Joe Biden talking about the middle class archived

This is funny, given that the fundraiser was hosted by John Kerry at Kerry's $5,000,000 Georgetown home (I guess his $7,000,000 yacht was in drydock). Yum, grass fed beef and truffled mashed potatoes! "These guys don't have a sense of average folks out there". I'm not surprised the mass media didn't point out this being as funny as Romney saying he knows people who own NASCAR teams . . .

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/biden-hails-middle-class-wealthy-fundraiser/424931

Vice President Joe Biden addressed 87 wealthy Democrats last night attending a fundraiser at the home of Sen. John Kerry in Georgetown. As they dined on grass-fed New York strip steaks and white truffle mashed potatos underneath a outdoor tent, Biden criticized Republicans for being out of touch.

“These guys don’t have a sense of the average folks out there,” Biden said according to the pool report, “They don’t know what it means to be middle class.”

87 guests paid a minimum of $10,000-per-couple to attend the dinner.

In fairness, John Kerry would be no better than upper middle class if it weren't for his ketchup bride.

RobB said:

In fairness, John Kerry would be no better than upper middle class if it weren't for his ketchup bride.

He has at least four trusts, as an heir to the Forbes of Boston family fortune which dates back before the Revolution, so he's comfortably beyond upper middle class.

Again with the "Washington Examiner".

What is the point? Can one seriously argue that Mitt's statements don't show that he's sort of out of touch? Every time he talks sports, he brings up the owners whom he knows, for goodness sake.

Back when Joe Biden was a Senator, I would see him getting off the Amtrak train when I was getting on after spending the day on business in Wilmington. I think the guy does have some experience spending time with "average folks".

Before I'm accused of being partisan - one time I was passing through Newark Penn Station, as a shortcut to the Ironbound for lunch. There in the large waiting room was former Governor Tom Kean, looking at the board, waiting for his train to go down to Washington. He had his rolling case by his side. The reason I remember it was that it was a day or two before the final 9-11 Commission Report was going to be issued (he was co-chair of the commission). I was impressed to see someone who was at the center of an important issue in our country, waiting at Newark Penn with everyone else, for his train.

given the veep's penchant for saying kind of nutty things, I was hoping when I opened this thread that it was going to have touch of whimsy, maybe some absurdity. you, know good for a laugh or at least a chuckle.

sadly, no.

Yeah. Amtrak Joe is actually the one who's out of touch with middle class people.

ml1 said:

given the veep's penchant for saying kind of nutty things, I was hoping when I opened this thread that it was going to have touch of whimsy, maybe some absurdity. you, know good for a laugh or at least a chuckle.

sadly, no.

I agree, it's pretty pathetic to talk about the middle class while dining on grass fed NY strip steaks with truffle mashed potatoes at a $5 million dollar townhouse to almost a hundred donors ponying up 10K each for the privilege. If you don't think that's absurdity, I can't imagine what you think is!

You're absolutely right. It plays much better when the wealthy completely avoid acknowledging the existence of other classes.

Why are you so shocked that a fundraiser involves people ponying up money? I don't know why I even respond to this concern-trolling, but you can get grass-fed beef over at whole foods on Springfield--you know, the one next door to Best Buy.

tom said:

Why are you so shocked that a fundraiser involves people ponying up money? I don't know why I even respond to this concern-trolling, but you can get grass-fed beef over at whole foods on Springfield--you know, the one next door to Best Buy.

'Concern trolling'? Romney gets no end of comments for saying he has friends who own NASCAR teams, but Biden hosts a fundraiser at another Democrats $5 million dollar house (who also owns a $7 million dollar yacht), talking about how the Dems are behind the middle class, and it's trolling? Puhleeze.

While we're at it-do you ever get embarrassed when you post what are obviously GOP talking points, but pretend they're your own thoughts?

Oh, and grass-fed beef is actually Democratic--better for your health, better for the environment, better for the animals themselves. No wonder conservatives want to mock it.

tom said:

While we're at it-do you ever get embarrassed when you post what are obviously GOP talking points, but pretend they're your own thoughts?

Oh, and grass-fed beef is actually Democratic--better for your health, better for the environment, better for the animals themselves. No wonder conservatives want to mock it.

'Better for the environment', served at the home of a guy who flies on private jets around the country, lol. That's making a statement, let's feed the steers grass as we fly over the country polluting in our G4's. Truly Democratic-do as we say, not as we do!

GOP talking points? Really? If it's true, how is it a talking point rather than being news??

Is anything people write in Soapbox All Politics not a talking point of one sort or another anyway? If you're on the left, anything from the center or right is a talking point. Same thing in the other direction.

Eh, not worth it.

Its like trying to out-think a parrot, isn't it?

johnlockedema said:

ml1 said:

given the veep's penchant for saying kind of nutty things, I was hoping when I opened this thread that it was going to have touch of whimsy, maybe some absurdity. you, know good for a laugh or at least a chuckle.

sadly, no.

I agree, it's pretty pathetic to talk about the middle class while dining on grass fed NY strip steaks with truffle mashed potatoes at a $5 million dollar townhouse to almost a hundred donors ponying up 10K each for the privilege. If you don't think that's absurdity, I can't imagine what you think is!

no, it's not inherently absurd that a politician talked about middle class concerns to a bunch of fat cat donors.

like I said, I was hoping for something funny. and there's a reason dying is easy but comedy is hard. a bunch of slapdash facts thrown together aren't necessarily funny. and typing "lol" at the end of a comment doesn't suddenly turn something into comedy gold.

I know from funny. and that story wasn't it.

if you want some Joe Biden comedy gold, there's plenty out there on YouTube.

Wait, wasn't the meme that Joe Biden made money but couldn't keep hold of it?

Let's compare two net worths as represented by the highly partisan Celebrity Net Worth site.

http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-politicians/democrats/joe-biden-net-worth/

Joe Biden is worth $500,000

http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-politicians/republicans/mitt-romney-net-worth/

Mitt Romney is worth $250,000,000

John Kerry is only worth a piddling $194,000,000

http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-politicians/democrats/john-kerry/

So, if Joe Biden lived around here, he'd be considered quite poor I imagine. At most upper middle class to those who say that $250k isn't rich.

the meme usually has to take the form of attacking the other guy on your guy's vulnerability. if the Mittster is seeming to be out of touch with regular folks, it's time to turn the tables. try to convince people that a president and VP who worked their way up from modest means don't know what it's like to struggle with finances.

it's like if your guy was an AWOL national guardsman during wartime, try to make the war hero look like a coward.

now THAT might be funny if it wasn't so sadly predictable.

ml1 said:

it's like if your guy was an AWOL national guardsman during wartime, try to make the war hero look like a coward.

In fairness, that one was largely successful.

absolutely.

and fwiw, I am on record as saying Mitt's wealth is irrelevant. we should only look at the policies he's proposing, and not his personal net worth.

but I do think he's funny. just like Biden is funny, but in a different way.

ridski said:

Wait, wasn't the meme that Joe Biden made money but couldn't keep hold of it?

Let's compare two net worths as represented by the highly partisan Celebrity Net Worth site.

http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-politicians/democrats/joe-biden-net-worth/

Joe Biden is worth $500,000

http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-politicians/republicans/mitt-romney-net-worth/

Mitt Romney is worth $250,000,000

John Kerry is only worth a piddling $194,000,000

http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-politicians/democrats/john-kerry/

So, if Joe Biden lived around here, he'd be considered quite poor I imagine. At most upper middle class to those who say that $250k isn't rich.

Salient difference; Romney earned it, he didn't marry it or inherit it.

John, you do know we've all mocked Kerry, right? Holding up a political dead fish from 8 years ago as some "comeback" is a bit... I don't know... Irrelevant?

Fox News told John to say this, so he did. Simple as that. How does it feel to be a non-thinking puppet, John?

Besides, who cares?

Doesn't matter how they got it, the fact is you're saying that Biden can't possibly know what it's like to be middle class, when he's always been known as the poorest senator, who would personally be in the red if it weren't for his house, and that's a line I took from this here National Review Online article about how he manages to use moneyed connections to keep getting elected, but somehow has an inability to make himself rich.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/225417/senator-mbna/byron-york

FFS, Snooki is worth more than this guy.

Maybe he needs to start doing some of that congressional insider trading.

ktc said:

Fox News told John to say this, so he did. Simple as that. How does it feel to be a non-thinking puppet, John?

Besides, who cares?

ktc, gee, I guess you're so blind to the facts you can't see the source I linked in my first post, which isn't Fox News, lol.

Rastro, I just thought it ironic that the VP is talking about the middle class on the property of one of the .5%er's, among the fat cats who could afford 10K to dine on grass fed steak and truffled potatoes.

A non issue.

rastro said:

John, you do know we've all mocked Kerry, right? Holding up a political dead fish from 8 years ago as some "comeback" is a bit... I don't know... Irrelevant?

Oh come on - we all enjoy a trip in the wayback machine from time to time.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aDdz5vzO1jNE

ETA: My personal favorite - Edwards, who earned $42.5 million in the last 10 years, paid $22,741 in federal taxes on $433,546 in income during 2003.

ml1 said:

absolutely.

and fwiw, I am on record as saying Mitt's wealth is irrelevant. we should only look at the policies he's proposing, and not his personal net worth.

but I do think he's funny. just like Biden is funny, but in a different way.

Agree. Both have a habit of putting their foot in their mouth.

Let's just ignore the sock puppet, maybe?

Also...Joe Biden is awesome!