to the marvel of television, will be coming to a screen near you. I wonder what he’ll say next?
Thanks for sharing the video – I was looking for it and added it to my blog.
My advice is to think/research before parroting what you read somewhere else.
Granted Biden slipped up and said ‘television’ instead of radio, but there was no indication that he was referring to the 1929 crash in particular. He was most likely referring to FDR’s speeches such as this one about the associated 1933 Bank Crisis: http://www.mhric.org/fdr/chat1.html
F. Must try harder.
Tryharder –
I’m sure Biden would have “clarified” if that is what he meant.
Sort of like how he “clarified” his story where he claimed he was “shot at”.