Bowing, Boasting and Bloviating

10 Apr, 2009 by McQ

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I‘ve pretty much avoided mention of the bowing incident – it’s a distraction from the more serious things going on. But then the White House says we shouldn’t believe what we saw and throws out a couple of the most ridiculous reasons for what the President did that I’ve heard (an “unnamed” White House source claims it was either an adjustment for a short king or he lost a contact – take your pick). My question? Why is the White House bringing this back up? It makes no sense.

Then there’s Joe Biden’s claim of lecturing George Bush. When will this guy figure out that such claims can be checked? There’s not a moment of a president’s tenure that isn’t recorded by someone. Yet Biden seems to think, for he can make stuff up to retroactively bolster his arguments and make himself seem both wise and prescient.

He’s neither. He’s a blowhard who’s rise to the position he’s in was based mostly on his perceived ability to cover a glaring weakness in foreign policy experience from which Barack Obama suffered. But he was not a guy who anyone in the previous administration sought out for advice or council on much of anything.

However both of these incidents are troubling. The first indicates an innate defensiveness within the White House. This is something that should have simply been ignored. It would bang around on the right side of the political sphere for a while and then fade. But to claim something which you can clearly see for yourself is not what you see is foolish. It erodes credibility. “Don’t believe your lying eyes, believe what we say”.

As for Biden, as Karl Rove said, he’s a serial exaggerator – which is a nice way of saying he’s telling a whopper. Biden has a tendency to make up anecdotes which make him sound good and the other guy look bad. It’s sort of like when you have a “I wish I’d have said that” moment. You didn’t say it, but had you said it, it would have been perfect for the moment. Biden tries to make those moments real and claim them for himself. Again, it’s a credibility problem. You can’t believe a thing the man says.

For such a media savvy bunch you’d think the White House would know to leave a story such as the bowing incident alone. And you’d think, by now, that Joe Biden would have realized that what he could skate by on as a Senator won’t be overlooked now that he’s the VP – that and the fact that he should know his claim of lecturing a president is fairly easily checked.

Amateur hour.

[Crossposted at QandO. Latest Examiner article here.]