I think it's safe to say that Joe Biden did not have a very good day today... And that's on top of what wasn't a great day yesterday either!



Keep in mind that John McCain and Barack Obama are fighting over Ohio and Pennsylvania, both states have lots of coal. Ohio's current Democratic governor came from coal country and was elected in part on a platform of support for the coal industry.

So Biden up and says "No more coal plants in America." Ouch! Also, he seems to be taking that Obama comment about "getting in their faces" a little too seriously. And of course Republicans wasted no time jumping on it, and Obama wasted no time sending out the cleanup crew.

"Senator Biden's point is that China is building coal plants with outdated technology every day, and the United States needs to lead by developing clean coal technologies," said Obama campaign spokesman David Wade.

Har! That's not what everyone else heard, but we do understand the reason for the cleanup and the quick release. And this from a campaign who is complaining about Sarah Palin's lack of access to the media? Perhaps they should consider adopting that policy for Joe Biden, because that's only one of many:

From Roger Simon.

First there's the flip-flop on AIG, which seems to have caught his running mate's attention, and now there's the senior moment of senior moments, implying FDR was President when the stock market crashed in '29 and went on television (???) to calm the public. [I thought McCain was the geezer candidate.-ed. It's all in the mind... or mind-less.] If Palin had said something like that, the MSM would have sent her back to Alaska and frozen her in an iceberg with the wooly mammoths. So what's going on here? Is Biden trying to sabotage Obama?

And we're supposed to be wringing our hands over whether Sarah Palin is up to speed on this stuff? I would think that as of about now, Biden should be losing his ability to go offscript at anytime for any reason.

Obama was trying to make some inroads, or at least cut his losses in coal country, where he lost to Hillary Clinton in the primaries by sometimes up to 4-1. He can't afford margins like that in November or he loses both PA and OH. Remember the first rule of VP selections: "do no harm".

Righty blogs highlight this:

Lefty blogs highlight stuff like this:

Can we stipulate, just for the sake of argument, that both candidates, heck all candidates in all of history occasionally misspeak themselves? I mean fine, one can probably make a point that McCain at his age is probably not as quick thinking as he once was, one could also make a point that Obama isn't nearly as good off the cuff as he is brilliant with a prepared speech.

And so what? Do we really think it means anything about the judgements and the decisions they will make as president? Our president does not appear before the congress like the British Prime Minister where a quick thinking wit is a decided advantage. (click here, for a good typical exchange)

Sound off in the comments; Keep up on the gaffe coverage, or save it for the extreme and/or hilarious ones?

Wow, I mean just... wow:

What is the word you use to cover a situation where a politician freely admits that they took a position that was not the right thing to do just to win an election. Somehow "gaffe" doesn't quite stretch to fit... Obviously this will cause some teeth gnashing on the right, but little else of effect, because Iraq is off the table, it's summer and most normal Americans are not paying attention/don't care enough yet.

RCP has the hard poll numbers to back this up:

MI: Economy 56, Iraq 18
CO: Economy 47, Iraq 19
MN: Economy 51, Iraq 21
WI Economy 50, Iraq 20

It's the economy, stupid. Best case scenario for the GOP; this could add to the perception that Obama is a speechmaker extroardinaire, and little else.

Tip to RedState, and I have to agree, if I were ABC, I would be nervous about getting left behind on the trip back.

Oh, my, Michelle Obama got heckled in Reno, NV for saying she was pleased to be in Ne-VAH-da, not, as it is actually pronounced there, Ne-VAD-da. They want the hard, flat A there, and they began heckling her, good naturedly, it seems.

But here's the dirty little secret that Michelle Obama, nor any other presidential candidate is allowed to say: no one cares how you pronounce Nevada. No one in their right mind wants to go to Nevada. Nevada is a godforsaken moonscape interrupted only by two blips of hellish gambling kitsch patronized by pensioners in polyester.

UPDATE: TMV has more on Romney's lobbyist connections, see the end of the article.

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Watch the video, Romney gets very hot under the collar when a reporter catches him saying that he has no lobbyists tied to his campaign and reminds him that, er, actually yes he does.

UPDATE: The full context of email and it's impact or lack of such at the bottom

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Oops. This is the worst time to be making this sort of gaffe, and what a gaffe!

"I'm not particularly interested in running for president," the former senator said at a campaign event in Burlington when challenged by a voter over his desire to be commander-in-chief.

"But I think I'd make a good president," Thompson continued. "I have the background, capability, and concern to do this and I'm doing it for the right reasons."

On the surface, I agree with the substance, and it is a refreshing bit of honesty to put someone up that is not guided by pure (or even partial) ambition. But his qualities of background, capability, and concern are not enough. Not nearly enough. Because that's not what separates you from this field. Those qualities, capable, concerned, etc., describe every candidate in the race.

But what is going to kill him here, is concerns about electability.